When several Dartmouth students accused two Hanover landlords of negligence, incompetence and bad business practices last April, the official response from the real estate companies was muted. Now, Jerry Rich, owner of J&R Properties Unlimited, has come forward to defend the integrity and legality of his business.
The students, though, are mostly sticking to their original stories. They variously charge that J&R rented them properties with unstable internal and external framework, responded slowly to maintenance requests and then overcharged for maintenance and repairs, sometimes neglecting to provide the itemized bills mandated by state law when a landlord withholds money from a security deposit.
Rich and his staff at J&R present a radically different version of what happened. They say that although they treat their student renters the same as they do their other tenants, students often leave their apartments atrociously messy upon moving out, forcing J&R's clean-up crew to spend days scouring the properties at the rate of $30 an hour for labor. Rich said he has no choice but to charge for such services.
Rich also says that students who are away from campus for leave terms or during the summer often fail to provide him with a forwarding address to which their security deposits and itemized bills can be sent.
Complicating the picture, however, is that Rich and the students diverge in their recollection of many key facts, perhaps because some of the episodes in question took place over a year ago.
Garbage Disputes
One such incident involved a large-scale garbage removal that Mary Cipollone '02, Joel Schudson '02 and Julia Pinover '02 -- who rented 75 Lebanon St. from J&R in 2000-2001 -- say J&R charged them $900 for.
The three student tenants said they moved out of the rental unit in June 2001 in a hurry, leaving behind what they acknowledged was "a pretty big mess."
They say that the sophomores who were subletting the apartment over the summer cleaned the mess and packed the rubbish in garbage bags that they placed outside the house. Later in the summer, Pinover, Cipollone and Schudson received what they claim was a $900 bill from J&R for "garbage removal."
When Pinover demanded to see documentation of how much garbage was moved and how long it took, Rich reduced the bill by about half, she said. She thinks he may have done so partly in response to a threatening letter that her father, a real-estate lawyer, helped her craft.
Rich initially said he did not remember anything about such a garbage removal. After hearing more details, though, he said that although he does remember sending three men to 75 Lebanon St. to take garbage to the dump. Rich strongly doubted that he would have charged $900 for the task.
"We did come up and remove garbage," he said, "but I don't believe that was $900. That would've been 10 hours for three guys. That seems like a lot to me."
Lynn Parker, a staff attorney for New Hampshire Legal Assistance, agreed, but said that there is no law that specifies what a fair amount would be.
"I don't think there's anything in landlord/tenant law that addresses that specifically, but from a business perspective it certainly seems excessive," she said.
Rich said that he may have reduced the bill later on if it struck him as excessive, but he denied that Pinover's letter would have intimidated him into doing so.
Neither the students nor J&R's staff could provide documentation to verify their claims.
Mirror Mishap
Pinover, Cipollone and Schudson also said that while they were living at 75 Lebanon St. a rusty medicine cabinet mirror fell from the wall and cut Cipollone.
"It's not that J&R should have to be up on all the picky little details," Cipollone said, noting that she still has a scar on her arm. "But I do think it's emblematic of the overall lack of attention that they'll pay to details in a house they're renting to students."
Rich said that none of the three ever notified J&R about the fallen mirror or indicated beforehand that it appeared unstable. Had they done so, he said, he could easily have sent repairmen to attach it more soundly.
Gabriel Nizbtic, a Plymouth, N.H., lawyer who represents both landlords and tenants in rental disputes, said that the mirror instance falls in a legal gray area.
"There's no easy answer for that," he said. "The answer is a definite maybe" that Rich was or was not at fault.
Security Deposits
Pinover, Cipollone and Schudson also charged that J&R withheld money from their security deposit when their lease ended in Sept. 2001 and did not provide them with an itemized bill explaining why.
Rich, however, responds that he always includes security deposits -- and that this case was no exception.
Likewise, Connor Price '02, who rented 8 Summer St. from 2000-2001, said that Rich withheld part of his security deposit without including an itemized bill.
Price said that when he showed up for a scheduled appointment with Rich to discuss the security deposit deductions, J&R secretaries briefly conferred with Rich and then told Price that he would have to come back another day. A week or two later, a representative from J&R met with Price to explain why about $450 of his security deposit was withheld, but this was only after considerable effort on his part, he said.
Parker and Nizbtic both said that state law requires landlords to return tenants' full security deposit within 30 days or else provide written explanation for any money withheld.
But J&R says it is inconceivable that they would have sent a check without an accompanying explanation.
"We always send an itemized bill," said Georgeanne Amature, J&R's Hanover Property Manager.
Rich added that even when tenants receive their full deposit back the company sends them a statement detailing J&R's inspection of the premises.
Sometimes, though, students do not provide forwarding addresses and the deposits are returned to sender, Rich said.
Dartmouth Postmaster Howard Durkee said such a prospect is unlikely. He noted that this happens only when he does not have the students' home address on file -- a rare instance.
Price, Cipollone, Pinover and Schudson noted that they received their partial security deposits in the mail, which they say proves that J&R had an address on hand.
Parker agreed, but said that tenants have an obligation to provide the landlord with a forwarding address if they want to be sure of receiving their security deposits and documentation.
Rich said he does not remember Price ever coming in to protest the lack of an itemized bill.
"To be honest, I don't even know who he is," Rich said. "I don't do the day-to-day management."
Schudson said that when he met with Rich in his office to discuss his withheld security deposit, Rich explained that some of the money was deducted to repair broken windows. When Schudson replied that he had seen the property recently and that none of the windows had yet been fixed, even though the new tenants had moved in, Rich said that he sometimes charges based on estimates.
Rich explained in an interview that charging based on estimates is something he is occasionally forced to do when he cannot find a subcontractor in time to fix damages before the next set of tenants moves in.
"We have 30 days by New Hampshire state law to send out security deposits," he said. "We don't have time to do all the repairs and get their checks done too, so sometimes we have to hire a subcontractor and their schedule is so busy that it might take 30 to 60 days."
Whenever he overestimates repair charges, he sends the clients back the extra money, Rich said.
"But if we underestimate," he added, "we eat the difference."
Nizbtic said that charging based on estimates is legitimate under state law, which stipulates that landlords are required to provide written documentation that repair "has been or will be completed."
Schudson also objected to J&R's policy of applying rent money toward any outstanding damage charges. He said it was confusing and troublesome to receive notices posted on his door indicating that he owed rent when he had in fact paid.
Rich said that J&R has long had a policy of putting payments toward repair bills and then collecting additional rent as needed. Rich did not specifically remember charging Schudson for damages while he was living there, but said it may have been necessary to repair some broken windows.
However, it is rare that tenants are charged for repairs while they are renting -- usually, such repairs come out of the security deposit at the end, Rich said.
Nizbtic said state law permits landlords to have rent money to go pay for repairs.
Despite the problems they had renting 75 Lebanon St., however, Pinover and Cipollone decided to rent another property from J&R the next year. They said that they liked the freedom of living off-campus and had few other rental choices, due to Hanover's tight housing market.
Dog Days
Soon after signing a lease to rent Apartment B at 16 West Wheelock St., Cipollone and Pinover received complaints from J&R's Amature about their dog, North, who was living with them in the apartment.
Convinced that the lease they signed said nothing about pets, they protested.
It turned out that J&R had mistakenly had the students sign an outdated lease, an error Rich readily acknowledges.
However, Rich added that the house rules, which were posted on the inside of the apartment's kitchen cabinets, explicitly forbade pets.
Rich said he did not force Cipollone and Pinover to sign the new lease, which prohibited pets, but he indicated to them that if they did not, they would be held to all standards of the old lease and therefore would have to get rid of three of the four cars they had parked in front of the house -- a violation of the outdated lease they had signed.
"In exchange for the dog, we allotted them the three extra spots," Amature said.
Nizbtic said that this kind of bargaining is not only legitimate, but to be expected. "Everything in a lease is up for negotiation," he said.
Since Cipollone and Pinover did agree to sign (and, therefore, abide by) the new lease, the company informed them that they would be charged $50 a day until they got rid of North, Rich said. If they failed to get rid of the dog within 30 days, they would be evicted.
Cipollone and Pinover say that Rich threatened to charge them as much as $150 a day and actually served them with eviction papers, although he eventually waived the charges once the students found North a new home.
Broken Spindles
Price, and Heather Kofke-Egger '03, who sublet 8 Summer St. from Price during the summer of 2001, said that spindles on the porch outside their second floor apartment were flimsy and unsafe, as were the inside doorframes.
"You'd grab one to pull yourself up as you're walking up the stairs and the thing would come off in your hand," Price said.
Rich said that the spindles, which were installed by the Lebanon-based Home Partners, are made of pressured treated wood, designed to be extra-strong.
Paul Keyser, who runs the carpentry division of Home Partners, said that the railings were made of sturdy Southern yellow pine, which is stronger than the cedar typically used for porch railings. The wood was pressure-treated with chemicals to enhance its durability, Keyser added. He said that he was not sure if the railings were nailed or screwed in.
"But if I remember right," he said, "they were screwed in."
By the end of the summer of 2001, though, six spindles had fallen from the second floor porch into the yard below, according to the tenants. Price said he accidentally knocked out a spindle with a shopping bag he was carrying up to his apartment. Kofke-Egger said that when she and a roommate were sitting on the porch with their feet propped up their feet against the railing, they caused two of the spindles to fall out.
Neither student knew how the other spindles had fallen out.
Rich said he found two spindles "broken right in half," as though they had been deliberately kicked into two pieces.
Both Kofke-Egger and Price vehemently denied kicking the spindles, though they acknowledged that other students then living in the building may have done so.
Rich said he had Home Partners replace the broken spindles and then charged all of the tenants at 8 Summer St. for the repairs. He later rescinded the charge, he said, because it was impossible to tell who was actually responsible for the dislodged spindles.
Keyser said that he did not remember replacing any spindles in the summer of 2001 but said that does not mean they were never replaced.
Parker said that Rich was right to take back the bill if he was unable to determine who had knocked out the spindles. She also emphasized Rich's responsibility in renting safe, well-constructed properties.
"The landlord has to keep the apartment in habitable condition," she said.
For his part, if Rich felt strongly that the spindles were sturdy and up to code, he could have pursued his case in small claims court, Parker said.
Nizbtic said it may be futile to try to determine how the spindles fell out and why.
"What really happened?" he said. "It's a definite 'who knows?'"
Heating Mishaps
Pinover, Cipollone and Schudson said that in an earlier article The Dartmouth had incorrectly written that they shivered for a week while J&R stalled fixing a broken heating system.
It was, The Dartmouth later determined, Jill Garrido '02 who had described such an incident.
Garrido was unavailable to comment a second time, but Rich said that J&R considers such situations emergencies and would send repairmen immediately after being notified of the problem. He said that the company has a 24-hour pager number tenants can call in an emergency.
Rich added that avoiding a repair of the heating would not be in J&R's own self-interest.
"It would cost us a lot of money if the pipes froze," he said.
Storage Confusion
Ryan Sinclair '02 said in an earlier article that when he returned to his apartment after a short break between summer and fall terms, he found that his possessions had been confiscated to a storage locker and that some of his CDs were missing.
Rich responded in an interview that he had recently purchased Sinclair's apartment from the Hanover Investment Corporation and was obligated to make extensive repairs in order to make the property livable.
Rich said he did not know that Sinclair was returning to the apartment, and that if it was unlivable while Sinclair was living there that was the fault of the Hanover Investment Corporation. He said J&R gave all tenants 30 days notice to move out of their apartments and clear out all storage bins and lockers, Rich said. When workmen found Sinclair's things in his apartment, they stored them until he came to claim them about two weeks later.
Rich said he couldn't be sure what happened to the CDs, but defended the integrity of his workmen.
"I guess it's his word against theirs, but my guys are usually pretty reliable," Rich said.
Sinclair was unavailable for follow-up comment.
Aftermath
Since the students publicized their grievances, J&R has stepped up its efforts to explain to students just what their responsibilities are, Rich said.
More than ever, the company now encourages student tenants who sublet the apartments to collect security deposits from their renters.
Also, after the confusion over who was responsible for the fallen spindles at 8 Summer St., Rich changed his standard lease to explicitly state that the bills for any exterior damage will be divided evenly among all units in the building, he said.
"We're trying to explain all this better to them since all this stuff happened," he said.
Pinover and Cipollone recognized J&R's increased efforts.
"They said 'please' and 'thank-you' when they'd send us requests to clean up. Before, it was more in the form of a threat," Pinover said.
