Emily Levin

You’d think that after everything that has happened, the university may try a little bit harder to help make my experience with them better.   Unfortunately, that isn’t how it works around here.

A couple of months ago, I received a letter from Harbor Point about an Early Vacate Letter.  They said that each roommate could sign the letter that says that we will be out of the apartment by July 31st (even though our lease ends August 31st) and they will reimburse our last month’s rent which we already paid.  This way, Harbor Point can rent out our apartment earlier to new  and unsuspecting students of UMB. So I went to the leasing office and signed the Vacate letter that said July 31st.  Sounds like a good deal, huh? Get out of the lease a month early?  Well, don’t celebrate just yet.  You should know by now that things aren’t so simple.

Justin Holstrom, the Director of Leasing at Harbor Point, caught wind that no one was living in my apartment.  With both of my roommates living at home for the summer, and me as a stray for fear that they might come back, there were no active occupants of the apartment.  Justin Holstrom called me and proposed a deal.  He would change the date on the Early Vacate Letter from July 31st to May 31st, and this way they could rent our apartment out earlier.  I agreed to that over the phone.

When May 31st came around, I got nervous about not having to pay rent.  So I called the leasing office and they said that the apartment had not been rented yet, so my roommates and I were still responsible to pay rent. 

I’m going to lay down the facts for you clean and simple right here.  Three college girls sign a year-long lease.  The company then tells them that they can take the apartment off of our hands if we sign an Early Vacate Letter for May 31st and move everything out of the apartment.  The company also expects us to continue to pay rent for an apartment that we aren’t living in.  Can anyone say, "Taken advantage of?!"

I go to the Leasing Office to talk to them about it.  First I talk to this girl (I think her name is Kate) who takes me into her office and explains to me that I am responsible for paying rent until they find someone new to rent the apartment or our lease is up September 1st.  Whichever comes first.  Obviously, I found it absurd that they were asking me to pay rent while they try to rent out my apartment.  I tried to talk to her but she wasn’t even listening to me.  Then she passed me off to Justin Holstrom. 

I go into Justin Holstrom’s office and tell him my concerns.  At first he made it seem like he really cared about what my concern was.  He even said something along the lines of, "Well, we certainly don’t want you to have a bad experience with Harbor Point."  But when I started to tell him my perceptions about the Early Vacate Letter, he quickly stopped caring about what I had to say.  Justin was baffled by the fact that I might think I wouldn’t have to pay for my empty apartment.  He said, "Well, why would Harbor Point let you out of the lease early?  That isn’t beneficial to the company at all!" I told him that it seemed like bad business ettiquette to keep a tenant paying for an apartment when the original agreement was to be reimbursed for the months remaining on the lease after the Early Vacate Letter date.  At that, he paused and said, "I see what you mean."  But then quickly continued to tell me that I could be paying until the end of August and that they were doing me a favor by trying to rent the apartment out early.  I couldn’t get anywhere with them.  Not one person in that office treated me like an adult.  Not one person acted like my concern was valid (except for that split second where Justin seemed stumped).  I walked out of that office even more frustrated and confused than before. 

This is where it gets especially good.  Where should a nineteen-year-old college student turn when they are having troubles with their housing?  Maybe her Student Housing Office? I should have known better.  Anyone who reads this blog can see that I am clearly being taken advantage of, but the Director of Student Housing didn’t care one bit.  I sent an email to the Office of Student Housing and I CCed Kelly Meehan, Director of Student Housing, and Joyce Morgan, the Dean of Students, explaining the situation and asking for help.  Kelly Meehan got back to me and asked if it would be ok for her to contact Justin Holstrom to figure out what is going on.  I gave her the go-ahead and gave her his contact information in case she needed it.  Joyce Morgan emailed me back and said that she heard that Kelly was taking care of it.  At this point, I wrote my last blog post about my UMASS Boston Experience.  Kelly Meehan sent me an email saying that she was disappointed to read that blog post.  Then she informed me that my roommates and I were still responsible for paying rent until Harbor Point rents our apartment out.  She points out that she thinks it is a better option then trying to sublet it myself (wasn’t she/the Office of Student Housing supposed to be helping me with that?).   I responded and told her that, "I hope my experience might help UMass Boston to develop a plan to help their students with housing problems as they promise." And also wrote that I appreciate any help I get from her and Joyce Morgan.

So here I am.  Left high and dry.  I have no permanent place to live; I’ve been staying on numerous friends’ and family’s couches.  I must pay rent for Harbor Point to lease out my apartment at their own leisure.  I have reached out to get help from the resources I thought I had, only to basically be told, "Too bad. It could be worse."  The Director of Student Housing did not explain why I still had to pay rent.  She did not try to meet with me.  She did nothing other than tell me that I had to pay. 

Now I am left to struggle on my own, once again.  Thank you UMass Boston, for all of your help.  I’m so glad that I am able to get help from my university when I am being taken advantage of by the apartment company that you set me up with.  I’m eternally grateful.