What appeared to be a nice apartment in a good location was not the home the 24-year-old had expected. The thermostat never broke 59 degrees. Slippers were replaced by snow boots. Windows often froze. A parka and hat became as necessary inside as they were outside.
“It was pretty miserable,” said the University of Montana business major.
“I couldn't suffer any longer,” said Smethie, who's just happy to have heat, no matter where it comes from.
Renters' rights are one of several issues college students in the state plan to bring to the attention of Montana lawmakers when the 2009 Legislature convenes. The Montana Associated Students, a coalition of student government groups from 11 campuses statewide, hopes to clarify parts of the Montana Residential Landlord Tenant Act, lobby for online statewide voter registration and pass a law that offers tax credits to Montana graduates who have debt and find employment in the Treasure State after graduation.
In-state students enjoyed no tuition increases the past two years thanks to a state budget surplus. This legislative session, there's less money to go around, said Trevor Hunter, president of MAS and the UM-Missoula student body.
Students are focusing on policy issues rather than fiscal ones. Only one bill would cost the state any money.
“We're not dropping (college) affordability, we're changing our focus,” Hunter said. “This session is just more challenging.”
Five bills proposed by college students across the state include the following:
- Defines “reasonable heat” in the landlord-tenant laws as 70 degrees. That means a rental's furnace or boiler, combined with its insulation, have the capability to ensure tenants can reach that temperature. Whether they choose to or not is up to them.
As for Smethie's heat problem, Jim Caras, president of the property management company, assures it's a calibration issue. As soon as the temperature outside reaches a certain point, the heat kicks in, he said. The trouble arises in the fall, but by winter all the apartments have “reasonable heat.”
“There're all kinds of scenarios about what's reasonable and not reasonable,” he said. More importantly, renters need to be responsible about reducing their energy consumption, he added. Too often, Caras said he drives by a rental and all the windows are open.
“People are not responsible if they don't have to pay their utilities,” he said. “People who aren't paying their utilities take advantage of that.”
- In instances where a landlord has been found guilty of wrongfully withholding a tenant's security deposit, the courts can award the tenant additional monetary damages.
Landlords wrongfully withholding a tenant's deposit is the No. 1 complaint heard at ASUM's Off-Campus Renter's Center, said director Denver Henderson.
More than 10,000 UM students live off campus in Missoula. But students are not the only people who rent homes and apartments, he said. This issue affects a large sector of the state's population.
- Require that mold inspectors be certified professionals and require the state to establish standards for mold remediation.
Changes like this are pretty straightforward, said Klaus Sitte, executive director of Montana Legal Services, which represents low-income citizens in civil disputes, including ones dealing with landlord-tenant issues. Toxic mold is becoming a bigger problem, he said.
All of these requests for change to the Landlord Tenant Act are “fairly small,” but “significant” to the tenant with these problems, Sitte said.
- Allow for online statewide voter registration.
The UM campus was “saturated” with people trying to register students to vote before November's election, Hunter said. To avoid answering the same question a dozen times, “Yes, I'm registered,” let's “bring the fundamental right to vote into the digital age,” he said.
Students don't want to get rid of the handwritten cards that voters fill out and mail in. This is about enhanced access, he said. Like Washington state, Arizona and California, Montana should adopt a policy allowing people to register online.
“(Students) grew up in this digital age,” so continuing to modernize our voting process is a “logical next step,” Hunter said.
- Offer a tax credit to students who graduate from a Montana college or university with debt and who find work in the state. Also, the bill would offer a tax credit to businesses that employ these students and help them pay off their debt.
Maine has already implemented a similar program.
Too often, people focus on providing financial assistance to students when they are in college, such as through tuition relief. “We spend less time working at the back end,” Hunter said.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)
Fred Garvin wrote on Dec 8, 2008 6:17 AM:
" Been there and was greatful to find a place to live only to find out that the owner was out-of-state and the manager was paid by a "quota" system. I had no re-course at the time and suffered with bugs & no heat - I hope these students prevail!! I later learned that if I had refused to pay rent until this stuff was fixed and gone to court when FED'd, I would have prevailed - oh well... "
John Weber wrote on Dec 8, 2008 5:05 AM: