How To Handle The 5 Most Common College Student Housing Disturbances

By Victoria Robertson on February 26, 2015

Being a landlord in charge of college students can be a difficult gig, especially when problems arise. Disturbances are just a part of living in such close quarters, and anticipating them is the best means of prevention.

So what do you do when there are disturbances in the apartment complex? Here are the five most common types of college student disturbances and the best way to handle them.

1. The Noise Complaint.

Whether the students are throwing a party, blasting their music or are just naturally louder than most, noise complaints on a college campus are pretty frequent. Of course, a little bit of noise is expected, but after a certain point during the day, it becomes excessive and problematic.

The Solution: Some noise complaints should be taken seriously, so don’t just ignore them. While there will always be tenants that complain about any little disruption, there are others that need to be responded to.

If you get frequent complaints about the same tenants or hear noise past a certain point on weeknights, this is a problem you should address with the tenants themselves. Specify that a continued problem will result in a more serious consequence and the noise will more than likely stop.

2. Garbage Control.

At one point or another, you will probably come across messy tenants. While it’s more than likely most tenants will have small messes from time to time, piles of garbage bags outside the door suggest a problem needs to be taken care of.

The Solution: Take action before it becomes a continuing problem. Make sure that all tenants know where the dumpsters or garbage shoots are located in the apartment complex and set out repercussions for those that aren’t disposing of it the right way.

3. The Party.

Parties only become a concern for a landlord when they are out of control or begin to warrant complaints from neighboring tenants. Because partying is such a large part of the college experience, smaller get-togethers should be expected. But when they start to escalate past this, it’s important to be prepared to break it up.

The Solution: Setting out clear repercussions for out of control parties in advance is the best way at preventing the problem from occurring in the first place.

Let all tenants know upon signing the lease that parties deemed out of control will result in a punishment such as contacting the police or, in continued circumstances, eviction. This way, the likelihood of such events taking place decreases tremendously.

4. Roommate Problems.

At one point or another, most landlords will have to deal with tenants that end up having roommate troubles. Whether they stop getting along, never got along in the first place or just don’t want to live together anymore, this can become a problem if not dealt with properly.

The Solution: While roommate troubles won’t always be your concern, sometimes being a mediator can help to stop a disagreement before it escalates. Otherwise, this minor blip can turn into a major issue when roommates begin to refuse paying rent or get violent, etc.

5. Fire Alarms.

With the placement of several around the apartment complex, and the multitude of smoke detectors placed throughout the apartment itself, there are bound to be a couple alarms drunkenly pulled here or there, or a few burnt dinners that set them off. In fact, many students will actually pull the batteries from the alarms in the apartments, which is illegal and can lead to problems for you.

The Solution: Place warning signs around all outside fire alarms that declare all legal ramifications for pulling alarms as well as some sort of protective case to prevent accidental pulls.

Also, make sure the lease clarifies that tenants aren’t meant to tamper with smoke detectors and clarify ways in which the tenants can avoid setting off the alarms as well.

There are many disturbances that you will encounter in your experiences with college students, but it’s important to remember that there are ways to prevent these occurrences from ever happening and even more ways to take care of them once they have happened.

Make sure you keep in mind that college students want to have a good time, so as long as the rules aren’t too restricting, most students won’t even cause any problems for you.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get Student Housing News Monthly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format