With lease-signing season in full swing, students should make sure they know the details of their contract.
The process of signing a lease for a junior year living space usually takes place during September of sophomore year.
This means that the students signing those leases are roughly 19 years old.
Landlords in Athens are in a complete position of power because many own a large number of properties throughout town. We don’t want them to manipulate students into signing unfavorable lease agreements.
Asking a teenager to fully make sense of legal jargon is an unreasonable expectation. College students don’t have the life experience necessary to properly understand each complex detail in a contract of that magnitude.
Some parts of a lease agreement seem pretty typical and fair. This includes the renter paying for damage to the house done by the renter, a valid request. But others are troublesome.
For instance, some leases are written in a way that pushes responsibilities that the company is legally obligated to fulfill onto the renter. Students also may not be fully aware that they are most likely entering into a lease that makes them responsible for paying all of the rent, even if one of the other tenants fails to do so.
While we understand that students signing leases are adults and should act as such, it’s not practical to believe that they fully comprehend the legal terms in these important documents.
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It’s true that students can have legal documents brought into the Student Center for Legal Services, but the question is should they have to?
Should students be wary that landlords and rental companies might be trying to get more money out of them in some way? Should that be the landlord's fault if they are able to pull a fast one over on a naive renter?
Lease agreements are one of the first times Ohio University students will sign a legal document in their life.
Given the fact that these transactions, which are usually thousands and thousands of dollars, are huge investments for students to legally bind themselves to, landlords should better ensure that the renters know what they’re actually getting themselves into.
Students should take a potential lease to the Student Center for Legal Services or have a parent read over it. They shouldn’t feel pressured into signing something right away and should carefully read their lease so they know exactly what they’re getting themselves into.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: Editor-in-Chief Emma Ockerman, Managing Editor Rebekah Barnes, Opinion Editor Will Gibbs and Digital Managing Editor Samuel Howard. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
