‘You have rights’: Tenant Town Hall educates students about living off campus

As Liz Gray gave advice on how tenants should deal with bad landlords, she reminded students that they should feel empowered to stand up for their best interests.

“You are the consumer, they are the seller,” Gray, a neighborhood quality consultant with Oakland Planning and Development Corporation, said. “They want you to buy their product. You have rights as a consumer.”

On Monday morning, students, staff and community members gathered in the William Pitt Union for the annual Tenant Town Hall, an event that provides students with tips and advice for how to successfully make the move off campus.

The event consisted of a panel of community members answering pre-written questions from students, a Q&A for those in attendance to ask the panelists questions and tabling to get familiar with resources available to students looking to live off-campus.

Raafay Khan-Afridi, chair of the community and governmental relations committee on Pitt’s Student Government Board, moderated the panelist discussion. He said over 15 students helped form the questions and called the process “really collaborative.”

“We really opened it up to make sure that anybody who thought of questions they might have—they consulted with their friends, students they know, to make sure that any questions we were asking were representative,” Khan-Afridi, a sophomore political science and economics double major, said.

Khan-Afridi opened the discussion by asking the panelists to explain some of the rights tenants have when renting.

Adam DiBuo, a managing attorney with Neighborhood Legal Services, cited the warranty of habitability as a law tenants should be aware of.

“Every case, regardless of whether or not it’s explicitly written into your lease, you have the right to a safe, sanitary, and habitable apartment,” DiBuo said.

Gray emphasized the importance of tenants notifying their landlords of any issues that arise.

“Don’t let it go for a couple of days,” Gray said. “If something’s wrong, communicate it to your landlord.”

When Khan-Afridi asked about what action tenants can take when their landlord delays repairs, DiBuo suggested contacting city or county agencies.

“They have much more enforcement power to hold your landlord accountable,” DiBuo said. “You can contact those agencies, go through the inspection, and give your landlord a formal notice that they have to fix whatever issue it is.”

DiBuo also spoke on the importance of giving a landlord a “reasonable” amount of time to fix an issue.

“The timing has to be reasonable, and that depends on a lot of different factors,” DiBuo said. “If your air conditioning is not working today, reasonable is probably going to be quite a substantial amount of time because it was 40 degrees this morning. If your heat [is] out, it’s probably going to be 24 to 48 hours. So it depends on the context.”

Gray also advised that tenants read their lease agreement “several times” before signing it.

“If you have a problem with any of the clauses in your lease, before you sign it, go back to the landlord and say, ‘Wait a second, what is this about,’” Gray said.

Rachel Shepherd, interim director for the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, added that tenants with disabilities can take recourse if a landlord fails to accommodate them properly.

“If you have a disability…they cannot delay the process,” Shepherd said. “To just deny an accommodation is illegal. They can’t just deny it outright, they have to have a conversation with you. So please be mindful to, if you do need something, communicate with them.”

When Khan-Afridi asked the panelists to name “red flags when looking around for leases,” panelists listed practices such as asking for rent in cash, charging international students more in rent, and not paying for extermination or cleaning services.

Gray said students should film their apartment before they move in and make sure windows and doors can all open, close and lock.

“When you’re moving in, take your phone before you even bring in the first piece of furniture…video the whole place,” Gray said. “Document your move-in, just like you will document your move-out. That just helps protect you against surprises.”

DiBuo added that when tenants move out, they should ensure their landlord returns their security deposit within 30 days. If the landlord does not comply, DiBuo said the tenant can get “twice [their] security deposit back” through legal recourse.

After the town hall, Kylie Baker, a first year international and area studies dual major, said she attended the event to learn and to help spread awareness for renter’s rights among other first year students.

“It’s really important for people to know their rights as renters, especially with certain landlords in the area being predatory towards first years,” Baker said. “So I think just getting the word out there, knowing this for other people in my life is really important.”

Of the topics discussed at the town hall, Baker called tenants keeping records of correspondence with their landlords “the most overall important thing.”

“Document every single thing that you do,” Baker said. “Every single interaction with your landlord, every website he or she sends you. Don’t do phone calls, do emails. Everything that you do must be over something you can document or screenshot. In order to keep yourself and your landlord accountable, document every single thing that you do.”

Marley Pinsky, a first year urban planning and geographic analysis and politics and philosophy double major who attended the town hall, said learning about occupancy laws, landlord red flags and the payment responsibilities between the landlord and tenant were some of her takeaways from the event.

Pinsky also emphasized the importance of tenants using their rights before they sign a lease.

“You have the right to change or add terms in your lease before you sign it, so really read through it carefully,” Pinsky said. “Look for those potential red flags and know that you have the right to have your voice be heard before you make any big decision.”