With full-year leases now required and ridiculous clean check expectations for run-down apartments, it's time to start calling the shots with off campus housing companies.

If you've talked with any BYU students, you'll hear the horror stories of them having to pay late fees, extra month's rent and also unfortunate cons put in place by predatory off campus housing companies. There are also many instances of blatant dishonesty and bait/switch tactics.

For example, one company owns a huge variety of BYU contracted housing properties. They ignore their online reputation and treat their tenants (aka students) like crap because they know that they've got a revolving door of unsuspecting students coming in the next semester.

One supporter mentions what she had to deal with from a popular BYU Approved landlord: “My contract said that I had to pay $100 to sell it- even though I never lived in the apartment during the duration of the contract and I found someone MYSELF to buy the contract from me I was still fined $100. This example shows why students don't "just move", we're stuck!!! IN that same apartment, each of the 4 girls who lived in the apartment were changed an EXTRA $7 a month for the management company to "split" our utility bill... ummm if you do the math that is $28 a month to split the bill which is an extra $336 from my UNIT for ONE YEAR. Ridiculous!”

This is unfair, it's predatory. Contract "sell fees" and other weird and manipulative cons are there to steal money out of student pockets. It's time we stop the madness.

We demand that BYU stop protecting these predatory off campus housing companies. We demand that these businesses knock off the BS and start treating people with respect and honesty.

Students sign an Honor Code and must abide by it to live in BYU contracted housing...it's time these off campus housing apartment owners and property management companies start abiding by it too.

A little extra reading to show you that we're not alone in this opinion:

Letter: Student housing is taking advantage of renters

100+ complaints on Facebook about OCH in Provo

Off-campus BYU housing: it's complicated

Equal Rights for OCH Students

Problems with BYU Off Campus Housing

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