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I'm supposed to move into an apartment on August 1, 2009 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Today, I was informed by my landlord that I could not move in until August 4th, 2009. I am moving from NS, Canada to attend UNC. What are my options? Is the landlord responsible to pay for my accommodations if I cannot have access to my apartment? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
It's very typical for student apartment leases to start even later - on the 15th of August. That gives them 2 weeks to clean & repair after prior tenants move out on the 31st of July. The term of your lease should have been spelled out in your lease as to whether there was a "gap" before you could move in. If your term is supposed to start August 1 and he's not letting you in, I'd make a stink over it.
Is there a Tenant Advocacy center of some kind around campus that might help?
Nothing you can do, it's common in the apartment industry for dates to get pushed back. More than likely, the current resident had a delay in their move out date. There's typically a clause in the lease about this very thing. The landlord doesn't have to pay for your accomodations, but keep in mind with this delay that you won't be responsible for paying rent until August 4th, so you can put the money you're saving towards a hotel for those few days.
If they don't already know, I would make them aware of where you are moving from. It's not like you are coming from somewhere in NC or a nearby state where it wouldn't be such a big deal. That will put their customer service to the test. If they don't work with you, it would honestly seal my decision a year ahead of time not to renew with them for the next year!
If they don't already know, I would make them aware of where you are moving from. It's not like you are coming from somewhere in NC or a nearby state where it wouldn't be such a big deal. That will put their customer service to the test. If they don't work with you, it would honestly seal my decision a year ahead of time not to renew with them for the next year!
It's really not an issue of customer service though. There's absolutely nothing they can do if the current resident doesn't move out in time. There's no way to legally force them to move out other than an eviction process, which takes 60 days, so obviously that won't work here. As far as reimbursing them for their accomodations, again, this is something that's so common, it would be unreasonable for a community to pay for every person whose move in date is bumped. That's exactly why it's addressed in the lease.
I get that, but my opinion still is that I wouldn't be staying with them the next year, considering it's like 2 weeks til her move in date from another country and she is having to figure out what she's going to do those 3 days. She won't have to pay rent, but I doubt her rent is equal to the $70+ per night she will be paying to stay in a hotel, not to mention either she will have to unload her car and repack, or worry about theft with her packed car in a parking lot those few nights. I get that the world doesn't revolve around the tenant, but when it's that big of a deal (like I said, I wouldn't make a stink if I was coming from a few hours away) it would definitely impact my decision to keep doing business with that complex. Just my opinion!
I get that, but my opinion still is that I wouldn't be staying with them the next year, considering it's like 2 weeks til her move in date from another country and she is having to figure out what she's going to do those 3 days. She won't have to pay rent, but I doubt her rent is equal to the $70+ per night she will be paying to stay in a hotel, not to mention either she will have to unload her car and repack, or worry about theft with her packed car in a parking lot those few nights. I get that the world doesn't revolve around the tenant, but when it's that big of a deal (like I said, I wouldn't make a stink if I was coming from a few hours away) it would definitely impact my decision to keep doing business with that complex. Just my opinion!
I understand what you're saying and I'm sure I'd probably feel the same way if I didn't know how the apartment industry worked. I'm just trying to get poeple to understand what it's like on the end of the apartment community. The OP's situation really isn't that unique. A good chunk of the people moving into a community are coming from out of the area. I'm sure it does seem like a big deal moving all this way and having no place for a couple of days, however, like I said, it's common and is covered in the standard AANC lease. While it may seem like good customer service to take care of the tenant in these kinds of situations, it's not something that's typically feasible. If you do it for one person, then you have to do it for everyone. That's the Fair Housing golden rule. Since it's something that happens frequently and it's not possible to do it for everyone, then you can't do it for anyone. There's a fine line between offering good customer service and protecting yourself from a lawsuit. If the community can't do anything for her, I don't think it's a reflection on their customer service. If anything, I think they're providing good customer service by letting her know about it well in advance so she can change her plans accordingly. Often times, these things aren't known until a few days before the move in date when the resident doesn't move out.
We had a similar issue 4 years ago when the prior tenant failed to vacate as promised.
Management gave us 3 other units ready for immediate occupancy and we selected one because the old apt had serious issues and we wanted to move ASAP.
As Babytarheelz said, the standard lease allows delays with an abatement of rent for the delay period. After a certain delay, the tenant can elect to cancel the lease.
Saturnfan, that's what I would expect from the complex. Come to think of it, this happened to one of my friends in March. She signed for a 1bdrm and they had to change the date which would have made her homeless for a few days, so they gave her a studio while they waited on the 1bdrm to open up, and charged her the studio price that month and the 1st month she was in the 1bdrm. Those are both examples of how a complex would keep my business.
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