7 Lessons You Can Learn From RA's About How To Deal With Student Renters

By Melody Chi on March 30, 2015

During my college career, I spent a year as a Resident Advisor (RA) for my college, which required me to live with and oversee 72 first-year university students in the dormitories.

And boy, did I learn a whole lot about dealing with student renters!

But you don’t have to live with six dozen freshmen students for a year to gain my insight into how to handle student residents–you just have to read ahead.

The following are seven rules I think landlords should follow to maintain the best relationship with their young renters.

Landlords should …

1.) Establish rules clearly and early on.

Image via Gigabiting.com

One of the main training lessons RA’s receive is to establish rules for their residents very clearly and from the beginning. This helps prevent misunderstandings or claims that the resident didn’t know they weren’t allowed to do something after they’ve violated the guidelines.

This same lesson can serve landlords well when dealing with student renters. After all, it’s better to prevent a problem than have to resolve one after it’s already happened and turned into a messy situation, right?

One of the main topics I’ve found that student renters need some clarification and guidance on are the rules about subletting.

If you are going to let the student handle any subletting they may possibly do, including looking for a replacement renter and establishing the rental price, you may still want to enforce some procedures. For instance, you may want to approve the two students’ agreement before it takes effect, or simply be notified when the sublease is taking place.

2.) Detail your rental agreement information.

Like #1 on this list, this involves being very clear about the rules. This piece of advice from this former Resident Advisor is very crucial, as I’ve personally experienced that countless residents/renters have no idea about the specifics of their contracts despite signing them.

For instance, some of the topics student renters are most confused about are who is responsible for cleaning the residence after the renter moves out and who pays for what (such as electricity and garbage collection services) during the length of the contract.

It’s in the landlord’s best interest to clarify these topics before misunderstandings, however reasonable, occur. Luckily, it only takes a few minutes to explain.

3.) Recommend roommate agreement contracts.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned from being a Resident Advisor is the concept of the roommate agreement.

These were unofficial contracts that detailed each roommate’s opinions on topics that usually cause contention between people living together, such as who would take out the garbage and when or if a roommate was allowed to bring people over.

Ultimately, for each topic, the roommates had to come to an agreement about how to handle the hypothetical situation in case it arose, and then they had to sign the “contract” to prove they would honor the compromises they came to.

This is a good recommendation to give your student renters. Although landlords are definitely not their renters’ parents and thus don’t have to hold their residents’ hands, having them make a roommate agreement list can go far in preventing headaches for you, such as if housemates fight and one moves out prematurely, leaving you and your remaining renters in the lurch.

Ideal roommate agreements take into account even hypothetical scenarios that seem like they won’t occur or that you usually wouldn’t think of. For instance, the roommate agreements we RA’s used even featured questions such as what decorations were allowed in the common areas.

Such situations I presented to my first-year dormitory residents included if they all agreed to have religious decorations up or posters of scantily clad women allowed, or who got to have their furniture be in the shared living room.

The more scenarios you encourage them to talk through, the smoother their living situation will probably be, and the easier your life will be as their landlord.

4.) Allow renters their privacy.

Image via Ekentech.com

It’s reasonable and even necessary to keep an eye on your student renters to make sure no mischief or problems arise, but that must be balanced with allowing your renters their privacy.

For instance, I appreciated that my landlord at one of the townhouses I rented in college permitted my housemates and me to install our own locks on our bedroom doors. We were required to give him a copy of the keys, of course, but I felt safer knowing that no previous renters were walking around with a copy of my bedroom key still in their possession. This was especially valuable to me as a female, as well.

In addition, my landlord would contact my housemates and me in advance before he would visit, both to make sure his visit worked with our schedules and simply as a courtesy to respect our privacy.

This consideration our landlord afforded us went a long way in creating a positive relationship between him and us student renters.

5.) Give your renters both information to contact you AND resources to find out information on their own.

I think it’s pretty obvious that landlords should give their renters their contact information so residents can contact them in case of problems or emergencies.

As a former student renter, I appreciated being able to shoot off a quick email to my landlord with questions about who was supposed to pay for bug spraying for the townhouse, by what date I should re-sign my rental contract for the next year, etc.

But did you know that it’s even more helpful to give your renters basic information that allows them to find out solutions to problems on their own? Again, although it’s not specifically a landlord’s responsibility to do so, a landlord that’s going above and beyond might provide their student residents things such as links to websites that answer common housing questions (for example, whose responsibility it is to clean when the renters move out for the year) or teach them about how to fix typical housing problems, such as a clogged bathtub drain.

This way, you’ll receive less minor questions, while your student renters will learn more independence and valuable life/apartment skills.

6.) Be transparent.

Image via Wildapricot.com

I think the fastest ways to lose the trust of your student renters are by not explaining your motives or not communicating with your residents on a consistent basis. On the other hand, your renters will respect you if you keep them informed about important updates, such as why the rent is going up or when the renovations you plan to do to their apartment will occur.

Being transparent in your motivations and plans is a great way to promote honesty from your student renters, as well.

7.) Elect a spokesperson for the house.

Image via Glogster.com

It’s difficult enough to manage multiple rental properties, but when you’re dealing with an average of three to four renters per townhouse or apartment, that can add up to a lot of questions and issues coming your way!

The solution to this? Elect a spokesperson for each rental property that you will mainly communicate with to find out the updates regarding the residents and the apartment.

This is also convenient for your student renters, as they can simply pass their inquiries and concerns through one medium.

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