Complaint Review: Collegiate Housing Services Inc. - Indianapolis Indiana

Collegiate Housing placed my son in an apartment when he was attending Ohio Technical College. The original apartment was acceptable, but upon his other roommates graduating, they had my son move to a different apartment complex, in which there were several problems and health issues they knowingly allowed my son to move into and would not allow him to relocate after several telephone calls to the housing representatives. First, there were bad mold issues in the bathroom causing the tiles to fall exposing black mold.  My son has bad allergies to mold.  It took the contractor that the housing services hired 5 days to fix the bathroom in which they did not give the boys alternative facilities to use. The contractor also damaged the tub by throwing tile and material in the tub and left it sit for several days.  Later Collegiate Housing charged me $80 out of my security deposit for resurfacing the tub, which should have been paid for by the contractor.

Further, there was an infestation of bed bugs in the apartment complex which took the Housing Services over six months dealing with exterminators that didn't show up half the time they were called to come out. My son and the other three boys in the apartment had to live in these terrible conditions for a period over six months.  Upon several telephone calls to Collegiate Housing and Ohio Tech College  I was given their apologies and told that there was nothing more they could do. Instead of getting rid of the mattresses and couch that were invested by the bed bugs, they insisted on calling an exterminator over and over in which did not take care of the infestation since it was out of control. I also asked several times for a credit from the $400 monthly rent to be given for my son's inconvenience in dealing with these uncomfortable living conditions and not allowing my son to relocated, even though his bedroom was the only room not affected. He was forced to live out of large plastic bags so as not to allow the bugs to infest his clothing and being force to stay only in his room so as not to be bitten by the bugs. He also on several occasions had to be up early to let the exterminator in the apartment since he went to class in the late afternoon/evening and the other boys attended morning classes.

Upon my son graduating from Ohio Tech and moving out in March 2013, several weeks later I received a check from Collegiate Housing for only $67 of my $350 security deposit in which Collegiate Housing kept the majority of  for problems and cleaning issues with the apartment that were not caused by my son  and were being unjust in said charges, since it was not the original apartment he original moved into.  Further the other two boys in this apartment moved out several months prior and did not have to be responsible for their cleaning responsibilities.  Even after all the problems and inconveniences we had to deal with including the mold issue and the bed bug issue. I felt we were totally understanding and compliant with Collegiate Housing and went over and above what should have been expected of a student attending Ohio Tech College.  I feel Collegiate Housing was not understanding to the safety of those students allowing them to live in that unsafe environment. Also, I felt they kept the majority of my security deposit unnecessarily. I also would recommend someone from the Environmental Protection Agency in Ohio to check out those apartment complexes, as I am sure the bed bug issue may still be in existence affecting other students of Ohio Tech.