Problems with student rentals persist
despite state maintenance guidelines
Two years have passed since Virginia introduced maintenance guidelines for rental properties across the state. But off-campus housing conditions for Washington and Lee University students continue to cause anxiety.
“I have concerns about the quality of off-campus housing,” said Dawn Watkins, the university’s dean of student affairs since 2003. “There have continually been issues with [this]. There has been a fire every year on an off-campus student property since I’ve started my job here at W&L.”
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| Housing on Windfall Hill is popular among W&L students. (CAROLINE DAVIS/Rockbridge Report) |
House fires, loud parties, strained student-landlord relations and even bat infestations have been sources of contention in off-campus student housing over the years.
Local landlord Paul Wilson, who has rented three of his houses to students since 1994, said that students’ unfamiliarity with the rental process is often a central issue.
“For students this is often the first major business contract they have ever had,” said Wilson. “There are many things that they don’t know. It’s an unavoidable fact of being young.”
Wilson said concerns about the conditions of off-campus student housing are not unfounded, but he cautioned against pointing fingers at the landlords. Off-campus housing can be a pattern of mutual abuse, he said.
“You hear all sorts of horror stories of landlords who don’t do this and don’t do that,” said Wilson. “But there are good tenants and bad landlords. [And] bad tenants and good landlords.”
Wilson said some landlords operate under the assumption that students will not take care of the rentals. The farther out in the county, he said, the worse the conditions.
“[Landlords] don’t want to make the house nice when students are only going to destroy it,” he said.
But university initiatives and stricter city inspection codes in Lexington have the potential to stamp out some of those issues.
Watkins hopes to alleviate off-campus housing headaches through the Campus Community Coalition. The organization was formed in 2004 to improve relations among Washington and Lee students, the community and landlords.
Watkins also works closely with W&L parents to raise rental awareness and address concerns. She said she receives many calls from parents expressing anxiety about off-campus housing. She urges them to view the properties themselves before making decisions.
State maintenance codes are another step in the right direction for off-campus housing – albeit a small one.
The Virginia Maintenance Code was adopted by the state in 2006 as an optional program to in-state building and structure regulations. Localities can choose whether to adopt the codes.
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| The Pole Houses are a group of six student houses that sit near the banks of the Maury River. (CAROLINE DAVIS/Rockbridge Report) |
Lexington City Council adopted the codes in 2006. The city was divided into six rental housing inspection districts, which include some but not all of its rental units.
Owners of each unit submit to an initial city inspection and any subsequent city inspections that are required. Units are inspected once every four years, unless inspectors receive a complaint.
Joan Neel, an employee of the Lexington housing office, said the city saw the codes as a necessity, especially with such a high number of rentals in Lexington’s old, historic buildings. She said the codes could also protect inexperienced college students searching for their first rental.
“We wanted to have the [codes] because we wanted to be both preventative and proactive,” said Neel. “A lot of young people are renting housing, and nobody is helping them.”
“In almost 20 years of working, I’ve only had one parent call and say, ‘My child is looking at a rental,’” she said.
Prior to the codes, inspections would occur only if a complaint was filed. A tenant or neighbor could call and inform inspectors of any local housing hazards. Inspectors would then investigate the property.
Neel said the new inspections will be vital to the community, although the new system has gotten off to a slow start, partly because of the tedious nature of rental paperwork and a lack of manpower to complete the inspections. The rental inspections started in 2007. Since then, Neel said, she has completed inspections for only the first designated district.
While the city has chosen to incorporate the codes, Rockbridge County has not.
That means that the many student off-campus houses in the county, such as the Pole Houses along the Maury River and Windfall Hill off Greenhouse Road, will not undergo inspections unless a complaint has been filed about the conditions.
Eric Schnetzler, director of the department of building and safety regulation for Rockbridge County, said he did not know why the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors chose not to institute the stricter codes.
Schnetzler said student complaints are rare.
“[Students] probably don’t know there is an avenue to pursue [here].”
Wilson, the local landlord, said it was crucial for students to do their homework on houses and landlords before making a rental decision. He thinks the school also needs to take bigger steps to stay involved in the process.
“Getting students started is really very important,” he said. “Like having a little gathering for [students] just to tell them how it works. It’s a part of their education.”
The university provides off-campus housing information on its Web site, including an off-campus housing guide, a list of renters’ rights, the Virginia Landlord Tenant handbook, and a relatively bare student-generated housing Web site called “Generals Housing.”
Wilson said students need to take on more responsibility.
“Do your research,” he said. “Word gets around.”
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Indira Somani
Editing supervisor:
Prof. Doug
Cumming
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd