Make yourself aware of all your rights as a renter

Pitt senior Nicky Pasi pulled up the shades in her Millvale Avenue apartment, revealing a… Pitt senior Nicky Pasi pulled up the shades in her Millvale Avenue apartment, revealing a cracked window that allowed the 28-degree air to seep through its rounded, foot-long slice.

Across the hall, the main door showcased two different shades of paint where an area around a previously existing deadbolt had been puttied after a break-in.

Well, four months after the break-in.

“[My landlord] insisted that it was existing damage and would not repair the door,” Pasi said after re-enacting what she had believed to be a crowbar prying through the inside of the wooden door.

“He was like, ‘What did you guys do to the door?’ and it took him until months later to just get putty and fill in the damage,” Pasi said.

It’s house-hunting season at Pitt once again, but those who have already found their special (or not-so-special) pad have certain tenant rights. Sub-par living conditions and uncooperative landlords can be resolved with housing codes and the Pennsylvania Landlord-Tenant Law.

“I think many students are unaware of their rights as tenants,” Oakland Planning and Development Corporation’s Community Organizer Laura Ludwig said. “And they are not familiar with how to report a violation or what a potential violation might be.”

For this reason, organizations like the OPDC and Pitt’s Housing Resource Center provide brochures and Web sites that detail this kind of information.

The rights outlined in these sources highlight the right to quiet enjoyment, habitability and security deposits.

The right to quiet enjoyment, the one that says a landlord cannot enter your apartment without reasonable notice and legitimate purpose, is a right Pasi lives without.

“He shows up whenever he wants,” Pasi said. “He’ll give us a vague time span like between Monday and Thursday and then he’ll show up a week later when we’re not even expecting him.”

The HRC Web site defines appropriate notice to be at least 24 hours and legitimate reason to include such things as repairs, emergencies or showing the apartment to prospective tenants.

Allegheny County Health Department Spokesman Dave Zazac said these kinds of issues are best solved with discussion between the landlord and tenant.

“Really make every, every effort to talk to your landlord,” Zazac said. “Often, there is little or no communication between the landlord and tenant