Questions concerning College Rentals

[William Donaldson]

I currently own and live in a 4BR/4BA condo in a college town in South Carolina. Right now the three other bedrooms are rented out to my friends until August ’14. Because I’ve been renting to my friends, I did not take the time to adjust the lease contract my dad uses for his rentals to reflect that each tenant is renting one bedroom/bath and sharing common areas (kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room).

Does anyone know where I can find a lease contract that fits my current situation?

Other questions concerning college rentals:

-What paint do you find is the best to use for college rentals? What color(s) do you use for the common areas and bedrooms?

-How do you designate the bedroom to the tenant? Do you have a number on the bedroom door and specify it in the lease (Ex: 111 Main Street Apartment A2)?

-Do you allow college-aged renters to have pets? If so, how do you handle the pet fee/deposit?

-If I find, for example, two female tenants, they will almost certainly want to be paired with two other female tenants. How could I deny a prospective male tenant without violating federal law?

-Do you use a standardized guarantor form for the parents to sign? Do you run a credit check on the guarantors?

I appreciate any and all advice you can give. Thanks BP!

[Roy N.]

I cannot help you hear other than to say, you would be best served by speaking with a local real estate attorney that has experience with rooming/boarding houses.

We have a standard neutral palette of colours we use in all our rentals - this allows us to purchase paint in 5gal containers and regardless of who gets sent to the supplier for "kitchen" paint, the bring back the same thing. With all that said, we will do occasionally allow multi-year tenants to pick a bedroom colour. We will also paint accent walls to add a bit of character to some of the houses.

We do not actually label doors in our rooming houses (we have two), but we do have a floor plan attached as a schedule to the lease which shows each bedroom with its designation.

We do not allow pets in our rooming houses.

In our larger rooming house our clientele is comprised of international students. In many cultures it is not acceptable for unrelated, unmarried adults of the opposite sex to share accommodations. In our case, the house has been separated into an over/under duplex where rooms in the upper unit are rented to women and those in the lower unit to men.

If we are dealing with domestic students we run a credit check; but 90% of the time their credit history is insufficient and we require a guarantor. With international students it is not usually possible to run a credit check, unless they have been in the country for several years. Ironically, we have fewer problems with the international students, most of them have paid a fortune to be there and are seriously focused on their studies.