I've debated quite a bit on whether or not to post this but I decided it'd be important to make a post for prospective renters to find when researching Rexburg housing. This is my first serious post on this blog I believe, I apologize to my readers I'll return to posting crappy satire and videos of Kerri Strugg soon.
Rating: 1 out of 10; the reason this apartment complex receives a one is simply due to it's location across the street from the BYU-Idaho campus and it's newer condition. All other factors of this complex are negative and shows that the owner has one thing in mind; take money from the married Mormon college kids who have limited choices in terms of housing.
Why you shouldn't give this apartment complex your money:
1. Unethical business practices; in order to maximize their profit margin they have a revolving door of tenants that allows them to make substantial profits off of the $300 deposit each new tenant has to provide. They achieve this revolving door by requiring a 90 day notice to renew the lease and since these leases correspond with the terms of BYU-Idaho a tenant needs to make a decision to renew one month after living there before they sell your apartment to a new group of tenants. One could sum up their procedures as putting new tenants, who will need to pay the extra deposit, ahead of the current tenants on the priority list; where as all other apartment complexes in Rexburg, or in the galaxy for that matter, do it the opposite way.
2: Bad management; the managers, though amazingly nice people, are no help and do not have your best intentions in mind. Beware, if you're still silly enough to try this place, the Internet the managers want to sell for you is as slow as a dial-up modem and works 45% of the time. Not to mention, the managers will want you to put down one of those lucrative deposits on their Internet as well; there is no plausible reason for a deposit on Internet, perhaps they need to clean the internet's carpet as well.
3: High Rent: The rent for what you get at University Courtyard is preposterous. When we were there we had to pay $520 a month for what appeared to be a hallway with a kitchen and bathroom in the middle. Don't think it's the market, you can get two bedrooms in Rexburg for that price, in fact other Rexburg complexes with the same layout as Univervisty Courtyard go for around $375 a month and put their tenants first.
4: They will break the law in order to make money; this fact is probably the most disturbing of them all, although I'm truly at fault for actually being naive enough to think that these land-lords in BYUtopia would act as humans and not businessmen.
In our situation the owner denied us the ability to renew our lease even though we had a legal contractual agreement that said we could; for those of you who read reason number one you'd know why. In our lease there was a discrepancy on days to renew our lease, the first page stated 90 days but the inner-pages stated 60, and we asked to have our lease renewed before the deadline of 60 days which resulted in us being put on a wait list for our own apartment that had been sold to new tenants. This act was illegal. In terms of law, if there is a flaw in the contract that flaw goes against the contractor when being interpreted; thus meaning we legally had the right to renew our contract.Of course, when I brought up this concern up to the manager personally he stated there are usually people in my wife and I's circumstance every time the leasing period ends. Which showed me that they've put forth effort to create this revolving door of tenants and also that they don't fear any legal action considering the tenants they exploit are college students who are in debt to their eyeballs thanks to tuition.
In conclusion; if you have any choice between University Courtyard and any other apartment, choose the other apartment. It is a sincere hope that Brigham Young University Idaho takes a hard look at the housing situation for married students, especially in regards to regulating them, because if they don't this could put a wrench in the gears of the growth machine we've been seeing since the school became a 4 year university. Feel free to comment and add your horror story or call me a complete and utter moron.
Related Links:
University Courtyards Official Website
Better Business Bureau - If you were treated in a similar fashion, report them.
BYU-Idaho's Community Housing Page - Encourage the University to regulate married housing to prevent the exploitation of their students.
