Students living in the Residence Halls who aren’t paying their rent might live to default another day thanks to the Utah Senate tabling a bill that would have sped up their eviction.
House Bill 238, which would expedite the process of evicting students who violate their lease, breezed through the House last week only to be set aside by a Senate Committee. The Senate’s rationale for tabling the bill was that granting the U a faster eviction would put private landlords at a disadvantage. The comparison isn’t realistic. The same rules shouldn’t be applied to the U and private landlords because their processes already differ and the purpose of on-campus housing goes beyond providing lodging and making a profit.
The law requires all dorm eviction cases to be approved by the attorney general, a process that takes six weeks and costs the state a considerable amount. The U is a place dedicated to education, and for every dorm resident who isn’t paying rent, there is another student who could benefit from living close to campus. About 343 students living in the Residence Halls are behind on their rent, 21 of them by $1,000 or more. Here’s some real-world education the U should grant students: If you don’t pay your rent, you can’t live in a rented space.
Opponents of H.B. 238 worry that it would remove an appeals process, leaving renters wrongly accused of violating their lease with no recourse. But Housing and Residential Education already has an appeals process independent of the attorney general. If students feel an eviction is unfair, they have the right to appeal their case to a designated staff member. An unresolved appeal can then be taken before the Special Hearings Committee, the Financial Appeals Committee and finally, the director of University Student Apartments. Accused residents would still have four levels of protection in the absence of what probably amounts to a rubber stamp from the attorney general.
It isn’t in HRE’s interest to boot students indiscriminately for invented violations. At the end of the day, HRE is a business and is sustained by student rent packages. However, HRE should be able to rid itself of squatters faster than what amounts to almost half a semester.
Instead of maintaining a process that wastes six weeks of time, tax-payer money and the time of possible renters, the Senate should snap out of it and follow the House’s lead.