Quote:
Originally Posted by ken0042
Fred, you are the second student in this thread who has mentioned that they signed a 1 year lease for an 8 month school term. I'm just curious why somebody would sign a term longer than they know they need the place for?
I'm also wondering if it is campus types of rental properties; how hard it would be for a landlord to get a new tenant during the summer months.
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The posters above summed up the situation quite well. There weren't a lot of decent places near the university for reasonable rental prices. We were at the mercy of the landlord who wanted a one year lease. We did what we had to do in those days.
Of course, as luck would have it, that was the year of the last transit strike. The bus stop in front of our house became worthless. I ended up having to walk over a mile each way to school. In the snow no less. Between that, the stress from dealing with roommate and landlord issues and my inability to afford more than one meal (plus toast for breakfast) per day, I lost about 40 lbs.
But back on topic, the rental system heavily favors the landlord in this regard. Everyone knows students will only be around for 8 months. Nobody wants to have an empty house and have to find renters to fill the 4 month gap in the summer time. The solution is to place all the risk on the tenant and make them sign a one year lease. The tenants will be liable for rental payments over the summer less they work out a suitable alternative arrangement (eg. what I did, find subtenants, etc.)