Room Inspections & Damages

Initial Room Inspections and Reports

Beginning of the year

  • Students are asked to fill out an online Room/Suite/Apartment Condition Report within 48 hours of moving into their residence hall space. Condition Report is available on ZagLiving. (link is sent to the student’s 91³Ô¹ÏÍø email by the end of the day that the student moves in)
  • Students are responsible for listing all damages that are found in the room
  • Students may be held accountable for damages that they do not list.
  • It is important to thoroughly check all spaces in the room/suite/apartment

End of the year

  • When a student moves out, a Resident Assistant (RA) arrives at the room to record the current condition of the room and passes the information on to the professional staff member
  • The RD/AC will ultimately determine the charges to be placed on the student’s account.
  • *Note: Damages to common areas of suites/apartments will be charged to all students of the room unless a student accepts individual responsibility for the damages. This may also be the case in residence hall rooms in corridor-style buildings where it is not clear which student is responsible.

On-Campus Deposit

  • The university requires applicants to submit a $200 deposit
  • This deposit provides security that the terms and conditions of the agreement will be fulfilled and the unit will be returned to its original condition when the student moves out of their space
  • At the end of the agreement term, the student will receive the remainder of their deposit.
  • *Note: The deposit is not a damage fund where intermittent damage charges are deducted during the course of the agreement terms; however, damage charges will be taken from the deposit at the end of the final year of the agreement term. Any damage charges incurred are assessed to the student’s account until the end of the agreement terms.

Damage Categories

*Note: Sometimes, damages are considered to be normal wear and tear and the student may not be charged.

Normal wear and tear includes:

  • Dust on the walls
  • A dirty carpet that can be cleaned with a single carpet cleaning
  • Dirty desk tops that can be easily wiped down
  • May include windows with vertical blinds with some missing slats
  • Closet or wardrobe doors off rollers or with loose hinges
  • Etc.

Abnormal wear and tear includes:

  • Any intentional or accidental damage to a room
  • Permanent stains in carpets
  • Holes in walls/doors from nails and tacks which are not allowed
  • Left behind tape on walls or decals on windows
  • Tears in screens
  • Rips in mattresses
  • Broken light fixture covers
  • Significant mold and mildew in shower/bath areas for apartments or suites
  • Etc.

Common Area Damage Charges

Students may also be charged for damage to building common areas such as:

  • Building lounges/lobbies
  • Kitchens
  • Study rooms
  • Game rooms
  • Hallways
  • *Note: these are regardless of whether or not they were involved in causing the damage.

At the end of each year, if the total charge for common area damage does not exceed $2.00 per student, the student will not be charged for common area damages. Please refer to your Student Handbook if you have more questions about our common area billing policy.

Timeline for Repairing/Charging Damages

Students wonder why they pay damages when they check-out and the following year see some damages that were not repaired.  Below are some examples:

  • To re-carpet a residence hall room based upon a single new stain would cost the institution $760.  We charge a student $25-$70 based upon the size of the stain.
  • To repair a wall in a residence hall room requires a patch of the holes (including appropriate drywall and mud material) as well as the painting of the entire room.  This is done so that the patch matches the paint in the rest of the room.  This work could cost a minimum of $560.  We charge $15-$65 per hole.

Contesting Damage Charges:

Charges will only be communicated to students via their student accounts. Charges will not be communicated with parents or guardians.

If a student wants to contest a charge, they may do so by submitting the Damage and Cleaning Charges Appeal Form. Appeal Forms must be submitted within 60 days of moving out of the space.

Cleaning and Care:

In residence halls custodial service is provided only for common areas such as floor shower rooms, corridors, and lounges. It is the student’s responsibility to maintain individual rooms, suite and apartment areas. Vacuums are available for check out in each residence hall from the Residence Hall Staff. Custodians are not responsible for excessive messes in common areas. Group billing may occur for the clean-up of excessive messes in common areas. Personal garbage and recycling, including pizza boxes, is not to be left in bathroom or common area garbage cans/ recycling bins. It is each resident’s responsibility to remove their personal garbage to the dumpsters and designated recycling areas. 

In caring for an apartment, please use a soft non-abrasive cleaner like Soft Scrub. Please avoid flushing paper towels, excessive amounts of toilet paper, or feminine hygiene products down the toilet. Doing so may clog toilets.

Common Areas & Grounds:

  • It is essential that all persons within the community recognize the responsibility for the common good that exists at 91³Ô¹ÏÍø. The significance of a community, in part, is that individuals take an active role in the care of others.  If you notice damage or carelessness within your hall or anywhere on campus including grounds, we ask that you bring it to the attention of your Resident Assistant, Residence Director, or the Housing and Residence Life Office so that action may be taken.
  • The University will charge the cost of repairing common area damage, vandalism, or theft of property equally to the residents responsible for the area concerned. We therefore encourage each resident to consider themselves equally responsible for building common areas and to intervene directly in behavior that poses a threat to the physical facilities and property.

*Common areas are lounges, hallways, stairwells, lobbies, kitchen areas, recreation rooms, laundry rooms and bathrooms.

Common Area Damage/Billing Procedure:

Our own communities on campus are asked to bear the responsibility to prevent common area damage, report it when you know who caused it, and assist the University with the cost of repair.

  • Damage, either deliberate or unintentional, occurring within a residence hall or on-campus apartment but for which no individual or group of individuals has taken responsibility, is termed “Common Area Damage.”
  • Everyone pays for unaccounted Common Area Damage through indirect means such as increased housing costs and more directly by assessing equal charges to student housing accounts.
  • If Common Area Damages occur for which no person(s) are willing to accept responsibility, the following procedure will be followed:
    • The common area damages are allocated to the building, floor, or wing as determined by the Resident Director. The charge will be divided by the number of residents in the building, floor, or wing on the date the damages occurred. Charges are accrued throughout fall semester, and a per person billing is sent to the student accounts at the end of a semester if the per student amount reaches $2.00 or more.  In the event it does not, the charges will carry forward and add to spring semester’s amount.

Accidents:

Students who accidentally break something in a common area will not get in trouble if they report their responsibility and accept financial costs of repair/replacement. 

Deposit For a Room:

  • A $200.00 room deposit is required of every resident. This deposit will remain on the student’s account during their period of residence.
  • Regular deductions occur related to room damage.
  • Common area damages will be initially charged to resident student accounts as they occur.
  • Upon leaving University housing a refund for the deposit balance will be issued. Any damage charges remaining on the student account will be deducted from the refund.
  • An itemized list of deductions will be available upon the student’s request.

Off Campus Houses - Grounds Management:

  • Residents are responsible for general upkeep of the grounds.
  • This includes snow and ice removal from the sidewalks and disposing of garbage in the proper designated containers and includes moving those containers to the designated refuse pick up spot on designated garbage days (usually Monday mornings for the Logan Neighborhood).
  • The University agrees to mow the lawns, furnish water for the premises, and coordinate removal of garbage through city garbage disposal.
  • The University will also maintain all structural components in good repair as well as all electrical, plumbing, and heating.
  • In addition, the University will provide a program for the control of infestation by insects, rodents and other pests. 
  • Students are responsible for managing the fire/smoke detection system in the house(s) and calling 911 when emergency response is needed.  Unlike on campus residence halls, these house alert systems DO NOT automatically notify campus security, nor emergency services.  Your assigned Residence Director can demonstrate how to use your system as well as replace missing instruction cards, at any time, if you need.