Enough is enough

By: Juliyana Straley
Twitter: @jstraley7
Email: straleyj@findlay.edu

As us college students are on the go all hours of the day between classes, work, hobbies, and time to actually do homework, we barely have time to sleep. We are also on a budget since being $50,000 in debt does that to a person. We have to cut corners somehow to make ends meet so a lot of us live in “typical college houses.”
Often times there are holes in the walls, badly lit rooms, stodgy carpet, and appliances that only work well if the stars are aligned. It is the life we live to get an education, but at what point do we have to start standing up for ourselves?
Mice, mold, a broken furnace, and anything else serious need to be remedied as soon as possible.
According Ohiobar.org, “If you have notified your landlord, in writing, of problems at your rental property or of an insect or rodent infestation, the landlord should remedy the problems within a “reasonable” amount of time. For a broken furnace in mid-January, a reasonable amount of time may be just a few days. The landlord may take up to 30 days to make less critical repairs.”
If your Landlord will not text or call you back, you have a right to act as a tenant. You can get a court order for repairs to be made, get a court order for a reduction in rent, terminate your lease, or escrow your rent.
For those who don’t know, “Escrowing your rent means that you deposit your rental payments with the clerk of the municipal or county court, depending on where you live, instead of paying your landlord,” according to Ohiobar.org.
Essentially, escrowing forces the Landlord to fulfill his or her obligations if they want to get paid.
As a tenant, you have obligations to fulfill the following responsibilities: keep the rental clean, properly operate electrical and plumbing fixtures, and follow general health and safety codes. If you are fulfilling these obligations and your Landlord refuses to fix the premises, it is time to take matters into your own hands.
College students aren’t supposed to live in Versailles, but living in a clean, rodent and mold free house with working appliances is not too much to ask. Reader’s Digest explains that an unclean home can result in, “to nausea, headaches, nasal congestion, and more, and it can further exacerbate asthma symptoms.”
Don’t settle for less because your rent is cheap, it can hurt you in the long run.