Posted on April 23, 2007
Unfortunately for me, I refuse to subscribe to the belief that my parents are always right. It’s not like they haven’t proven that fact to me time and time again, it’s just that I learn best after making the same mistake two or three times until I get it right.
For instance, there was that time I brought my then-boyfriend home for dinner, who in my opinion, had the loveliest spotted blue hair and sophisticated Chinese symbol tattooed on his back. I was convinced our undying love for one another would last forever, but it turns out Mom and Dad were right about that one; the minute his poor dye-job washed out, so did our teenage love. So when I decided to live off-campus at the end of last spring and my parents told me to read my lease thoroughly, I spent as much time and effort into reading the lease as my boyfriend spent dying his hair.
I once again decided to learn the hard way, when I naïvely signed a lease for a seemingly cute house with lots of character. At the time I thought I was lucky to find such a catch so late in April, however I now know my luck should have been replaced with suspicion.
Word to the wise: very few places that are worth living in are still available in late April or early May. Even fewer places have outstanding landlords and an even smaller portion of that percent have decent leases. As my lease comes to end, all I can do is learn from my poor choices and spread the good word of what not to do.
Never, ever sign a consensual lease in which everyone in your house, apartment, or cardboard box, has to write one joint check to your landlord for a month’s rent. Collecting more than $300 from three other people, putting that money into your account and then writing a check to your landlord is not fun — nor does it make much sense for that matter. There have been cases in which JMU students have been sued by their landlords because one housemate refused to contribute to the joint check and everyone was subpoenaed to court.
Make sure you get a copy of your lease the moment you sign it. This will prevent your landlord from taking the last page of your lease which you signed, remove this page, and staple it onto a completely different lease. Also, it’s a great idea to send home the copy of the lease to mom and dad so they can read it or hand it over to a family friend who happens to be a lawyer.
Before move-in day, check the smoke detectors because sometimes there aren’t batteries in them. This is a problem for people such as me, who are aspiring cooks but have a tendency to walk away from the stove when the phone rings. It’s not the best idea to have to rely on your nose as a smoke detector once it picks put the burning aroma throughout your house, because it could be a little too late by then.
Perhaps the best advice I can offer someone who is living off-campus for the first time is this: when you go to meet your landlord for the first time (in person, this is key) remember to bring cookies. Of course, substitutes for cookies include: cupcakes, brownies and pound-cake. Also place a small card among said items with your name and address so they remember who sent them those wonderful treats.
But most importantly, read your lease. There’s nothing worse than admitting to mom and dad for the tenth time: “Alright, you guys were right. I was wrong. Again.”
Sarah Delia is a sophomore English and art history major.
