B Vets Club & Colonial Inn Restaurant'
- Open to the Public -
Buffet: Tues-Fri, 11 am-2 pm • $5.00, Seniors $4.50
Bar Menu: Mon-Sat, 11 am-closing
Live Music, Blues & Jazz: Wed, Fri & Sat, 9 pm-1 am
= 1626 Willamette ★ 345-3261 ★ Banquet facilities available •
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UO Cultural Forum presents
(formerly of the J.B.’s
& Parliament)
Time: Oct. 14, 1996 0 8:00pm
Venue: EMU Ballroom
Price: $ I 5.00 |UO Students)
$ I 7.00 (Gen. Public)
fa
& The Holy
Mackerel &
special cuem
Time: Ort. 17, 1996 0 8:00pm
Venue: EMU Ballroom
Price: $ 11.00 |UO Students)
$ 13.00 (Gen. Public)
SPECIAL CUES!
Time: Oct. 30, 1996 o 8:00pm
Venue: EMU Ballroom
Price: $15.00 |UO Students)
$ 1 7.00 (Gen Public)
Tickets available at:°EMU Main Desk. Face the Music,
House of Records, Record Garden, CD World:
Answers: Renters have several options
Continued from Page 1A
mation on how to resolve land
lord-tenant problems. But because
there is no city agency, callers are
referred to the White Bird infor
mation line. White Bird generally
refers people with legal concerns
to Lane County Legal Aid.
In the past, White Bird referred
callers to the OSPIRG Consumer
Hotline. However, OSPIRG Cam
pus Organizer Kristin Lee said the
hotline was discontinued two
years ago when the group’s focus
shifted to other projects.
OSPIRG does publish a Renters’
Handbook, which is a comprehen
sive guide to landlord-tenant laws
and remedies to try when those
laws are broken. OSPIRG Con
sumer Advocate Laura Culberson
said a newly updated handbook
will be available in about two
weeks. It will sell for $3 to stu
dents and for $4 to the general
public and can be picked up at the
OSPIRG office in EMU Suite 1.
In addition to the handbook,
Culberson said OSPIRG is also
looking at ways to track renters’
complaints and create local or
statewide databases of landlords.
People would be able to access the
database and locate landlords who
consistently follow the law as well
as those who do not.
Other on-campus resources in
clude the Rental Information Of
fice and ASUO Legal Services,
agencies that provide students
with information and advice.
The Rental Information Office
has a copy of current landlord-ten
ant laws on file. Students can go in
and make copies if necessary. If a
student is not sure whether his or
her landlord has broken a law,
such as showing up without 24
hour notice, the student can look
up the law to use as leverage.
If a tenant’s questions are of a le
gal nature, he or she would be re
ferred to ASUO Legal Services.
John Edward Davidson, of Legal
Services, is an attorney who repre
sents and guides students who are
dealing with legal issues involved
with renting.
He recommends students do re
search before renting an apartment
or house. That research should in
clude talking to people at the
Rental Information Office, trying
to get the names and numbers of
past tenants and talking to people
currently renting from the land
lord in other units.
Without a comprehensive direc
tory to work from, such research is
often time-consuming and diffi
cult, but he said in the end it could
end up saving a lot of headaches.
Davidson said most of the prob
lems that crop up at this time of
year involve landlords’ failure to
get the premises ready. Sometimes
it is just the crunch of so many
people moving in and out that
causes some units to fall through
the cleaning cracks. However,
there are some landlords who just
don’t care, he said. If the landlord
fails to get the premises cleaned in
a timely fashion, the tenant should
call Legal Services before taking
action, such as withholding rent.
Another important element for
tenants moving in is the inspec
tion, which is conducted by the
tenant. This is one problem that
usually does not surface until the
end of the tenancy, when the land
lord does the inspection. Damages
that are not logged during the
move-in inspection could be at
tributed to the wrong tenant and
could affect the amount of money
returned from the security or
cleaning deposit.
“Standards of acceptable condi
tions might change at the end,”
Davidson said.
Other problems that arise later
in the term sometimes involve pri
vacy concerns, such as a landlord
showing up without 24-hour no
tice or habitability issues, such as
leaking roofs or walls during the
winter, Davidson said.
At the beginning of the summer,
most of the landlord-tenant dis
putes Davidson deals with involve
deposits. Again, he said, the best
way to avoid these problems is to
be as clear as possible at the begin
ning of a tenancy. If any fees are
charged, the student should get
the landlord to state in writing
what the money is for. Fees are not
the same thing as deposits and are
usually not refundable.
“If you don’t get the landlord to
say [what the money is for], you
basically just handed them money
for nothing,” Davidson said.
Not all landlords and property
management companies have the
same charges. An understanding
of the fees and deposits should be
part of the pre-tenancy research.
The options for landlord-tenant
resolution may be limited in Eu
gene, but for those who take the
time to find out who the best land
lords are and take their roles as
tenants seriously, the payoff may
mean peace of mind.
OSPIRG: Case will be appealed to Circuit Court
Continued from Page 1A
“Student groups shouldn’t lobby
government with these fees.”
Brennan Rounds said he plans
to appeal the case in the Ninth Cir
cuit Court of Appeals. In addition, he
said the case was filed in federal
court “because First Amendment
Rights need to be addressed in a for
mal setting.”
OSPIRG maintains that by filing
the case in federal court, the stu
dent body was “disengaged” in
stead of included in discussing the
role of OSPIRG.
“The plaintiffs avoided a Uni
versity-centered debate by going
r
straight to court,” Krishnamurthy
said. “They turned this into a con
servative-backed issue when the
real issue at hand was students’
right to organize.”
Krishnamurthy said OSPIRG’s
educational issues, outreach and
coalition-building are relevant to
activism on campus and do not
promote certain political agendas.
"We at OSPIRG believe this rul
ing shows how sound the inciden
tal fee structure is at this Universi
ty,” Campus Organizer Kristin Lee
said. “A ruling against us would
mean all student groups would
suffer from a massive restructuring
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of student fees that could slowly
eliminate these groups.”
With talk of appealing the Court
decision, the parties disagree as to
whether OSPIRG’s funding will be
an issue in the future.
“The final story should be writ
ten about three years from now,”
Brennan Rounds said. “Nothing is
final at this point.”
OSPIRG Statewide Director
Maureen Kirk disagrees with the
idea that the lawsuit will last
much longer.
“As far as OSPIRG is concerned,
the year-and-a-half-long lawsuit is
definitely over,” Kirk said.
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2673 Wtllamette • 484-0996