When Ohio State students move from the dorms to off-campus houses and apartments, many unknowingly become trapped in a “joint” lease that could cause legal and economic problems.

And most students have no idea what they are getting into when they sign one of these group leases.

“Joint or several liability lease is a lease under which everyone who signs it is responsible for everything under that lease,” said Paul Wilkins, interim director of the OSU Student Housing Legal Clinic.

In other words, joint or several liability leases are there to protect the landlord, not the tenants.

“Residents don’t benefit from it,” Wilkins said.

These lease agreements make all the residents liable for each other and also allow landlords to go after the parents of students.

For example, if a resident is living with a roommate who damages the property, everyone is liable, not just the tenant who caused the damage.

A lease does not need to explicitly state it is a joint agreement lease, but residents are held responsible for being aware of the fact.

“Every lease I’ve ever seen in the three years I’ve worked here is a joint or several liability lease,” Wilkins said.

According to Off-Campus Student Services, the alternative to a joint or several liability lease is to live alone or to live somewhere that gives the option of individual leases, but these types of places are few and far between.

When problems ariseIf a liability issue does arise during the course of residence, the landlord has more legal power than most students are aware of.

“(Landlords) can sue the one person that is most likely to pay, regardless if they were responsible for the damage or not,” Wilkins said.

Also, since most students have parents co-signing their leases, landlords can bypass students in the legal battle and go directly after the parents.

Landlords can also take out the cost of damages caused to the residence from the security deposit, which collectively belongs to all the tenants.

“A (tenant) who is doing everything right could end up paying for the bad tenant,” Wilkins said.

The best way to defend one’s self from liability issues is to understand what is stated in the lease.

“It’s one of the those unfortunate legal rules,” Wilkins said. “The best protection is for tenants to understand the rules.”

The Student Housing Legal Clinic is a free service available to all OSU students. SHLC was established in an academic partnership between the Office of Student Affairs and the OSU Moritz College of Law to represent OSU students with landlord-tenant concerns.

The issues coming out of joint liability leases many times stem from the roommates and not the landlord.

Willie Young, director of Off-Campus Student Services, said the best way to avoid problems with joint agreements is to not get into them.

“The best way is to live by yourself,” he said.

If living alone does not sound appealing or affordable, there are measures that can be taken to prevent potential problems.

Wilkins said residents can have an agreement among them in the form of a roommate contract. Although the title of the document elicits memories of dorm living, it is the best documented way to avoid problems between roommates, Wilkins said.

The roommate contract can spell out agreements on how the rent will be paid, how and when to clean and the payment of utilities, among other things.

Another way to prevent problems is to keep the number of roommates to a minimum.

“I would never have more than two roommates,” Wilkins said.

The more roommates there are, the more chances there are to have liability issues.

The only benefit to joint or several liability leases are the advantages that come with not living alone.

“The benefits are that you share the cost of rent and the cost of utilities. You also get to live with someone and not be alone,” Young said. “The downside is when it comes to liability.”

Wilkins said the best advice he has for current and future off-campus residents is “to be aware you have free legal advice.”

Several landlords around the area were not available for comment.

Natalia Mitsui can be reached at [email protected].