Student Legal Services offers free seminar

The seminar informed students about their rights as leasers.

By Belinda Kocen

Published May 5, 2009

Student Legal Services offered a free seminar last week for students regarding different legal matters when signing a lease.

One of the most common problems related to leases involves security deposits. Concannon discussed multiple laws that students should be aware of when it comes to not only paying the security deposit, but also receiving them back at the end of their leases.

"About 50 percent of the people I see come to see me about landlord issues," SLS Coordinator Stephen Concannon said.

According to Missouri law, landlords are not allowed to charge more then two months rent as a security deposit. If students are unaware of this law they might accidentally pay more than what is legal.

Another security deposit issue for students is the lack of attention to detail regarding damages. Concannon encouraged students to live in and inspect their new home for at least 24 hours prior to moving their belongings in. Concannon said this enables them to see all the damages and document them with photographs as well.

"An end of the lease inspection is meaningless if there is no inspection at the beginning of the tenancy," Concannon said.

He said many landlords gloss over the fact that a check should be done prior to moving in and simply allow the tenants to check in. When the lease is over they eventually take money out of the security deposit to cover damages that could possibly have been there from a previous tenant, Concannon said.

"The City of Columbia Protective Inspection Division will look at an apartment and will inspect the damage there," Concannon said.

Bringing in a third party who is not involved in a lease issue gives a case more credibility, Concannon said. The division can help prove the implied warranty of habitability.

The idea that any agreement must be in some form of writing rather than an oral agreement between people was another discussion point. Concannon said if there is no written agreement or paper trail, there is no legal proof of an agreement.

Concannon also suggested that students request to see utility bills for the winter or summer if utilities are not included in each month's rent. This allows students to be able to be aware of the costs they will be facing, especially if they move in during the fall time when heating or air conditioning are not an issue.

There were about 20 students in attendance for the seminar.

Students came for a variety of reasons, whether it was to get personal advice or simply general knowledge on the subject.

"I am not planning on having a lease soon, but I wanted to come today for future reference," freshman Brittany Ness said.

She also said there were many legal issues she was unaware of that would help later when she would eventually look at signing a lease.

Sophomore Elliott Lillard said he attempted to sign a lease earlier in the year and had problems with an apartment office here in Columbia. Lillard is a former member of the Maneater staff.

"They said they had units available, so we filled out an application with all of our personal information and paid the application fee," Lillard said.

When he called the apartment complex back to check on the status of his application, they informed him that the previous tenants decided to resign their lease which left Lillard and his friends without a place to live next year.

Concannon said he was pleased with how the seminar progressed.

"I'll definitely do it again next year since I feel like this is the time of year many students are signing a lease or thinking about signing a lease," Concannon said.