College students living off campus are being urged by the D.C. government to protect themselves from unscrupulous landlords and report hazardous conditions in their homes before the situation grows dangerous — or even deadly.
Thousands of students are rolling into town, and 10,000 or more will opt for off-campus living, according to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. DCRA, which licenses landlords and inspects all college housing, is pushing its anti-slumlord campaign to help students avoid bad leases and perilous conditions, and to provide an outlet for complaints.
“If your landlord is legally licensed to rent, the property has been inspected,” the agency tells students on the Web site thisshouldbeillegal.com. “If they are not legally licensed, there may not have been an inspection and dangerous conditions could exist — even if you can’t see them.”
DCRA launched its one-stop shop for safe off-campus living, thisshouldbeillegal.com, a year ago, and the site has since recorded 31,000-plus hits, said agency spokesman Michael Rupert. Every major college campus in D.C. also offers off-campus housing help.
“Most of the landlords in D.C. are great and most have licenses from DCRA,” the District agency says. “Now is the time that those who just want to make a quick buck prey upon the thousands students who arrive every fall.”
Students are easy targets for slumlords, officials say. They often sign leases without a careful read and may be slow to report problems out of fear of eviction or other retribution. At DCRA’s site, students can find inspection checklists and search rental addresses to ensure their future landlord is licensed with the city.
The District has a history of off-campus housing tragedy.
In October 2004, Georgetown University senior Daniel Rigby was killed in a fire in the basement apartment he was renting at 3318 Prospect St. NW. Inspections of the row house later found metal bars on the windows, blocked exit doors, faulty wiring and inadequate smoke detectors.
Last summer, a large house in Dupont Circle popular with graduate students — but terribly maintained by its owners — partially collapsed, leaving its six residents homeless.
