 Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us tonight for the know your rights tenant informational webinar. I do want to be mindful to our audience and let you know that this is a recorded presentation. Your, your faces aren't being captured right now. Do you like video or anything, but I just want to put that out there and thank you all again for joining us. We'll get started momentarily in just one minute. Alright, so without any further ado, we'll get into our webinar for tonight. Just want to briefly go over some of the overviews and things that you'll get to see in this seminar. So, we'll begin with introducing today's speakers. We'll go into some webinar objectives and what we hope you take away from this presentation. We'll start from UMass Amherst Student Legal Services Office to learn more about what a lease agreement actually is and your rights within a lease agreement. And then we'll learn more about some of the specific regulations to the town of Amherst from an Amherst Town Council representative. We'll learn about some resources as a UMass student from off campus student life. And then we'll get into a question and answer portion of the evening where you'll be able to get your specific questions answered by our panelists. So, who are we representing today. My name is Audrey Gabriel I am the Secretary of Health and Wellbeing for UMass Amherst Student Government Association. You're joined today by Benjamin Whites who's the Secretary of External Affairs and offer and Donnie who's our Attorney General. We have a representative from the Student Legal Services Office Emily Daniels here with us today who's a staff attorney attorney at SLSO. We have Manny Jo Hanneke who is a counselor at large for Amherst Town Council, and we have more Roberts here today with the Office of Off-Campus Student Life. So you have a great array and spread of speakers who are all informed in here to talk to you about what it means to be a tenant and the rights that you have as a tenant. One of the things we hope you take away are your rights as a tenant when you enter a lease agreement will direct you to some resources as a current or prospective tenant, and hopefully answer any further questions that you may have throughout the process. And just want to shout out that we are doing an interactive component throughout the webinar. We have a community click to get your feedback throughout each presentation. So if you take your mobile device and you register with the QR code below, it'll pop up as community click. If you select attendee and select the Know Your Rights webinar, it'll direct you to fill out a form kind of with your name and other basic information. Throughout the presentation, you'll have the option to select things like I'm confused, and that'll let our speakers know whether or not we need to reiterate something or we need to explain something in further depth. So definitely scan this QR code will also toss the link into the chat. And from there you'll be able to give feedback as we go on to present. So without any further ado, we'll start off with the Student Legal Services Office and Emily Daniel will go into her presentation. Thank you, Audrey. Hopefully you can see my screen now. Looks great. Great. So good afternoon, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. It's a pleasure to be with you all today to speak about tenants rights. My name is Emily Daniel. I'm a staff attorney at the Student Legal Services Office at UMass Amherst. And the Student Legal Services Office or SLSO is a student funded law office providing legal assistance to fee paying undergrad and graduate students and student groups. This is free confidential advice and or referral services, as well as low cost representation and many legal matters, including in the area of housing law. And part of the SLSO's mission is to educate and inform the university community about the law through community legal education programs, such as this. A an agreement to rent housing is a type of legally binding contract between a tenant and a landlord. So it's critical that tenants understand the terms of the contract and that they know their rights. The terms of a lease, just like any other contract may be negotiated between the parties, but tenants are often in that unequal bargaining position compared to a landlord who's in the business, particularly in a tight housing market. A landlord may be able to simply say, you know, well, here's my lease, take it or leave it and move on to the next applicant. But a tenant should be aware that illegal lease terms will not be enforced by a court and knowledge is power to the tenant. And infinitely for renters in Massachusetts, our Commonwealth has some of the strongest tenant legal protections in place compared to other states. The landlord tenant relationship is highly regulated and multiple sources of law. So what does a tenancy convey, including Massachusetts law, federal law, common law, and the Massachusetts state sanitary and building codes, as well as local, local town bylaws. In exchange for payment of rent, the tenant receives the right to physically live in the rental property and we call this possession of the premises. And the tenant has the right to exclusive possession of the rental premises. There are two things that the tenant can exclude anyone or anything from the premises, even the landlord. A landlord cannot simply walk into an apartment or rented house, because they own the property. There are two very important implied promises on the part of a landlord that protect tenants rights in a rental context. And the first is the what's called in legal terms, the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment. And that means that the landlord promises not to interfere with the tenancy. The other implied promise is a warranty of habitability. The tenant has the right to live in safe and habitable housing. So diving in a little bit more in depth, the implied covenant or promise of quiet enjoyment means that a landlord will not interfere with the tenant's quiet enjoyment of the rental property and will not enter without the tenant's permission. There, as with many things in the law, there are exceptions. If there is a true emergency pipe as has burst in as gushing water, or a court order, for example, a landlord might enter without the tenant's permission. But ordinarily a landlord should give what we call reasonable notice to a tenant about the need to enter for inspections and repairs. Elise can state that a landlord may enter to inspect, to make repairs, to show the unit to prospective tenants or buyers. But again, the tenant should get reasonable notice. The tenant of quiet enjoyment also means that landlords must comply with the laws around providing and charging for utilities. Cross metering is illegal. A tenant should only have to pay for the utility that they actually consume. So a cross metering claim or violation would be apartment A is not only paying for the electricity that services their apartment, but maybe they're also paying for the electricity in apartment B right next door. Landlords must not attempt to get possession of the rental back by force without going through the proper judicial process. There's no such thing as self health eviction anymore. And conduct that might violate or constitute a breach of quiet enjoyment does not have to be intentional on the landlords part. It's possible that a landlord's negligent conduct that causes a serious interference with the tenancy can be sufficient to constitute a tenant claim. And if a tenant is successful on a quiet enjoyment claim in court against a landlord, the damages are three times the months rent or the tenants actual damages, whichever is greater. And that would include the tenants reasonable attorneys, attorneys fees and court costs. The warranty of habitability is a promise on the landlords part that the rental premises will meet the minimum standards to be fit for human habitation. And those standards are pretty much set forth in the state sanitary code, building code comes into play electrical code fire prevention requirements. Examples of conditions that might breach this promise of habitability would be a cockroach or rodent infestation, water leaks defective windows insufficient heat in the winter electrical problems defective floors wall ceilings. It's important that tenants understand that landlords must have notice of the bad condition in the, in the apartment. So the landlord needs to know or should have known. So if the bad condition existed at the beginning of the tenancy. So before right before the tenants moved in notice is implied to the landlord. Otherwise, if the bad condition arises after the tenants move in, they must report the issue to the landlord. It's always better to do this in writing, but verbal notice can be sufficient, but you want to try to as best as possible. Keep a record of the communications and written is better. The landlord must repair the issue within a reasonable amount of time. And what is reasonable will depend on the circumstances of the issue. If a tenant has the right to request that the Board of Health or inspection services conduct an inspection of of the property property if they're concerned. If a tenant is successful on a breach of warranty of habitability claim, the damages that a court might award are the difference between the value of the apartment in its quote unquote habitable condition, which is usually the amount of the rent. And the value of the apartment in its bad condition, and how, how do you determine the value of the apartment in in its bad condition. It's a very fact specific analysis. It does not assess the nature of the condition, the length of time that it existed, and usually determine some percentage reduction in the amount of the monthly rent for based on that bad condition. For example, there are two types of tenancies, a tendency under a lease and a tenancy at will, and the type of tenancy at play affects the rights and obligations of both the tenant and the landlord. And there are differences between the two. So a lease must be in writing a tendency at will might be in writing, or by verbal agreement. Under a lease, the terms, the term contract terms of the tenancy are dictated by what is contained in that lease, and the tenant is bound by all the legal terms in that lease. Under a tenancy at will, the terms of the tenancy will be dictated by the written agreement if there is one. Otherwise, the verbal agreement establishes a rental rate. And I should mention that oftentimes, if there is a written at will agreement, it might be titled something like rental agreement, instead of lease at the top. A lease, on the one hand, is for a set period of time. It's usually a year, but it doesn't have to be. And the tenant is bound to pay the rent for the term of the lease. Under a tenancy at will, it's not a fixed term. Most often a tenancy at will is on a month to month basis, if that is how the rent is paid. So the period of the at will tenancy is based upon how frequent the rent is paid. Usually it's monthly. Additional differences between a tenancy under a written lease and a tenancy at will. What about terminating the tenancy? So under a lease, neither the landlord nor the tenant can end the lease during that period of time, except for a reason specifically listed in the lease itself. For example, if the tenant fails to pay the rent under a tenancy at will, on the other hand, the tenancy can be ended by either the landlord or the tenant without any specific reason, but with proper notice in that notice is equal to one rental period that is at least 30 days. What about increasing the rent under a lease? No, the landlord cannot increase the rent during the lease term caveat unless it's specifically provided for in the lease itself. So the tenant would have previously agreed to that. Under a tenancy at will, the landlord might decide to increase the rent, but must provide proper notice. And again, that notice is equal to one rental period that is at least 30 days. It's important to note that a landlord cannot unilaterally increase the rent. A tenant must consent or agree to that rent increase before it becomes due. If a tenant doesn't agree to the higher rent and just continues to pay the old rent, the landlord might decide to evict, but they would have to go through all of the proper procedures to do so. At a minimum, a lease should contain the following clauses, the term of the lease when it begins, when it ends, the amount of rent and when it's due, the address of the rental property, the contact information of the owner, and if there's some other entity or property manager that's responsible for maintenance and repairs, the contact info for that person. The lease should also contain the contact information of the person authorized to receive notice from the tenant, including legal notice. If the landlord is asking for a security deposit, then that should be contained in the lease, and the lease should state the landlord's obligations with regard, legal obligations with regard to that security deposit. If the landlord is requiring last month's rent payment in advance, that should also be in the lease. So what are the permissible charges that a landlord might impose at the beginning of a tenancy? There are only four things that a landlord can charge at or prior to the inception of a tenancy. First month's rent, last month's rent, which is in the same amount as first month's rent, a security deposit, no greater than first month's rent, and the costs for a new lock and key. That's it. If a landlord uses a licensed real estate broker to lease the property, the tenant may be required to pay a broker's fee, but that broker must be licensed. Illegal tenancy charges. What about utilities? So a tenant cannot be required to pay for electricity, gas, or oil unless those utilities are separately metered to the tenant's unit. So no cross metering. And there is an agreement in writing that states that the tenant is responsible for those specific utilities. It's unusual for a landlord to attempt to pass on water and sewer charges to a tenant. A tenant cannot be charged for water and sewer unless the consumption is separately metered. There's a written agreement. And there are water conservation devices installed. So low flow faucet, shower, toilet, and there's a certification filed by the landlord with the town as to the compliance with the law around water and sewer charges. A landlord cannot charge a late fee or interest or penalty for unpaid rent until the rent is 30 days past due. Many leases will say there's a late fee after five days or 10 days, not enforceable. What about pet fees, application fees, cleaning fees? No, a landlord cannot charge these at the beginning of a tenancy. So if a tenant breaches a lease stops paying the rent and the landlord decides to sue and bring an eviction case in court, the landlord's attorney's fees are not recoverable unless there's a written agreement signed by the tenant. So there could be a clause in that lease that says attorneys fees will be collectible by the landlord against the tenant. If that's a one-sided clause in the lease, the law or the court will imply a reciprocal obligation on the landlord's part that the landlord has to pay the legal fees of a prevailing tenant on a possible counterclaim against the landlord. So there are certain terms that are illegal if they're contained in a lease. Oftentimes what happens is that particular clause of the contract of the lease is simply void. It wouldn't be enforceable in court. There may be circumstances where certain illegal lease terms might void the entire lease, but I think more often the court would just ignore the illegal clauses and not enforce them. So it's an illegal lease term for an agreement that makes the tenant responsible for all repairs. An agreement that the tenant will not contest any lawsuit brought by the landlord. An agreement that the tenant will pay a late fee for paying rent that is less than 30 days late, as I just mentioned. An agreement that the landlord may enter the apartment for any reason other than to prepare to inspect to show the apartment under a court order or to confirm that the rental is abandoned. An agreement that the landlord may evict the tenant without process of law. That's void. An agreement that the tenancy may be terminated without a notice to quit. Also not enforceable. An agreement that the landlord is not liable for the landlord's negligent or intentional acts that cause harm to the tenant or the landlord's breach of contract. Also not enforceable. An agreement that the landlord may deposit presents many pitfalls for a landlord. What is a security deposit? It's a type of insurance to protect a landlord against damage caused to the rental premises or unpaid rent. It's not possible for a landlord potentially to use a security deposit to cover unpaid real estate taxes or water sewer charges, but only if those were otherwise legally imposed on the tenant. A security deposit funds cannot be used to cover the costs of repairing what we call ordinary wear and tear cannot be used for routine cleaning paint painting or freshening up of the unit for the next tenant. An important thing to to understand about a security deposit paid to a landlord is that those funds remain the tenants money during the tenancy. It's simply that the landlord is holding those funds. The handling of a security deposit is very strictly regulated. There are many requirements that a landlord must follow in order to valid validly accept and hold a security deposit. The landlord must keep the funds in a separate interest bearing bank account located in Massachusetts. The landlord cannot commingle mix those funds with the landlord's own money. The landlord must give the tenant a receipt at the time the deposit is paid. The receipt should state the amount of the security deposit, the person receiving it, the date and a description, the address of the rental property. Within 30 days of receiving the security deposit, the landlord must provide a receipt informing the tenant of the bank where the funds have been deposited, the account number and the amount of the deposit. At the time of receiving the deposit, or within 10 days after the tenancy begins, whichever is later, many tenants are signing leases a year in advance. The landlord must give the tenant a statement of condition, which is a very important document that can protect the tenant. The statement of condition is a description of the current condition of the apartment. This is at the beginning of the tenancy. It can protect a tenant from a landlord's future attempt to attribute pre-existing damage to the apartment that's not the tenant's fault. The statement must be signed by the landlord, contain a complete list of existing damage, if any, and then it also must include this statement that's in the statute itself, basically informing the tenant of the importance of this statement of condition. And the tenant has the right to attach to that statement a list of any damages that the tenant sees that the landlord failed to include on the list. And the tenant should return that statement or their supplemental list within 15 days. If the landlord doesn't give the tenant the statement of condition, the tenant can send their own to the landlord. So the security deposit has to be deposited into a bank account that earns interest. As the security deposit funds are the tenant's property, the interest that's earned on that deposit from the bank where it's held is also the tenant's property. Each year the landlord must inform the tenant of the earned interest and either pay that interest over to the tenant or allow the tenant to deduct the accrued interest from the next payment. And this is payable each year on the anniversary date of the tenancy. The interest rate, you know, for a while it's been very low, but it's the bank's actual rate or 5%, whichever is less. A landlord must return the security deposit deposit funds in full within 30 days of the conclusion of the tenancy. What about deductions from the security deposit? Again, very strict requirements that a landlord must follow in order to validly deduct. If the landlord keeps any portion of the security deposit, it must send a statement to the tenant within 30 days of the end of the tenancy, including an itemized list of the deductions from the security deposit. The damages that the landlord is alleging and remember those damages must be beyond ordinary wear and tear, the cost of repairing that damage, and attach supporting documentation, invoices, bills, estimates for the repairs. And this statement must be signed under the pains and penalties of perjury by the landlord. A landlord's failure to comply with the requirements of the security deposit statute means that they lose the right to hold those funds, even during the tenancy. While the tenancy is still pending, the landlord would forfeit the right to hold those funds. A tenant would be entitled to demand the immediate return of the deposit if, for example, the landlord did not place the funds in the appropriate bank account. What are the damages for violating the security deposit statute? If a landlord fails to return the deposit upon demand when there's a violation, then there is a essentially an automatic penalty of three times the amount of the security deposit. And if the tenant has to bring the landlord to court, that includes the tenant's reasonable attorney's fees and court costs. So depending on the type of violation, a landlord can protect itself from further penalty by returning those security deposit funds upon demand by the tenant. But it's important to note that a failure to return the security deposit within that 30 day deadline of the end of the ten and vacating, moving out of the apartment, has been held to require treble damages. So three times the amount of the deposit, even when the landlord did eventually return the deposit before a lawsuit was filed. Last month's rent, if the landlord requires it, is very different than a security deposit. But the landlord is required to also provide a receipt for this payment, stating the amount and the date, the name of the person receiving it, its intended use for last month, and the rental address, and notice that the tenant is entitled to any interest accrued on this payment as well. So if the security deposit is deposited into an interest bearing account, the landlord is required to pay the annual interest to the tenant, or allow the interest to be deducted from the next month's rent. Unlike a security deposit, last month's rent is the landlord's money, not the tenants. But because it's paid in advance, the tenant should receive the interest earned on the payment. And again, what's that interest rate? It's the actual rate at the bank or 5%, whichever is less. So very briefly on notice to quit. Before a landlord may begin an eviction case, which is called a summary process action, it must terminate the tenancy by sending the tenant a notice to quit. There's a potential exception to that requirement. If the landlord commences an eviction case right after a lease term ends, the lease has expired, and the landlord has not accepted any additional rent, then a notice to quit wouldn't be required. But generally, it is. So quit what? What does that mean? The notice is a demand that the tenant vacate or move out of the rented premises by a certain date or a number of days. It's important that a tenant understand that a tenant is not required to move out by the deadline in the notice. Only a court can require that. If the tenant doesn't voluntarily move out, then after that notice period expires, then the landlord may begin the eviction case in court, where a tenant would have the right to answer the complaint and raise any counterclaims and defenses to the eviction. So the amount of notice that is required will depend on the particular facts of the situation. If the reason is non-payment of rent, then it's a 14-day notice to quit. If the reason is false base, what's referred to as for cause, some alleged bad behavior under a written lease, then we would need to look at the terms of the lease itself for the notice period. If the reason is fault or no fault under a tenancy at will, on the other hand, then the notice period is that rental period notice. One rental period that is at least 30 days, and that must terminate the tenancy on a date that the rent is due. Sometimes this type of notice is misleadingly referred to as one month's notice or a 30-day notice, but note the month of February that does not contain 30 days. So it has to be one rental period that is at least 30 days. So for example, a notice served on May 15th to tenants who pay their rent on the first of the month, the landlord can't file the eviction case in court until July 1st, not June 15th, but July 1st. So here are some general renting tips. View the apartment before you decide to sign on the dotted line. Don't rent an apartment site unseen. Make sure that you read and understand the lease terms before signing, get copies of the signed lease, get receipts for any payments made to the landlord, and save any emails and text messages, save all of these documents in a folder. Take photos of the apartment at the time that you move in to document the condition at the time you move in. Take photos of the apartment when you move out to document the condition when you move out. And finally, provide a forwarding address to send the so the landlord can forward the security deposit to you. So here's our contact information for the SLSO. If you are a UMass student, you can submit. We have an intake form on our website that you can access and fill out and send to our email address. And lastly, all of what I have discussed here this evening is general information. It's offered for informational purposes only I do hope that was helpful. Obviously, if anyone should need specific and individual legal advice or assistance, then they should contact an attorney and you know we're an attorney when we include this disclaimer about that. But thank you very much. Awesome. Thank you so much Emily for that super informative presentation. We will save questions for the end, but you can also throw them into the chat or to community click at any point. If you joined this late, please refer to the chat or the community click link and follow that link as an attendee to participate in our interactive portion. But next up we have Amherstown Council representative Mandy Joe who will show us more about Amherst rules and regulations. Thank you Audrey and thank you Emily for that wonderfully informative presentation on your tenant rights under the law. So I'm a town counselor in the town of Amherst and I want to also mention that we have John Thompson one of our inspectors here to answer questions at the end during the question period. I will unfortunately have to leave early but he does the inspections when I get to that part. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the rental permitting in Amherst Amherst enacted a bylaw in 2013 that requires landlords and property owners if they want to rent an apartment or a property a house. They must obtain a permit. And so the goals of doing this were to basically protect the health safety and welfare of tenants a lot of what you just heard from Emily about habitability and all. This is part of what Amherst is trying to do to make sure those those dwelling units are habitable and safe and sanitary. And so what does our permitting bylaw require. It requires as I said all persons or companies, whether it's an individual that owns a property or an LLC or some business that owns a property that wants to rent out or offered to rent out in any dwelling unit on the property they have to get a permit from the town. And the exemptions are hotels motels and group homes so things that don't necessarily apply to most people those items are actually regulated under a different law in the Commonwealth. And what do they need to do to get that permit. So right now, what they need to do is apply for it. And that application requires the contact information for the owners and any management company. And it also actually requires that if an owner doesn't live within 20 miles of Amherst, they have to have a local agent who does live in Amherst and within 20 miles that can respond to those emergencies so if your owners contact information says they live in another state. You're, they should have somewhere on this application another place that you can contact that's close. It also requires them to certify a self inspection and that's the one thing I'm going to talk a little bit more about today is that they have to certify that the dwelling unit and the property that they're renting out complies with the local zoning and regulations and all of those state health fire sanitary and building codes that Emily talked about that make a place habitable. And once they get that permit. They post it they have to post it according to our bylaw in a common area of the property or a place that's easily visible to tenants and inspectors. So when I was a renter of a single family home, the landlord would post that permit in the stairwell of the basement. In a apartment complex it might be posted in the management office, it might be posted at the door of a building, they get to choose where to put post it but it should be easily visible to you the tenant. And the other thing this bylaw requires that tenants should know about is that the owners are required to distribute to you the tenants and information sheet that describes key local regulations are bylaws including those that pertain to noise alcohol and violence, and then also describes those state laws and codes applying to rental properties. So what is included when that owner self certifies their inspection when they say we've inspected and it come our dwelling units comply with everything when they submit that with their application form. One of the things is they're saying that their dwelling unit complies with our zoning bylaw zoning bylaw generally includes things like a parking management plan where cars can park on the property. It generally includes proper maintenance of the parking areas proper lighting of the parking areas and other things like that. And I'm just talking about a few of the requirements right now of these bylaws and I'll mention in a couple. What actually requires the exterior conditions the building code, they're going to be certifying things like that there's a snow removal plan there's a maintenance, there's proper maintenance of the building and site lighting that the building has a secure and an envelope and a building envelope is basically the exterior of the building the walls and the roof. And they're going to certify that it's maintained properly and it's secure and it's weathertight that water is not getting in they're going to certify that there's an appropriate trash and recycling management plan. How is the trash being removed from the property. When we talk about life safety systems what we mean is sort of the fire protection systems and systems in the building. That means that they're certifying that they've regularly tested and updated the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors that they work and that the entrances and exits are clear and free of obstruction, meaning you can get out in an emergency without having to move stuff. And that if there's fire escapes that they're structurally sound they're not going to collapse they're going to work when they need to work. And then the next one is those healthy living conditions that Emily talked a little bit about regarding the covenant of habitability. They include windows and doors that operate that they open they close they close securely they can lock natural lighting ventilation meaning a bathroom has appropriate ventilation for the steam and the moisture that's created in it. And the finishes of the building are intact you don't have peeling, sealing tiles coming down and falling down things like that, and that there are controls to prevent that excessive moisture, anywhere in the building. And that, again, with their, their pest and rodent infestations aren't there, you know that they've got a control in there and a plan in there to make sure that there aren't mouse mice and rats running around and cockroaches and things like that. So that's what they're saying when they apply for our permit that they're dwelling units meet. This is a picture of the tenant information sheet that every tenant should receive upon leasing a property in town upon entering that that lease agreement or at the time they take occupancy. On our website I'm going to put into the chat that information to find it on the website I know you can't read it right now, but I just wanted to show you an example of what it looks like that you should have been receiving. If you haven't received it you can go to the website or you can ask your landlord for a copy. So if something I've said, strikes you as wait I'm not sure my apartment complies with this or that my apartment has a permit or anything like that, what can you do. What you can do is file a complaint with the town. This is a town bylaw it's not a state bylaw so you'd go to the town. And you can do that three ways you can call our inspection services office. You can file that complaint online at the place that I've noted there's there's a web form online or you can email our inspection services office. What are violations they would be things like not having that rental permit or not complying with those help fire and building codes or the bylaws and permits that I just talked about. And if you do file that complaint one of the things our bylaw requires is that our inspection services division will come out and inspect your property. Of course, as Emily said, they cannot do that without your permission or a court order. But but that is part of what they will do is come out and go through and see if there are violations of those codes. In the summary of what our permit system requires for more information, you can go to our rental permitting website, and I will put these links in the chat. You can find that tenant information sheet on our website, we also have a tenant guide to that self certification program what are they certifying and that includes a lot of links to these actual codes it gets very dense but that. One last thing I wanted to say was that are the committee I chair is working on revisions to the bylaw I just described to hopefully make it a little more responsive to tenants in terms of inspections. Even while the current last nine years of this bylaw has done wonders to improve the housing stock in town, we know as a town we can do better to ensure that tenants living situations are habitable and safe. And so we're looking at revising what I just talked about to help that even more. And we have a forum on what, what's going on with that on Monday and so I just wanted to mention that at that I will pass it back to Audrey. Thank you so much Mandy for that presentation. We have one last presentation for you all tonight before we can get into everyone's questions, and it is from the Office of off campus student life. Thank you. Hi everyone. Just to pull up the presentation. All right. So my name is more Roberts. I'm the associate director for off campus student life and community engagement here at UMass. So I just want to make sure that all of our students are aware that our offices out here and we are available to you whether you're thinking about moving off campus, or you already live off campus. So we have a location here in Bartlett Hall room 103. And here we have a lounge that is staffed Monday through Friday, nine to five. We are there to answer any questions that you might have. We also have this lounge space you can see. So we have a lot of students coming in to do work here. We've got a fridge, a microwave, free coffee and tea. We'll do events here that are geared towards off campus students, including snap information sessions. We do a sublet meet and greet so you can get to know some students who might be able to point you towards some housing. We have a few programs that we run out of our office, including good neighbor registration, which is a noise mitigation program that we do in collaboration with the Amherst police department and the Hadley police department. We certainly go into more about that if anyone has questions. We have our good neighbor grants which are really meant to be an opportunity for students to work with their community to improve their neighborhood so folks can apply with a permanent resident and do something like put on a block party or make a community garden or something like that. So we're open to anyone's ideas who might want to apply for that. We also house the student team team positive presence out of our office. If you're on campus you might see them in their bright blue jackets or shirts, they'll be out tabling golf carting, handing out really useful information as well as candy and fun giveaways and so their job is really to create a positive presence here on campus. Thank you. So one of our major resources that I want you to know about is our off campus housing website. So here's sort of a look of that. So anybody who's of the UMass community you would log in with your UMass, your unit login. And if you are not part of the UMass community, you can still use our website. You just need a Gmail account and you can make a guest account. And so here you can really look for housing in the area. This is the only official off campus housing website through UMass so we really urge everyone to use this. So here you can, you can see some of the filters you can look through. You can choose number of bedrooms, a price point, distance to campus, you can see a map. You can also click for apartments that may allow pets or proximity to a bus stop are popular. So if folks are looking for housing, this is really where we point folks to. If you're a UMass student, there's a section that you can see that is called roommates. So there you can make a profile, and you can view other students profiles in here you can find either students who already have a house or apartment who are looking for someone to join them or someone who is also looking for housing that you could join together and look for a house or apartment together. There's a number of resources on there, including sample leases, general information about living in Amherst, rental inspection checklist, and some resources we created in collaboration with student legal services there as well. So there's a lot of helpful information on our website. And we would recommend all UMass students who are thinking about housing to really, if you're thinking about living off campus next year, now's the time to get on the site, think about what you're interested in, find roommates. And with the housing market the way it is, we're really urging folks to be ready to sign leases by December or January of this year for fall 23. So I'll leave it at that. So we have some time for questions. But thanks, everybody. Thank you so much, Mara. All right, so that leaves us with the question answer portion of our webinar. I know we got a few questions through community click so I'll field those to our panelists. And so, one of the first questions that we got maybe Emily you could speak a little more to this was our service animals and emotional support animals protected in leases. Hi, so it's a great question. The landlord might have a no pets policy. And they would have the right to have that policy. However, if a tenant a potential tenant, or an existing tenant has an emotional support animal or a service animal and assistance animal, then the landlord would be required to determine whether a reasonable accommodation to that tenant would be necessary to allow that tenant to enjoy and and use their their home their rental. So if a if a tenant has an emotional support animal they should make a request for a reasonable accommodation to the landlord. And typically that triggers a responsibility on the landlords part to engage in what we call this interactive dialogue to figure out what a reasonable accommodation might be. But a lot of service animals are pretty much. Yes, if if a tenant has one a landlord has to accommodate that. Thank you. Thank you for that answer. Thank you for the question that we had, and again please feel free to put questions into the chat or raise your hand at this time. We also had a question in regards to upfront payments. I know you specified what a landlord can put into an upfront payment, but someone had asked a question about whether things like trash fees are also able to be included in those. The landlord, I think it depends on what, what the lease says. So, in terms of the charges that can be imposed at the beginning of a tenancy, it's it's those four, four things. So it's first month's rent last month's rent security deposit lock and key costs. So a landlord might through validly impose that trash collection fee, I'd have to double check the regulations because I think it does also depend on the number of units at the dwelling as well, but, but not up, not up front. You know, not right at the beginning of the tenancy. But it would be possible within the terms of the lease itself. Thank you again for the answer. And another question that we had is in regards to possible animal infestations in the home. I think say like a small rodent was like living in walls or something whose responsibility is it to manage potential animal situations with that fall under town inspection the landlord or the tenant. Well, it's Emily again. But anyone else can can chime in, I guess from the town, but generally speaking. So under the code, my memory is that if if a tenant is renting a single family house, then the tenant could be responsible for dealing with the mouse problem. And said, if the reason the mice are getting into the house is because there's some structural issues with the house or, you know, cracks or access points to the outside. That's the landlord's responsibility to address. But the first step for a tenant, I think, would be to let the landlord know that there's this issue. And then go from there. And as I mentioned, if a tenant is concerned that a landlord is not being responsive to to issues or conditions at the apartment. The tenant can certainly contact inspection services, excuse me the tenant can certainly contact inspection services and request an inspection, and they will send a copy of that report not only to the tenant but to the landlord. Thank you for that answer Emily and John maybe you wanted to add on from the town perspective. Sure, we get a lot of calls about mice, especially this time of year as it gets cold outside there looking for a warm place to overwinter and what Emily said is correct if it's a single family home, it's often it's codified that it's, it's the responsibility of the occupants to handle an infestation so. But the first step really is to reach out to your landlord and if you don't get any traction with them you should call me and I will respond. Amazing john thank you. And I do have a question in the chat about whether this meeting will be available to watch again on the Amherst website. Yes, this meeting is being recorded we will post the recording on to the town of Amherst website as well as the student government association website for you to refer to as a future resource. And then the next question that I have is for more. In regards to the good neighbor registration, would you be able to explain more about what that program is and why students do it. Sure, I'd be happy to. So this is a program where it's in collaboration with the Amherst police department and the Hadley police department. And so this is all about noise and noise complaints so students will register through our office. And we communicate with the police departments. And so, typically, if a noise complaint is made, you know I'm having a party it's a little bit loud a neighbor calls in a noise complaint. The typical response is police coming to your door to have a conversation. So with this program. First you will get a courtesy phone call to whatever number you register so your cell phone. So if a noise complaint came in dispatch would give me a call let me know that the noise complaint came in, and it gives me the opportunity as a student to handle that party or gathering whatever it is. So really, it gives students an opportunity to handle things themselves before police response. So you get a 20 minute period of time to, to make sure things quiet down, and if after that 20 minutes another noise complaint were to come in, then that traditional police response would occur. So we really love this program because it allows students to sort of handle their business themselves and it also takes a strain off of a town resource, which is the police who are currently understaffed so there's really no downsides to it it's a list that is between our office and off campus student life and the police department. So it's really only seen by the dispatch so it's not like police are going around to look at what these parties are like they don't want to be at your party this is really a way to save resources and to help students out. Hopefully that fully covers it but let me know if you have follow up. Absolutely thank you more for that answer. And then just being mindful of time I think this will be our last question for the night but again, I'll post and share a slide with some further resources to stay in touch. And so this is for everyone on the panel. And it was a question from community click asking, what do you recommend doing first if your landlord is not responding to you slash not respecting your rights as a tenant. Do you have people want to share their resources or share tidbits of wisdom. You can call you can call me. Yes, so my, my first piece of advice would be to to put the cons to make sure that the tenant has put the concerns in writing to the landlord. Sometimes there's just verbal communications which, which should be enough. But if you're really not getting a responsive landlord, put your requests and your issues and concerns in writing, and then yes, definitely take that next step. If it involves an issue in terms of the state sanitary code, getting an inspection done of the property and that will certainly get the landlords attention. If if a landlord is completely unresponsive. The tenant does have some ways to remedy the situation there is such a thing called repair and deduct. I would suggest that the tenant get legal advice before doing that but basically they could do the repairs themselves and then deduct it from the rent. They could file a claim in housing court, for example, requesting a temporary restraining order which would be a request from the judge that the judge issue an order requiring the landlord to do X, Y and Z. And that's another way to get, get things addressed. Awesome. Thank you john and Emily for your answers. And with that, I will close out this webinar thank you so much for joining us all. We would love to hear your feedback on how you think this one. So if you could please scan the QR code, we also hope to send out this presentation. The link of the QR code does not work for you. I've also shown the contact information for our speakers today. So the following emails on the right for student legal services, the town of Amherst and off campus student life or who you can refer to, for any further questions. I just want to thank our speakers today so much. And yeah, thank you all for joining us today. Thank you.