Changes to leasing arrangements and the way tenants pay utilities in Buckeye Village, an off-campus living community, have stirred up uncertainty for some renters regarding the accuracy of forthcoming electricity charges.
Unlike the current utilities policy, where renters pay American Electric Power Ohio directly for their personal electricity usage, the new policy for incoming renters will include electricity fees in the monthly rent as a flat rate.
Buckeye Village, which offers one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments northwest of campus, will be charging $45 and $55 for electricity, respectively, beginning July 1, said Toni Greenslade, Ohio State’s director of Housing Administration. Rent for the rooms would be $580 and $730 per month.
This was a decision Greenslade said was made to make things “easy for everyone” and only affects new tenants. Current tenants already have their utilities set up with AEP Ohio and will continue to operate as usual.
“Some students were either not turning electricity on or off,” Greenslade said. “They were incurring late fees, and the expense involved was unbelievable. Now, in addition to moving expenses, they won’t have to put down a deposit for utilities.”
The flat rate for electricity was determined based on past bill statements and how much current residents are paying on average, which Greenslade said is about $42 a month for single-bedroom apartments and $58 to $62 a month for two-bedroom apartments.
They also accounted for those “gray area” apartments whose utilities bills fluctuated because of inconsistent usage.
However, not everyone is in agreement with these numbers.
Ehsan Ghane, a graduate student in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering and a resident of Buckeye Village, said these fixed rates are not representative of the amount of electricity used by tenants.
After receiving the notice of the change in policy and sensing that the fee, originally stated as $75 to $80, was skewed, Ghane surveyed other one-bedroom apartments to see how much their occupants were paying for electricity. Ghane came up with about $25 a month — much lower than what the OSU-owned Buckeye Village would soon be charging.
As the notices were sent out, OSU’s housing office received many e-mails from students concerned about the fee. After recalculating costs, Buckeye Village agreed to lower the fee to the $45 and $55 figures.
“The students said they will help keep costs down and were willing to try and be green,” Greenslade said. “They said, ‘Let’s work together, let’s partner.’ So we did.”
In addition to altering the way renters pay utilities, Buckeye Village is changing its leasing arrangements to year-round contracts for all residents to better manage occupancy, Greenslade said.
“Most students stay year-round anyway,” Greenslade said. “We benchmarked against other off-campus competition and found this to be a better solution. We will work on a case-by-case basis, however, for exceptions to this.”
Exceptions include graduation mid-year and moving out of the country because Buckeye Village is a family-housing community for married students, students with dependent children, international and nontraditional students.
However frustrated some occupants might be about the changes, it is legally sound for Buckeye Village to make them.
These changes are “legal, just annoying,” said attorney John Marshall of Marshall and Morrow LLC in Columbus. “It’s legal if they disclose it honestly in the lease. It’s a competitive market, and students have to decide if they want to look somewhere else.”
