The best landlords are those east of the Schuylkill River, according to the Graduate and Professional Students Assembly's Landlord Survey.
That was one of the principal findings in GAPSA's survey that rates landlords in the area based on 1,200 responses collected November through February. The results were released last week.
For the most part, buildings in Center City received the highest ratings, with the exception of Domus, located at 34th and Chestnut streets, which was the only listing in University City that received more than four stars out of a total of five possible.
Criteria included landlord-tenant relationships, quality or condition of the living space and the landlord's responsiveness to repairs.
Students and faculty members alike could respond to the survey - the only requirement was a .edu e-mail address.
The survey was first distributed in the 1970s by the Penn Consumers Board, a student consumer advocacy group, and was published bi-annually until the 1990s when it was taken over by the Office of Off-Campus Services.
In November, GAPSA gained control of the survey, which was previously operated by OOCS.
The group felt it could reach more students, according to outgoing GAPSA chairman and School of Medicine Ph.D. student Andrew Rennekamp. The group also thought students would feel more comfortable providing confidential information requested in the survey if it was run by a student body - since there is no chance of the information getting back to the landlords.
GAPSA's outgoing executive board also felt there was a conflict of interest if a Penn office ran the survey since the University owns many of the buildings included.
Published results only include buildings and landlords listed by at least three students.
GAPSA reached out to student governing bodies at Drexel University and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia as well as the Undergraduate Assembly and Penn's office of Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs - the only University office able to reach all of its students, according to Rennekamp.
"The UA did not give a very good response, but other students at Penn and Drexel and USP were very interested and excited," Rennekamp said.
A student or faculty member can retake the survey every three months to "prevent skewing of the results and help keep bias in the system down," he said.
As more people contribute information, the results are automatically updated, and ratings can change from month to month.
GAPSA also plans to add maps or pictures of the buildings in the survey results in the future to improve the system, according to Rennekamp.
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