Housing Troubles

Megan Young | Staff Writer

The time comes before the end of every school year (unless you are an incoming freshman) to decide where you will be living for the coming year. With all the emails we receive from Housing, everyone knows how to reclaim the rooms they were in or how to establish favorable potential roommate selections, but what students do not know is how binding and how progressively more expensive an on-campus housing contract really is. 

I had problems getting housing situated for the 2012/2013 school year because of confusion with the housing deposit.  It was partially my fault, due to inexperience with contracts, but I would also like to chalk it up to a lack of knowledge about housing and how deposits work.  I signed up to reclaim my room in the University Suites because I wanted housing and I had gotten on a waiting list for an off-campus apartment. For the apartment, the leasing office could not specify with certainty whether or not a room would become available to me; it depended on how the waitlist went. 

I didn’t end up finding out they had a room for me until the first week of August, right before we went back to school.  I contacted UNCW housing, told them that I had been on a waitlist for an apartment and had just found out I got a room, but they said I was responsible for adhering to my on-campus housing contract.  The only other way to get out of the housing contract is to find a person to take your spot.  I ended up having a heck of a time trying to find someone to take my room and thought I was going to have to simultaneously pay for on-campus and off-campus housing for the year. 

Eventually I found someone to take my apartment, but it was not easy. Whomever you find to replace you, either on- or off-campus, must be of the same gender as you.  At UNCW, you cannot forfeit the housing deposit at any time just to get out of the contract.  If you want to live off-campus, do not reclaim or sign up for anything regarding on-campus housing.  Take your chances with an apartment’s waitlist if it is relatively short, otherwise just sign up to live on-campus and try your luck with an apartment another time.

 For the 2013/2014 housing assignments, June 1st is the final deadline for getting out of the on-campus housing contract, but you also lose the housing deposit.  To be completely released from the contract, you must submit the request to be released in writing directly to housing before that June 1st date.  Also, take note that the housing contract is for the entire school year, both fall and spring semesters.  If you are rooming in lease-based housing that expires in the summer, you are also responsible for the summer portion of that lease. 

Sometimes housing can work with students and release them from their contract between semesters, but that is circumstantial; applicable only to situations like not getting along with roommates.  As a general rule, UNCW tries not to let people out of the housing contract.  In my mind, that happens so the school can make excessive amounts of money, because not only does housing make it nearly impossible to get out of the contract, but they also keep hiking up the housing prices. 

For example, one semester in a four bedroom/two bathroom apartment in Seahawk Landing for the 2012/2013 school year was $2,777, but the price for the 2013/2014 school year for the same four bedroom/two bathroom place is going to cost $2,888.  That is an increase of $111 per semester to live in the Landing.  It’s pretty obvious that living off-campus is a lot cheaper. Housing prices, and pretty-much all university-associated costs such as tuition and meal plans go up every single year. 

In my opinion, the housing contract being online is also part of the problem.  When you have an online contract, it might be tempting to just check the box and go on.  I am trying to emphasize to people that it is very important to read all contracts, not just the UNCW housing contract, very carefully.  Before you know it you could end up in a mess you cannot get out of, and imagine having to pay for two sets of housing assignments simultaneously.