Getting to know your lease

When Binh Tran went to sign her first lease, she said she was met with a landlord who had little patience for explaining the document’s legal technicalities and fine print.

“It took us an hour to read the lease,” Tran, a second-year biology student, said. “(She) told us we were wasting her time.”

Despite Tran’s insistence on a careful review of the lease, she said she did not understand many of the rules and decided not to live at the complex.

Many student renters attempting to sign their first lease run into unclear rules and walk away from the process without a full understanding of their responsibilities.

Glossing over the legal technicalities of the lease, subletting illegally and lacking knowledge on the grounds for eviction constitute some of the main hurdles that plague student tenants.

But some of the difficulties can be avoided, and potential conflicts alleviated, through prudent action and general awareness of the intricacies of becoming a tenant.

Legal aid for students

When trying to reconcile legal matters with their landlords, students on tight budgets can seek the assistance of UCLA’s Student Legal Services, which charges a $30 fee to students’ BAR accounts ““ a sharp contrast with attorney fees that can run several hundred dollars an hour. The service is funded through student fees, but does not include representation in court, according to the service’s Web site, where students can get more information on their legal rights

Conflicts between tenants and landlords tend to arise when property managers fail to make repairs in a timely manner or return deposits in the allocated period of time, Liz Kemper, director of Student Legal Services, said.

Kemper said about 30 percent of the cases Student Legal Services address involve landlord/tenant issues, making it the single largest concern the service handles.

“In terms of the landlord/tenant cases we see, … (in) the vast majority I would view the students as the victims,” Kemper said. “We are able to help them assert their rights.”

While many of the students who seek legal aid from the service have problems with different landlords, some landlords have a particularly bad record.

“(There are) some that are repeat offenders,” she said. “I would not necessarily say that (the) majority of landlords violate students rights, … but there are these core of landlords that we see a lot of cases.”

In the face of problems such as landlords withholding a large portion of a deposit, students can take action.

“If students come to our office, we send the landlord the demand letter. … In the letter we outline the reasons why these deductions should not be made, explain the law, go over the facts,” Kemper said. “Frequently the letter does the trick. … The landlord will at least be willing to refund a portion (of the deposit), if not the whole thing.”

Preventing problems

While some problems are unavoidable, there are ways students can protect themselves when they rent.

“When they are signing the lease for the first time, read it carefully,” Kemper said. “(Tenants) are bound by every term in that lease.”

She said most students casually read through the lease but need to recognize that it is a binding legal contract.

In addition, any promises made by the landlord or manager need to be put in writing, as oral promises are difficult to enforce, Kemper said.

She said leases often state that playing loud music or throwing loud parties are grounds for evictions ““ provisions that some, but not all, landlords enforce.

“Know if there are any restrictions,” Kemper said.

Additionally, students signing leases with other roommates are jointly liable, which means that all tenants are accountable for the full amount of the rent and the full amount of damage that is done, Kemper said.

In other words, if a roommate leaves and stops paying rent, the other roommates can be held responsible.

To avoid these problems, Kemper encourages students to enter into a roommate agreement among themselves, a contract signed by all roommates that delineates issues such as each roommate’s monetary obligation, their room assignment and the division of utility payment.

“If there is a problem, you have a clear, legal, binding document that sets forth each party’s obligations and rights,” she said.

Beyond taking precautions while signing the lease and determining roommate responsibilities, Kemper emphasized that students should take pictures of the condition of the apartment when they move in and out.

They should also make a checklist and send a letter to the landlord listing the conditions in the apartment that need repair or just need to be documented as being problematic, Kemper said.

Within two weeks of moving out, a tenant can request a landlord do a walk-through and list any problems with the state of the apartment. Anything not listed cannot be deducted from a tenant’s deposit unless the damage occurred after the walk-through or was obscured by the tenant’s possessions, Kemper said.

Kemper gave a last piece of advice: “When you’re ready to move out, give 30 days written notice,” she said.

Subletting against the lease

Many students in Westwood will have no option but to agree to a one-year minimum lease in order to get an apartment. But because this time frame does not coincide with the nine-month academic year, some students may try to sublet.

Many apartment complexes have policies against subletting, such as Park Burton, said George Zinn, the property manager of that apartment building.

But some tenants choose to sublet against their leases.

David Lam, a third-year global studies student, said though his landlord does not allow subletting, his apartment manager said it was acceptable as long as the landlord did not find out.

Lam said he found a tenant after posting on Craigslist and the UCLA forums, but he could not afford to be picky.

“It is quite hard to find someone with interest who can rent for … my period of time,” said Lam, who is only subletting for a few months in the summer.

But students are allowed to sublet if the lease does not explicitly forbid it, Kenyon Dobberteen, directing attorney of the Eviction Defense Center of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said.

“A prohibition … usually says something like the tenant cannot sublet without the written consent of the landlord,” he said.

But students who choose to sublet without their landlord’s consent face eviction if caught, Dobberteen said.

Dobberteen added that with other tenant violations, such as owning a pet where prohibited, tenants are usually given the choice to fix the problem or get evicted. But if a tenant is caught subletting, there is no alternative and the consequence can be eviction.

Rent-stabilization guidelines

The grounds for evictions are not homogenous across all complexes.

While the Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Ordinance does not always help students reap the benefit of reasonable renting prices, it does address another important issue that renters might encounter: evictions.

In addition to limiting rent increases, the legislation ““ which went into effect on May 1, 1979 ““ governs the 12 legal reasons a tenant can be evicted.

Though the ordinance provides specifications for buildings that were issued certificates of occupancy before or on Oct. 1, 1978, some units are exempted because they have undergone luxury improvements or capital improvements, Kemper said.

Detailing issues from paying rent on time to specifying that the rental unit cannot be used for illegal purposes, the ordinance provides students with “significant protection” against arbitrary evictions, Gary Blasi, acting director of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations, said.

“Without rent stabilization, a landlord can evict you for any reason,” he said, adding that questionable violations of the rules can be used as a defense in court for both the tenant and the landlord.

With reports from Sarah Winter, Bruin reporter.