At the beginning of fall semester, Abhishek Vora thought he had signed for “the perfect apartment” with “the perfect roommates.” That was until one of the “perfect roommates” decided not to return for the spring semester.

At the beginning of fall semester, Abhishek Vora thought he had signed for “the perfect apartment” with “the perfect roommates.” That was until one of the “perfect roommates” decided not to return for the spring semester.

“At first we thought he was just kidding, but when we realized he wasn’t, we knew we had to do something about the situation,” said Vora, a sophomore in Engineering.

Often, students sign apartment contracts and forget about the legalities, the responsibilities and the problems that come with them.

“A lease is a binding contract and you cannot break it no matter what,” said Esther Patt, coordinator of the University’s Tenant Union.

One of the biggest problems that tenants face is when a roommate drops out. Landlords often don’t allow canceling of leases and/or sometimes charge up to $250-$300 in sublet fees.

“We decided to cancel our lease and just look for another apartment but our landlord said we can’t just cancel our lease and the sublet fees was really high, so our only option was to look for a new roommate,” Vora said.

A major issue with apartment leases is that students don’t take them seriously and don’t put in enough thought before signing.

“We have students who come in or call and complain about their landlords and ask us questions if the landlord can do this or if the landlord can do that, but all the answers are in the lease,” Patt said.

She added that “a lease is a real estate contract worth $15,000-$20,000 and students don’t think of it seriously.”

Signing a lease means agreeing to everything written in it. So, you cannot complain about anything once the landlord has your signature on the lease.

“Don’t ever put yourself in a situation where you signed your copy of the lease but the landlord never signed it,” Patt said.

Be wary of the promises made in the ad that drew you to that apartment in the first place. Students expect promises that landlords made in advertisements but were never put in the lease.

“Never count on what the advertisement or the promo sheet said about all utilities included because there’s very high chances that there’s a loophole in there somewhere and it happens all the time,” Patt said.