Apartments flood, roommates vanish into thin air, and landlords fail to appreciate a new paint job on apartment walls.

When students transition from the Hill to apartments around Westwood Village, confusing legal scenarios erupt on a regular basis. Of the caseload for Student Legal Services, 30 percent is landlord-tenant related, said Elizabeth Kemper, director of Student Legal Services.

The problems run the gamut. Kemper has dealt with issues ranging from failure to return a security deposit to evictions.

Enrolled UCLA students can access a variety of services through Student Legal Services. The most basic include lease reading and explanation of legal rights and obligations. Lawyers can also help negotiate with landlords in disputes out of court.

Sensitive to student budgets, Student Legal Services lowered its fees in September. The first consultation now costs just $10.

But some Bruins learned the hard way.

The flood

The wall of the apartment looked washed in Coca-Cola, an abnormal, unsightly yellow.

The minute she saw it, Janice Lau, a fourth-year psychobiology student, called the manager of her apartment building on Rochester Avenue.

A water filter on the roof had started to leak five hours earlier. Water was seeping down through ceilings and into walls and carpets of the four-story complex.

Repairmen came to start rebuilding the wall in Lau’s apartment. For a week in October, large, loud fans blew hot air at the wall. A giant tarp was draped across the carpet, creating a small obstacle course to computers and desks.

Air conditioning still worked in the bedrooms, where the students spent as much time as possible.

“We were quarantined in our rooms,” said Jessica Wang, a fourth-year computer science engineering student and one of Lau’s roommates.

The rebuilding of the wall took a month to complete. In the meantime, the kitchen was totally unusable, with the gas to the stove cut off.

Apartment managers delivered a sheet of paper promising free rent for the duration of the repairs. The students were also supposed to receive $30 each for food every day, according to the agreement.

But miscommunication kept the second part from happening right away. Ben Xiao, a fourth-year computer science engineering student, said he and his roommates called and e-mailed for weeks to figure out how to receive the money for food.

Then the roommates found out that they were supposed to have kept receipts for meal purchases. That delayed the process even longer.

The management declined to comment on the situation for insurance reasons. But the students got their money in the end. Each was asked to estimate the amount spent for food in the absence of receipts.

Xiao said he and his roommates should have made clarifications in the first place.

“Don’t assume things,” he said. “Be persistent.”

The roommates

A heated dispute over a parking spot sent Martha Thompson looking for a new living situation. But because the lease was signed for a year, she was stuck. Her roommates were uncooperative in helping her find a replacement.
Thompson paid the then $30 fee for a consultation with Student Legal Services. There was little the office could do for her.

In cases between UCLA students, all the office can provide is information, Kemper said. Ongoing assistance is only available when a landlord or non-UCLA student is involved.

With few options, Thompson, who graduated last spring with a degree in economics, broke her lease and lost her security deposit.

The landlord tried to help her. But it came down to reaching a resolution with her roommates.

“You have to be really careful when you’re signing a lease,” Thompson said.

Kemper recommends filling out a roommate contract, available on the Student Legal Services website. The contract covers expectations for issues such as utility bills and approval of new roommates if someone leaves.

Danny Wudka, a neuroscience student who graduated last spring, had the opposite situation as Thompson. His roommate, a college-age woman looking for work in Los Angeles, mysteriously gathered her belongings and left the apartment with little warning.

It was a bit of a shock, he said. Because she was not a UCLA student, Student Legal Services was able to give Wudka a form to help collect lost payment. The form, which was posted on the door of the woman’s room, also ensured that she could not return to the apartment after it was leased to another tenant.

But Wudka also had to front the money to pay her rent for the month of December. He didn’t get it back until he moved out in the spring, when the landlord allocated it out of the woman’s security deposit.

Wudka estimates that he came out even. He and his roommates quickly found a person to replace the missing roommate, which was lucky, he said.

He added that it was helpful to go to Student Legal Services to determine a course of action in a confusing legal scenario.

The landlord

An apartment complex on Roebling Avenue doubles as Jamie Corum’s childhood home. Her parents, a pair of UCLA alumni who never left Westwood, were the building managers. Corum was raised in one of the apartments.

She and her brothers knew just about everybody in the building – then mostly professionals who stayed for decades at a time.

As an adult, Corum took over the manager role. The exact apartment where she grew up has morphed into “the office,” stacked with paperwork and floor plans.

Her 22-month-old son Daschiell scampers around authoritatively, wearing a UCLA button-up fleece sweater and a Sesame Street helmet.

Corum hugs him up.

“He’s the manager,” she says with a smile.

Ten years of experience with tenants has exposed Corum to a colorful array of sights. Once she walked into an apartment to see an alien head painted on the wall, which the exiting tenants had hastily tried to disguise with white paint.

“Are you serious?” Corum said, shaking her head.

Actual destruction happens when parties get out of hand. Holes punched in walls. Couches set on fire. Broken windows.

Corum said she aims to be reasonable. But there is a line.

“You’re supposed to give (the property) back in the condition you got it,” she said.

A pre-existing condition, like a mark on the wall, does not give a tenant license to “then make 10,000 more marks,” Corum said. She also notices the difference between a scratch on a hardwood floor and a gouge made by a couch dragged across it.

Take photos upon arrival, she advises. Lots of them.

Problems with security deposits form the bulk of legal disputes in the building. The high turnover lends the units to a great deal of wear and tear.

Corum tries to give back an entire security deposit, she said. But a $100 cleanup will result in a $100 deduction from the deposit.

“It does no good to complain,” she added.

Corum has only been in court once, with a nonstudent tenant who failed to pay rent for an entire year. But as recently as last year, Student Legal Services became involved when a student refused to give Corum a copy of his key. Corum’s key broke upon entering the room to do repairs, and she had requested a new one.

The student went for a consultation. He was told Corum was legally entitled to a copy of his key. When he came back, he gave her the copy.

Corum said the job is a tough one. But she likes the flexibility.

“It’s not a 9 to 5 job,” she said. “You get into it, and it’s one of those things you keep doing.”