UA: U. needs lawyer for landlord disputes

In a follow-up to its Comprehensive Guide to Living Off-Campus, the Undergraduate Assembly passed a resolution Sunday asking the University to expand the legal services available to students to cover landlord-tenant disputes. The UA resolution -- which supports a proposal from the Office of Off-Campus Living recommending that the University hire a lawyer to handle landlord-tenant problems -- urges the University to expand the legal services program in a similar fashion. Currently, the University has no lawyer to handle such disputes. While the UA and Graduate and Professional Student Assembly currently co-sponsor a lawyer who offers free half-hour consultations to undergraduate and graduate students on all issues, the lawyer does not address landlord-tenant disputes or suits filed against the University. Currently, OCL handles landlord-tenant disputes simply by informing tenants how to file suit. According to figures, OCL counseled 748 people during the past fiscal year, including 90 lease reviews, 217 lease questions and 12 court proceedings. "As a result of learning that there was both a need [for] and a lack of these services, we have been talking with other senior administrators [to develop a proposal]," said D-L Wormley, Penn's managing director of community housing. UA Chairperson and Wharton junior Bill Conway said, "This will be a last recourse for students who live off campus. Most landlords work ethically with students and the OCL, but this will address those that don't." While it is still unknown where funding will come from to pay for the proposed legal services, the original OCL proposal requested $10,000 to $15,000 from the University's coffers. GAPSA passed a similar resolution last Wednesday, citing several situations last year in which graduate students encountered problems with their landlords. "GAPSA's overriding goal was to address the graduate student need," said GAPSA Vice Chairperson for Policy Kenneth Kolaczyk, a second-year graduate student in the Fels Center of Government. He noted that 5 percent of graduate students -- or approximately 600 students -- have had lease difficulties during the past fiscal year. The lawyer's services would be available to students at a substantial discount of up to 75 percent, Kolaczyk said.