The Student Legal Services office can be found in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Room L17.
It’s that time of year again — if you’re planning on living off-campus next fall, then it’s time to start finding your home away from home. But finding a place to live and dealing with landlords can be a difficult process, especially if it’s your first time.
Before filling out roommate agreements and signing leases, you first have to find a place to live.
Brittney Schebler, a junior interior design major, began looking for a place to live during September of her freshman year.
"I was new to school, so didn't even know anyone and met with random potential new roommates every weekend,” Schebler said. “I took at least 10 house tours that I can remember.”
Kate Benson is the general manager at BestBSURentals, which oversees 13 properties around the Ball State campus. She said the best time to look for housing for the next year is when school starts, making this time of the semester a prime window for future potential off-campus residents.
BestBSURentals was started in 2005 by Ball State graduates, and Benson said along with providing clean, safe and well-maintained student housing, BestBSURentals wants to help tenants as much as possible through its various social media pages.
“We understand that people are renting for the first time in a lot of cases,” Benson said. “So there’s a lot of things that people may not know or they do know or have questions on. We want to help with that, just like any other housing agency.”
The Student Legal Services office also provides many resources to assist students in finding off-campus housing. John Connor, the attorney at the Student Legal Services office, said he reviews approximately 700 to 1,000 students a year, with a majority of those cases concerning landlord-tenant issues.
“I would rather do what I call preventative practice of law rather than trying to fix problems,” Connor said.
Connor recommends all students have a roommate agreement and a housing inspection form.
A roommate agreement is a contract that spells out details roommates have agreed to, such as who pays utilities, how rent will be split up and the agreements on subleasing conditions.
Connor said he has dealt with many cases where one roommate decided to no longer live on the property. In cases like those, he said the landlord will require the full rent amount, regardless of who is paying. This leaves some students in disarray, but Connor said conversations and agreements beforehand can help resolve these issues before they even begin.
A housing inspection form is another document that is filled out during move-in and move-out to ensure students get their security deposits back. Connor recommends students conduct a thorough inspection and take pictures when moving in and moving out.
“If the landlord charges you for that stain that they’ve charged the last four tenants for, you’re going to have objective evidence and you can say, ‘we didn’t do it, here’s that stain on move-in day,’” Connor said.
Connor also recommends all students who are planning to live off-campus come to his office so he can review and explain the lease to them before they sign it.
“I think if students would come to me to have things looked over, I might put myself out of business, because my business would go down considerably,” Connor said.
As for finding a property at a reasonable price, Connor said the current student housing market is a “buyer’s market," but he still encourages students to shop around and negotiate with landlords on prices.
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