When University of
Wisconsin senior Becca MacAskill signed her 2007-08 apartment lease, she
expected to be living with one other girl this semester.

But in October, MacAskill
found herself living with four roommates — one UW student, and three mice.

With the vast majority of
UW students living in university residence halls as freshmen, finding a house
or apartment for the following year inevitably becomes another task students
begrudgingly pencil into the November and December months of their already busy
calendars.

Ed and Jeff Tallard,
co-owners of Tallard Apartments, said Nov. 15 is the first day they and most
other rental companies in Madison show apartments to potential renters.
However, the Tallards said 40 percent of the properties in their approximately
90 buildings are already rented for the 2008-09 year.

"People who are staying
and people who are friends of other people in our houses have the advantage to
get in [and see the unit] before other people could," the Tallards said.

As many of the
“better” downtown apartments had been snatched up early last fall for
2007-08, MacAskill said when Nov. 15 rolled around, she felt pressure to find
an affordable apartment — and fast.

"We came in, and we were
looking really fast for something less than $500 [per person] per month,"
MacAskill said. "We were kind of desperate for an apartment."

Mice and mold and mildew
— Oh my!

MacAskill was not home
the first time a mouse darted across her living room floor. However, she said
her roommate — who saw the mouse — called the rental company to complain.

Following the incident,
MacAskill said the rental company promised to follow up on the complaint. The
rental company did not keep its promise, but MacAskill said she was not
concerned because the mouse did not return — for a while.

"It was like a week later.
… I was just sitting here doing my homework in the middle of the day and I saw
at least two or three mice," MacAskill said. "They were coming out of
underneath the fridge and they'd keep going back and forth. Every time they
came out, I screamed and they'd go away."

The rental company,
MacAskill said, requires tenants to report problems online. This is not an
effective way to convey apartment issues, MacAskill added, because it took
about one full week and numerous phone calls for the company to respond to the
complaint.

"I called the emergency
[line] saying, ‘This is ridiculous,’ because we complained several times
throughout the week and nothing happened. I think I did a good job complaining
— we were not very nice," MacAskill said. "We stuffed towels underneath our
doors trying to keep the mice in one room because we didn't want them in our
bedrooms."

The situation, MacAskill
said, was finally resolved when pest control came to the apartment and planted
poisonous pellets around the unit. The entire ordeal lasted almost three weeks,
she said.

Yet substandard downtown
housing does not stop with rodents, and MacAskill’s experience serves as one
example of a large number of students living with housing violations.

Nora Berdelle, who
graduated from UW last spring, said she was woken up four times by water
dripping from pipes down into her Lakelawn Place bedroom as a tenant in a CHT
Apartment Rentals unit last year. The pipes providing hot water to the entire
building, Berdelle said, would leak down the wall, ruining her TV, waterlogging
her carpet, and drenching her dresser.

"We would wake up and the
carpet would be soaking wet," Berdelle said. "The carpet had to be pulled up;
it was just annoying."

Berdelle said the wet
carpet in her room eventually molded. The moldy smell permeating the room was
so bad, Berdelle said, she could not sleep in her own bedroom.

"They brought a fan and
tried to dry it, but for days after it still smelled like mold. They didn’t
believe us and wouldn’t come [back] in," Berdelle said. "The whole carpet
eventually had to be taken up and we couldn’t live there for a week."

CHT Apartment Rentals,
Berdelle said, did not take the original complaint seriously, forcing her
parents to get involved.

"They weren’t coming over
and helping," she said. "My dad the lawyer had to threaten to take legal action
against them."

Berdelle said after the
lawsuit threat, CHT came in and fixed the apartment.

Where there’s
demand…

Welcome to Langdon Street
— where hoards of sorority girls make their way toward campus. Turn the corner
and a Latin book can be seen peeking out of an overstuffed Jansport backpack. A
football, thrown by guys adorning red Bucky T-shirts, whizzes by.

The home to hundreds of
students and most of the UW Greek community, Langdon Street houses some of the
priciest apartments in downtown Madison. The picturesque old houses coupled
with weekend Badger-induced hysteria make Langdon Street a desirable location
for many students to live.

UW sophomore Amy Sommers,
who recently signed her first apartment lease, said she heard some of the nicer
units are located on Langdon and Gorham Streets, adding they "cost more than
other downtown housing" options.

As students line up
outside of rental companies to sign leases today, Morris Davis, UW assistant professor
of real estate and urban land economics, said the high level of demand for
units in certain downtown areas drives prices up.

"There is going to be a
premium for [being able to] walk to campus," Davis said. "If we want prices of
student housing to fall, we have to allow construction of new housing units."

The more apartments
available downtown, Davis said, the more options students will have, thus
forcing rental companies to invest in their properties to make them
competitive.

Yet Davis mentioned other
options for students who do not want to pay premium rent.

"Cars are cheap," Davis
said. "And there is a bus system, so if prices were really high close to
campus, people have options."

UW law professor Richard
Heymann said landlords must assess the risk involved in renting to students and
judge the level of protection — often in the form of a co-signer or security
deposit — that they need.

"That’s what a bank does
when it loans money to an applicant," Heymann said.

But Davis said the
sky-high downtown prices are not only influenced by the number of units
available but also by the students living in them. Students should take some
responsibility for driving up the cost of downtown housing, he said, as they "tend
to destroy the capital moreso than an upper-income renter would."

"When student takes out
the trash and it falls on the ground, that would lend itself to raccoons and
rodents and such," Davis added.

Rental companies — like
all other businesses — want to see a return on their investment, Davis said. As
some students do not respect the properties they rent, companies are forced to
charge all students a higher price to ensure any potential large-scale damage
is covered.

"Landlords may have to
charge a premium if students are going to destroy the unit," Davis said.

The Tallards said the
vast majority of their student renters do not trash their apartments. However,
the small percentage of students who destroy their units often do so by hosting
large parties.

"The drinking parties
cause the most havoc, [when students] have half-barrels and 150 people in a
five-bedroom house," they said.

To combat this issue, the
Tallards said they have clauses in all of their leases to try to prevent
drunken debauchery from occurring at their properties.

"We've sent eviction
notices that say, 'If you continue this type of behavior, [there will be
consequences,' but] I don't think we've had to kick anyone out," the Tallards
said.

What can you do?

Renters have rights, and
although it serves as a last resort, the city of Madison Building Inspection
Unit can force landlords to repair housing violations, according to Housing
Inspections Supervisor Tom Adamowicz.

While they receive complaints
throughout the year, Adamowicz said most potential violations are reported in
the weeks directly following move-in.

Within three days of
filing a complaint, Adamowicz said an inspector comes to the property to check
for violations.

"We set a due date for
the landlord to fix the violation," Adamowicz said. "If the violation is not
fixed in the designated time period legal action can be taken."

The window of time
granted to a landlord to fix violations depends on a number of factors
"depending on the severity and the situation," Adamowicz said.

"If it’s no heat and it’s
the middle of January, they may get to the end of the day, [but] if it’s a
missing storm window they may get six weeks or even more," he added.

The Tallards said tenants
can avoid tiffs with their rental companies by fully understanding their
housing contract when they first enter into the agreement. Students can face
consequences if they do not abide by a contract they willfully entered into,
they added.

"There are kids who don’t
know a lot about living in a house," the Tallards said. "There are extensive
things [in our leases], but that doesn’t mean people follow them."

Living without parents is
an integral part of the typical college experience, and with independence comes
responsibility. Some students, however, have trouble remembering to take care
of logistical housing concerns previously dealt with by their parents.

Aberdeen office manager
Kelly Witkins said the Aberdeen prides itself in helping students successfully
transition to life on their own.

"Living on their own is a
whole new experience in general and we pride ourselves in helping them,"
Witkins said. "They can come down and ask for help with just about anything.
Not everyone knows how to work the washing machine."

Students are
customers, too

Both Berdelle and
MacAskill feel, as students, they were taken advantage of by their rental
companies. Companies know they are dealing with students, Berdelle said, and
sometimes utilize their potential vulnerability.

After her carpet ordeal,
Berdelle recommends students in similar situations be assertive and take
advantage of third-party agencies available to aid renters.

"They know they are
dealing with students," Berdelle said. "There are people to work [on students’]
behalf."

MacAskill said the rodent
infestation in her apartment left her feeling helpless.

"I feel like they’re
really rich people who own these, like Mr. Steve Brown and Mr. Palisades,"
MacAskill said. "They’re so profitable, what can we do about it?"

J. Michael Real Estate,
Steve Brown Apartments, Madison Property Management and Central Properties did
not return phone calls seeking comment.