Two prominent Charlottesville landlords agreed at a meeting yesterday to work with Student Council next fall to encourage students to not rush to sign leases for off-Grounds housing. The joint efforts will include advertising Council’s stance on the issue in various ways and holding forums through which students can learn more about off-Grounds housing from the landlords.
The meeting, which was part of Council’s “Don’t Sign It” campaign, was attended by members of Council’s Building & Grounds Committee, Council President Matt Schrimper, Colin Hood, Safety & Wellness Committee vice-chair, Wade Apartments general manager Wade Tremblay and Woodard Properties owner Keith Woodard.
At the start of the meeting, Woodard explained that when his company began doing business in 1981, the University did not have its housing fair until March. Woodard noted that despite this, “the landlords received calls [from students] in August and September to find places to live.”
These early phone calls encouraged landlords to lease their properties at an earlier date in the year, Woodard said.
Hood attributed today’s panic to sign early to first-year students who do not understand the housing market. This lack of understanding creates a self-induced frenzy to find off-Grounds housing because they believe off-Grounds housing will disappear if they do not act quickly, Tremblay said.
He added that first-year students need to be better educated about the large amounts of housing available off Grounds that is catered toward students.
Nikhil Panda, Building & Grounds Committee vice-chair, said he doubted it would be feasible “to communicate to so many students within such a short amount of time” that it is not necessary to sign leases early. Panda noted that the only solution he could see to the problem is pushing back lease-signing dates to Nov. 1.
Tremblay explained that while he would love to work toward informing students that there are thousands of apartments available in the area, he, along with Woodard, is unwilling to be put into a competitive disadvantage by promising to push back their lease dates to Nov. 1.
Schrimper proposed instead to work with the landlords in order to compromise about a few basic strategies in hopes to subdue students’ eagerness to sign leases early. His first strategy involves not encouraging students to “sign now” through advertising before Nov. 1. Woodard said, though, that any advertisement, with or without the words “sign now,” encourages students to sign early and he questioned how the rule would be enforced among landlords.
Davies explained the “sign now” signs — especially the flashing ones on the leasing companies’ Web sites and their advertisements in The Cavalier Daily — add to the urgency of signing an early lease. Davies also suggested that if leasing companies are unwilling to alter their ads, they might be willing to speak to students to educate them about signing leases for off-Grounds housing.
Another of Schrimper’s strategies would encourage landlords to inform students who sign leases before Nov. 1 that there is still housing available in Charlottesville and that Council encourages them not to sign early. This information would be provided by landlords in the form of a document attached to each lease.
Tremblay noted, however, it would be hard to implement such a requirement with landlords and he was hesitant to agree with something that could not be completely enforced. Tremblay also commented that such a document may mean very little to students because leases already include several pages and most students do not read them before signing.
Schrimper also suggested the creation of a joint advertisement signed by landlords that would convey their support of the idea that students do no need to sign an early lease. Schrimper said he hoped this strategy would reassure students that signing leases before Nov. 1 was unnecessary more than running an advertisement without the signatures of the major landlords.
Another idea Schrimper suggested would be to put all of the off-Grounds housing data made available by the leasing companies into a spreadsheet and publish it as an advertisement in The Cavalier Daily each week. Tremblay disagreed with this suggestion and explained that a weekly description of the available off-Grounds housing would be inaccurate when compared to available Web sites that contain the same information and are updated every few minutes. Web sites such as brac.com and the University’s off-Grounds housing Web site are resources that can point students to available housing, Tremblay said.
Despite the initial concerns about including a document in leases in order to bring attention to the large amount of housing available to students, Woodard and Tremblay agreed to implement it. Schrimper said the document will be drafted by Council, the Office of Off-Grounds Housing and the landlords involved in the project.
Both landlords also said they were also willing to speak with students in order to help educate them about off-Grounds housing through forums created by Council. Schrimper said these off-Grounds housing forums will begin next September to inform students about the housing surplus available to them.
Finally, the landlords also agreed to participate with Council in the creation an ad that urges students not to sign leases before Nov. 1 signed by the participating landlords.
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