U-M's off-campus housing site and the Ann Arbor City site offer help. Other cities may have their own sites.
A lease is a legally binding contract. You may be responsible for your rent even if you move out, or a roommate's rent if he or she moves out.
Don't sign a lease unless you're sure you want the property.
makes any promises about furniture, parking, improvements or maintenance, get it in writing. Make sure you understand the terms of your security deposit and items such as cleaning fees.
from your landlord when you move in to document the condition of the property.
Living in a house without a lease may give you no protection in case of a fire or a landlord/tenant dispute.
to protect your belongings. If things get stolen or ruined, your landlord's insurance may not protect you.
It was 4 a.m. when Kyle Polasek heard his roommate screaming "Fire! Get out of the house!" Their 80-year-old rental house on Arbor Street near the University of Michigan was ablaze.
He survived the Sept. 22 fire, as did his six roommates, though one was badly burned and fractured his neck after jumping from a second-floor window.
"I realized that I could die," said Polasek, 22, a U-M senior from Rochester Hills.
It was perhaps the worst of three early morning fires near the university in Ann Arbor since September. Displacing more than 50 people, mostly students, the fires have raised concerns among members of the off-campus community that not enough is being done to make sure housing is safe.
Ann Arbor has the largest number of student renters in the state with about 70% of students -- 28,000 men and women -- living off campus, according to the Presidents Council, which represents Michigan's 15 public universities. Michigan State University in East Lansing is a close second, with about 60%, or 27,000 students, living off campus.
Some students acknowledge they need to be more careful: One of the fires was started by candles, another by an overloaded power strip. The third was started in a couch left on a porch.
But some students also say off-campus housing in Ann Arbor is often poorly maintained by landlords and argue that rental houses should be inspected annually, as they are in East Lansing, instead of every 30 months, as they are in Ann Arbor.
Landlords, meanwhile, say they already work hard to maintain properties and try to educate students about the responsibilities that come with running a household.
"With three significant fires this term, we want to look at what we do," said Alan Levy, U-M's director of housing public affairs. "Fire safety is the responsibility of tenants and landlords."
Fire officials aren't sure what sparked the Arbor Street blaze, but they know it began in a couch on the front porch. As students slept, the flames spread, igniting a nearby propane grill, Ann Arbor Assistant Fire Chief Chris Brenner said.
After that, 15 people were displaced in a Nov. 21 fire in an apartment building on the 1600 block of State Street. The fire started in a tenant's overloaded power strip that was lacking a fuse. In that blaze, some residents were forced to jump from third-floor windows, and one broke an ankle. A smoke alarm had been disconnected before the fire, Brenner said.
Less than two weeks later, on Dec. 4, candles sparked a fire in an apartment building in the 800 block of State Street, Brenner said. Thirty U-M students were temporarily displaced in that fire. One was treated for burns. In response, city and university officials are forming task forces to study the safety of rental housing. U-M is also improving its off-campus Web site (www.offcampus.housing.umich.edu ) to make information more accessible.
Adding to concerns about off-campus housing is the fact that so many homes have large numbers of students living in them.
At U-M, that means the large houses near State Street, Hill Street, Packard Street and South University Avenue within walking distance of the central campus. Each year, just a few weeks after classes begin in September, students rush to sign leases for the following school year on big houses like the three-story home Polasek and his friends rented on Arbor Street for $3,500 a month.
That house, about four blocks from campus, had four bedrooms on the second floor. Two more people slept in the attic -- which was not required to have a fire escape under city code. A seventh student slept in the basement, which had no direct access to the outside. He got out only after a roommate called him on his cell phone and he dashed up the basement stairs as the first floor was bursting into flames.
Jennifer Baerlocher, Polasek's mother, said the fire was the "most horrifying thing I have ever been through."
"Somebody is going to die," she said. "It's not going to be long."
Andrew Kaplan, one of Polasek's roommates, was opposed to a ban on porch couches last year, when he was editor of the Michigan Daily, the student newspaper. Like many students, he saw such an ordinance as interfering with students' lifestyles.
"It took the fire to change my mind," said Kaplan, 22, a U-M senior from Shaker Heights, Ohio. "Students should see that the ban is for their own good."
The Ann Arbor City Council tabled the ordinance last fall. But its sponsor, Councilman Leigh Greden, said he may bring it up again next fall.
Porch couches present particular problems when it comes to fires. While a couch burning inside a building will use up the oxygen in a room and extinguish itself, a porch couch has an endless source of oxygen and will continue to burn, Ann Arbor Fire Marshal Ron Heemstra said.
Jesse Levine, president of the Michigan Student Assembly, the student government group, acknowledges that students need to pay more attention to their own safety in rental housing.
"There are things students can do such as keeping candles away from flammable materials, not leaving pots unattended on the stove and not overloading power strips," he said. "They should make sure smoke alarms are working and not tamper with them. They also need to keep a fire extinguisher in their house and learn how to use it."
But students also say they need more help dealing with landlords. In July, the U-M Board of Regents approved a student fee increase of $1 a year to pay for an attorney at U-M's Student Legal Services who will monitor landlord-tenant disputes for patterns of problems, instead of handling problems on a case-by-case basis.
Alice Ehn, executive officer of the Washtenaw Area Apartment Association, said most landlords work hard to keep their properties in good condition. The group is working with students and university and city officials on a task force to study rental property issues.
"We need to educate students about what it means to sign a lease," Ehn said. "At 18 years old, you can sign a lease and be held legally responsible."
Mark Lloyd, manager of Ann Arbor's department of planning and development, said about 90% of landlords pass inspections with few major problems. There are more than 28,000 rental units in the city, and the city is about two months behind its goal of inspecting every property during a 30-month period.
But tenants with problems can contact the city for an immediate inspection, he said.
U-M senior Sarah Herard said she has been trying since August to get her landlord to install window screens, replace the cover on a smoke alarm and repair the kitchen faucet, which discharges brown water, in her two-bedroom apartment in a nine-unit, three-story house on North State Street. She pays $625 a month for one of the two bedrooms.
The landlord, Dale Newman, declined to comment. The last complete inspection of the building was performed in 2003. The building was partially inspected again in August 2004 following a fire, city records show. The property has a temporary certificate of compliance with the city.
In East Lansing, inspections on the city's 1,600 rental housing properties are performed every 13 months, said Howard Asch, the city's code enforcement director.
Lloyd said Ann Arbor would have to at least double the number of inspectors assigned to rental housing -- the city now has four -- to conduct yearly inspections.
In response to an inquiry, Herard's building was scheduled for a full inspection last week. Lloyd did not return repeated calls Monday regarding the inspection results.
"I saw the fire on Arbor Street and realized this could happen to me," said Herard, 22, from Midland. "I've learned that when you rent an apartment, there's so much you need to know. I didn't know what to ask."
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