The Daily Illini : 'Pass-down' leases pose problems

“Want $200 and a case?!” the bold-faced lettering reads on the crumpled sheet lying between units 115 and 117 of Johnstowne Apartments, 508 E. John St.

The note continues: “My roommates and I really want to live here next year and are looking for a lease pass-down of a 4 person apartment. We will pay you $200 (that’s $50 a person!) and get you a case of your favorite beer.”

The sign, posted by Selissa Mantas, sophomore in LAS, was one of several posted at Johnstowne – a complex JSM Management Inc. says, along with Green Street Tower, John Street Lofts and Gregory Place, 701 S. Gregory St., is among its most popular – reflects the trend of exchanging money and/or alcohol for an apartment pass-down.

The contract, which elicits responses from “smart” to “unfair”, is a method many prospective lessees are using to obtain a unit in one of JSM’s hard-to-get properties.

The term “pass-down”, coined by JSM, describes a practice which allows tenants to hold their apartment for others. Unlike other practices which render apartments unavailable to rent, passdowns may go to prospective renters who are not already JSM customers.

Jill Guth, director of development at JSM, attributes the company’s success to their properties’ prime locations and excellent maintenance staff.

She said pass-downs were initiated because the high demand for certain properties caused many tenants to falsely renew their leases and essentially hold apartments for friends or family members.

“We had people renewing with no intention of ever living there,” Guth said. “These people were basically subleasing their apartments for the entire year, which creates problems in our system, not to mention a lot more paperwork.”

But the popularity of passdowns – whose submission deadline was Sept. 22 – renewals and transfers (which allows tenants to transfer a lease from one JSM property to another), means that apartment seekers will have difficulty obtaining the few units left in the most popular properties on Sept. 29, when all JSM apartments open for the general public to lease.

This also means that hopefuls have been at tenants’ doors as early as August, an irritation for some residents, including Suzanne Stachura, senior in LAS, who live at John Street Lofts, 502 E. John St.

“People were knocking down my door before school even started,” she said. “I was annoyed. Girls would come, saying they were from X-Y-Z sorority and ask me if I was already passing down the apartment before I had even finished unpacking.”

Stachura also believes the passdown concept is not a measure of customer service.

“Anything that requires people literally knocking down our door, slipping notes under it, and bothering us is a sign that JSM’s not considering their current tenants,” she said.

Others however, like Joanna Hussey, senior in Communications, disagree, saying that knocking prospective tenants have neither been great in number nor bothersome. Hussey said she believes the concept of passdowns is very fair, since it aims to satisfy the wonts and needs of current customers.

“It seems like a typical business concern and attitude,” she said. “It’s nice to have the option.”

But, for Stachura, there has been some question concerning its fairness and whether the system favors certain groups. She said she believes pass-downs favor people in the Greek system.

“It’s all about who you know,” she said. “People who aren’t Greek can’t e-mail their entire house to find someone they don’t even know to pass-down their apartment. It’s not fair that others can’t get in.”

Proponents like Christina Talarico, junior in LAS, said that while Greeks may get slight, if any, systematic favoritism, the advantage still goes to current tenants in general.

“Basically, if you don’t know someone living in that building, you’re screwed,” she said. “If I hadn’t been fortunate enough to get a pass-down, I would be really pissed and wouldn’t think it was fair.”

Even so, pass-down proponents maintain that most people can procure an apartment if they really want one.

“Most of the people I know who wanted JSM live in one of their complexes,” said Hussey, who lives in Green Street Tower, 616 E. Green St., the building JSM said is most popular by far.

Another issue of late has been the measures that some, like Mantas – who said Johnstowne’s location is the major reason behind her willingness to spend money securing it – take in order to obtain a pass-down; they offer money and liquor.

Although many students agree that there is little JSM can do to stop the lengths people go to obtain a pass-down, there are those, like Stachura, who believes they should be permanently stopped.

JSM, however, said that they had no intention of discontinuing the option, an said that it was originally created to combat the larger problem of the year-long subleases of contract renewals.

Concerning the issue of prospective lessees buying passdowns, Guth said, “We always knew that U of I students were bright, it was only a matter of time before they turned themselves into entrepreneurs to take advantage of the situation.”