[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Four University of Wisconsin students are happy with the results of a recent award — their 116 North Broom Street house was selected as the “Worst House in Madison” by the Associated Students of Madison’s Legislative Affairs Committee Thursday.

The contest was held to publicize the current housing situation for students in the City of Madison and to also improve landlord accountability, according to ASM Legislative Affairs chair Kelly Egan.

“Basically we are trying to let the tenants know that they do have an opportunity to change the situation,” Egan said.

The students living in the residence said they agree their house is in need of some serious renovations.

“We knew from the beginning that we were going to win,” Broom Street resident Derek Thiel said. “On the first day we moved in the toilet overflowed and there [was] three inches of water in the kitchen floor. All our furniture was soaked in the water.”

Despite the flooding, the house’s biggest problem is heat, according to ASM Legislative Affairs Intern Loreen Targos. She said tenants are paying approximately $300 per month for heat but the temperature of the house remains around 50 degrees.

The North Broom Street residents also did not have a stove and were missing doors and lights in one of the rooms for six months.

“We had to grill out for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Thiel said.

And when the residents requested maintenance and repairs from their landlord, their needs went unanswered.

“We made a list of complaints and submitted [it] to our landlord, but he stopped working in the middle of the year, so all our complaints were unregistered,” Thiel said.

Willie Mullen, another resident of the house, said when the landlord fixed the plumbing problem, he charged the tenants.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, confirmed Madison Property Management, the landlord company, had not corrected problems inspected last year. He added the agency could be potentially fined up to $1000 for missing the due dates.

“I have a building inspector coming [Friday] for a complete, comprehensive inspection, and there will be due dates for that as well,” Verveer said.

The residents received a free house inspection courtesy of ASM, who considered the sturdiness of the foundation — including slanted floors, lower doorways and steep stairs — when deciding the winner.

The tenants of the “Worst House in Madison” received awards from local businesses, including Nogginz, the University Bookstore, Underground Textbook Exchange, Fine Posters & Prints, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Capitol Centre Foods and Espresso Royale Cafe.

But Brian Gleason, a tenant of the Broom Street residence, said the real prize of the contest is the publicity.

“Being able to bring this to our landlord hopefully will get some rent reduced,” he said.

Targos said she hopes the contest will bring attention to the condition of many downtown residences because many homes are in similar condition and “are simply not tolerable.”