A judge ordered four University of Wisconsin students Thursday to pay roughly $2,100 in owed rent after the students alleged they did not have to pay the rest of their rent after vacating the premises due to unlivable conditions.

Michael Greiber, attorney for Madison Property Management, said the landlords began repairs when the city building inspector told them to do so.

"Usually, and this is still my position, if the tenants are going to vacate they need to give the landlord notice," Greiber said. "Since they didn't do that, they weren't entitled to unilaterally terminate the lease."

The students, who leased a Broom Street house during the 2004-05 academic year, won that year's Associated Students of Madison's Worst House in Madison contest, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, who also testified on the case Wednesday.

"The house was seemingly unstable," Verveer said. "If you walked in the front door, the whole room shook — even the computer on the table."

Verveer also said the house contained no smoke detectors, had no staircase railings and contained a room where a person could not stand because the ceiling was so low.

Outgoing City Council President Austin King, District 8, also testified on behalf of the UW students and said the house was one of the most absurd things he's ever seen. King said floors were slanted, doorframes were crooked and many doors did not have knobs.

"It was, without a doubt, appropriately awarded the title of the Worst House in Madison," King said.

Despite the ruling in favor of MPM, the judge ordered some money to be taken out of the judgment, saying MPM falsely rented the three-bedroom house as a four-bedroom house.

David Sparer, attorney for the UW students, said the judge did not seem to put much weight on Verveer and King's testimony.

"The judge basically said that he thought, while there were all sorts of problems with the place, he didn't believe that the landlord knew about it or failed to do whatever they should do to make themselves aware of it," Sparer said. "The fact that they didn't make the tenants aware of the huge list of problems wasn't a fault (of MPM)."

The Worst House in Madison contest, which is no longer held by ASM, was intended to inform UW students of their tenants' rights laws. MPM's lawsuit had nothing to do with the contest, Greiber and Sparer said.