Students looking to share a lease in the Home Street or Park Street Commons must now rent for the same length of time, according to a new university policy.
In the past, roommates had the option of individually deciding to pay for a summer academic year lease or just an academic term lease.
According to Laura Farley, administrative assistant of Residence Life at Otterbein, students looking to lease an apartment in Home Street Commons or Park Street Commons must sign the same lease link in order to rent an apartment as Otterbein makes a shift back to previous residency contracts in the apartments.
Otterbein has transitioned away from mixed lease lengths, which were available for the past two years, where students could sign different lease lengths and still live together in an apartment. This shift to signing the same lease lengths will benefit the university by making apartments leases easier to process.
Students renting for the academic year will pay an estimated $6,044 for the full academic year, which would be $3,022 billed at the beginning of fall and spring semesters. Students wanting to rent the apartments over the summer would have to pay an additional $755.
Apartment I for each complex is closed over the summer and can only be signed for academic year leases.
Apartments II, III, and IV for both Home Street Commons and Park Street Commons are open year-round and require students to sign a summer academic year lease.
“If roommates are looking to live together, but only one of the four roommates is taking a summer class, all four roommates must pay the summer charge for renting the apartments,” Farley said.
If students are not taking summer classes but decide to room with another student who is taking a summer class these students can move their belongings into their room at any time in which the lease is active.
The student’s belongings can remain in the apartment over the summer even if the student is not living there until the beginning of the academic year.
If a student is attending a study-abroad program they will only pay rent for the apartment for the duration of time they are spending in the apartment.
“Students also have the option to not be charged for the time they are abroad by having another student take their place in the apartment during the time they are abroad, but then the student would have to remove their belongings from the apartment to make room for another student picking up the lease,” Farley said.
The university also prevents students from subletting the lease. This means that under the lease agreement, students cannot find someone else and charge them to live in their apartment when they cannot be there.
Subletting is a common practice on university campuses across the country and helps students to rent out their lease to another student.
Liza Wilensky, a junior equine business and art double major said she does not like this new idea and thinks it’s unfair to students.
“The goal of living in an apartment as an upperclassman is that you have the choice of living with your friends and to be able to live on a different lease,” Wilensky said. She is now facing the problem of one roommate wanting to stay for the summer while everyone else is going home.
