Renter Beware // Story by Randi Petrello

©This story is property of The CyBurr, the online version of The Burr, Kent State’s student magazine. Spring 2004.

Renter Beware

Leaky pipes, unreliable heating and collapsing ceilings …

Story by Randi Petrello

Photos by Sarah Thompson

Sheets of plastic and duct tape cover the windows in the house Richie Brearton’s rents on University Drive. The plastic bulges from the air trapped inside it.

“We had to seal the windows,” he says. “I guess they think paint is a good sealer, which it’s not.”

The thermostat in Brearton’s living room is set at 68 degrees but reads only 55 degrees.

There’s more than just location to consider when moving off campus. Students need to pay attention not only prices but also to the conditions of their prospective homes—Brearton’s heating problem is definitely not unique.

Students often seek off-campus housing during their junior or senior years, sometimes without knowing what to expect from the structures or the landlords. Many of the houses and apartments for rent around Kent State are old, and while most are well-kept, students should be aware of the hidden costs and possible headaches involved in living off campus.

John Ferlito, health commissioner of Kent Health Department, says a house’s heating system should be able to maintain a temperature of at least 65 degrees, though 55 degrees or above is still safe.

Ferlito says Brearton and his roommates should contact the Health Department about their heating.

“We have a $340 gas bill,” Brearton says, holding up the bill. Last month’s bill was more than $300. “It’s just little things you expect to work, and they don’t.”

Brearton, senior history major, is one of many students who live off campus in an older house.

Brearton rents his house through ASW Realty and Management.

Rillis Moneypenny Jr., general manager of ASW, is in charge of about 525 apartments, and at least 300 of them are student rentals.

“A lot of the homes in Kent that we manage are older,” Moneypenny says. “An older home is bound to be less efficient than a new one.”

To lower their gas bills, Moneypenny suggests students compare prices of different gas companies and switching providers. Covering windows with plastic, caulking or insulation should cut down the amount of cold air coming in and money going out, Moneypenny says.

“There’s things they can do,” he says. “With the type of winter we’ve had, it’s been a problem. It’s going to be high any way you look at it.”

Brearton says the house has “a shitty heating system, leaky windows and a bad electrical system.”

He and his roommates would try to warm up the house with space heaters, but the heaters would blow a fuse because they overloaded the electrical system.

The back porch also is sinking slowly into the ground, he says, pointing. The porch is visibly slanted.

“It’s sinking into the abyss.”

The plumbing in the upstairs bathroom has broken three times, Brearton says, and each time has left them without any running water.

Brearton says they have told their landlord about water pressure problems in the past, and a maintenance person fixed it.

“It’s just an old house,” he says. “And it looks bad.”

Moneypenny says ASW has an emergency service line available 24 hours a day for tenants who have a problem that needs immediate repair. For non-emergencies, he says, the maintenance workers try to fix things within two or three days.

“We manage so much property,” Moneypenny says. “If you don’t fix it, it will pile up.”

But there are some problems, such as drafty windows, that ASW doesn’t have the authority to repair.

“Windows are a big issue,” Moneypenny says. “Sometimes I agree with them (that the windows need to be replaced), but I can’t do it. We manage for other people—we don’t own the property. The kids want us to upgrade, but we can only do what the owner allows us.”

Safety in Question

Kevin Cloud, senior psychology major, rents a house on North Mantua Street. The house is split into two apartments, a one-bedroom upstairs and a two-bedroom downstairs. Cloud rents the upstairs portion of the house.

He has experienced a handful of problems since he and his friends moved in this past August. The upstairs kitchen sink and appliances are all unusable, so Cloud has turned his kitchen into an office.

“If we didn’t share this whole house, I wouldn’t live up here,” Cloud says.

Cloud has had the same experiences as other students with the gas bill. He says the bill is usually $150 to $250 a month during the winter. They turn the heat down at night and when they leave the house.

“The bill is up to $680 because we can’t keep up with it,” Cloud says. “We think some walls may not even be insulated. I told my landlord, ‘We’re not going to be able to afford this.’”

The roommates also have covered the windows with plastic to try and lower their bill.

“The houses are so old,” Cloud says, “let alone that they won’t even insulate the windows.”

But it gets worse than just a pricey gas bill.

One time Cloud and his roommates smelled gas coming from the furnace in the basement so, he says, they called the fire department.

“They looked at the furnace and said it was so rusted it needed fixed immediately,” Cloud says. “They said, ‘It’s a dangerous furnace.’ The fire department was floored.”

Cloud says his landlord told him he didn’t know anything about the furnace.

Sam Bonsignore, Cloud’s landlord, owns two rental properties in Kent. He has been renting out properties for 21 years. He says when tenants notify him of a problem, he sends a maintenance worker to take care of it.

But Cloud says the repairs are not made in a timely manner.

“Maybe three weeks later a maintenance man came to fix it,” Cloud says.

The fire department also noticed there were no smoke alarms or fire extinguishers in the house and told the tenants to get some, Cloud says. He told his landlord, but none had been installed at the time of the interview.

Bonsignore says he is not required by the health department to provide smoke alarms so Cloud bought one for the upstairs, but there still are none downstairs.

Ferlito, the health commissioner, says that houses divided into three or more apartments or lodging four or more unrelated people need to be licensed by the health department. The health department requires smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in those houses, but because only three people live in Cloud’s house, it is exempt.

The furnace and smoke detectors were not the last of Cloud’s housing woes.

In the downstairs bathroom, there is a rectangular patch visible on the ceiling. The patch is there because at one point, the ceiling collapsed, leaving a hole in its place.

“We couldn’t use the bathroom until they cleaned it,” Cloud says. “The carpet smelled the whole house up. It took them a month to tile the floor. From the time it (the ceiling) collapsed to the time it was completed was two to three months. But it only took a day to fix it.”

Before Cloud and his roommates moved in, they were told the bathroom was going to be remodeled. It wasn’t.

Ferlito says students should make sure the apartment or house looks good before they sign the lease.

“Be careful if they (landlords) say they’re going to fix it up,” Ferlito says, and make sure repairs are made before moving in.

Bonsignore says Cloud’s house is 80 or 90 years old.

“Old for a lot of people is good,” he says. “They like the character.”

But older houses can cause problems with maintenance and upkeep, he adds.

The ceiling in the living room is in bad condition, too, Cloud says. Part of it hangs at least half an inch lower than the rest of the ceiling.

“We put pressure on him (Bonsignore) when the ceiling collapsed,” Cloud says.

Water sometimes leaks out of the gap. He attributes it to a leaky pipe in the ceiling.

“He a (maintenance worker) came out and said he couldn’t find anything causing the drip,” Cloud says.

He says he and his roommates want to move out before their lease is up.

He also thinks repairs sometimes take too long to fix.

“We just want to get the hell out of here. It’s pretty much to the point where it’s a joke.

“We want to try to get out of it in May. But we signed a lease. What are we going to do? We moved in here with the understanding the house was in good condition.”

Landlord Issues

Ferlito says the biggest problem of off-campus housing is parties and trash. “I don’t mind them (students) partying,” Ferlito says. “Just clean up after yourselves.”

Houses on College Avenue have been cited for having garbage in the yards, he says.

During annual health inspections, the health department checks for certain violations. The owner or operator of the house schedules an inspection, and the department checks the house for any violations of the Housing Code.

“We go through and check the house to make sure there are no holes, screens are in the windows,” Ferlito says. “Most houses have been upgraded to the minimum standards we require.”

Licensed houses must have smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. Ferlito says he notices during inspections that the batteries are taken out of a lot of smoke detectors.

Tom Beckett, a sanitarian at the health department, says after a house’s yearly inspection, the landlord has a certain amount of time to make any necessary repairs.

“If something’s not up to code, they are under orders to fix it,” he says.

Sill, Ferlito says, there are no real problems with the houses that most students are live in.

“If tenants have a complaint, they can call us,” Ferlito says. “Usually they can be taken care of. We inspect once a year, so usually people complain to us before it gets that bad.”

Moneypenny says the health department is fair and gives ample time for landlords to fix any repairs, adding that asw has a good track record with the health department.

“One thing they see a lot of that they don’t like is using extension cords,” Moneypenny says. “And students like to have Christmas lights up all year. They make sure they are hung up properly and there aren’t any broken wires.”

Ferlito says the only time the health department condemns a house is when there is no water or heat, but usually no one is living there, anyway.

It takes three days to evict someone, and a notice is given that the house will be condemned. Ferlito says sometimes students are given eviction notices because there is no heat or water. Usually it is a communication problem, and someone forgot to pay the bills.

“Both tenants and landlords have responsibilities,” says Beckett of the health department. “Both sides can be deficient. It’s kind of a two-way street. There are bad landlords and bad tenants. But it’s not that simple.”

Moneypenny says he enjoys having students as tenants. “In general, students make good tenants,” Moneypenny says. “If they didn’t, I wouldn’t be working with them.”

Randi Petrello (rpetrell@kent.edu)