1. Realizing your furnace is older than your apartment.
It’s midnight on the coldest day of the year, and it looks like this is the day that the old thing has decided to quit.
2. Getting weird mail from the previous tenants who are too lazy to change their mailing address.
“It’s just like, sucks for them, because E470 says this is their final notice!” – Hallie Gardner, junior International Studies major
3. Not realizing that moving in with your best friend would turn them into your archenemy.
You thought it would be a good idea at first, but now this 10-month lease feels more like a 10-month prison sentence (including the terrifying cell mate).
4. Waiting for the maintenance crew to decide when they’d like to fulfill your repair request.
They’ve got their own schedule, which doesn’t help the fact that your fridge doesn’t work and all your rotting food is slowly smelling up the house.
5. Missing the rent check due date and grace period.
You can run all you want, Forrest, but you’re still going to have to pay a late fee when you get to the leasing office.
6. Dealing with disgusting roommates
“My old roommate decides she’s going to make this lovely Christmas-like ham. She gets this recipe that uses Coke, because she uses soda for everything. She decided that if she put a ham and a can of coke in a crockpot that it would be the best thing you ever tasted. Then, though, she left it in there for three days. I think what happened was that she got distracted, so she didn’t eat it and left it. If you put meat with any kind of soda, it’ll erode…the meat didn’t make it.” – Cassie Smith, junior Psychology Major
7. Paying so much for utilities that you don’t know if it’s worth it to shower anymore.
You can just start telling people you’re trying out the “natural” look. It’ll be worth it- skipping showers means saving money.
8. Realizing the mold in your shower has a life of its own.
“They had to come in and spackle and spray the mold in our shower, like, three or four times, and it kept growing back.” – Gardner
Despite the horrors of renting, it’s still really one of the only options for college students to find reliable housing. At least these are stories that we can tell our friends and family- just in the dark, with a flashlight pointed under our faces.
