Lexi Rodriguez was 17 when she signed the lease to her first apartment in Gainesville.
Three years later, Rodriguez, now a UF marketing senior, is in the midst of a court battle with Union Properties of Gainesville over what she calls unfair charges.
With the case dragging on for the past two years, Rodriguez said she has spent more than $2,000 in legal fees.
“I wish I could have done more to defend myself,” she said.
In Gainesville, where a large chunk of residents rent, Rodriguez is not alone.
Landlords sometimes take advantage of students’ lack of knowledge about their rights as renters, said Miguel Valdez, the coordinator of the Alachua County Labor Coalition, who will host a seminar tonight about renters’ rights.
“If we can go and provide a lot of information that gives people the ability to fight back against a bad landlord, then I think we have done a good service for the community,” Valdez said.
The 6:30 p.m. meeting will be held at Emmanuel Mennonite Church, located 1236 NW 18th Ave. A lawyer at Three Rivers Legal Services will speak at the meeting.
A major topic of discussion will be about how landlords often take big chunks of the tenants’ security deposits for minor infractions, he said.
This, Rodriguez said, is the situation in which she currently finds herself. For two years at her apartment, which she would not name, Rodriguez’s landlord was charging her and her roommate undeserved monthly fees, she said.
“I realized they were charging me $40 to $50 extra a month for rent for two years, which obviously incurred to an amount to which they had the advantage to say the payments wasn’t received in full,” Rodriguez said.
She and her roommate were eventually evicted. But when they left, the landlord kept $660 of their $700 security deposit even though the unit was not damaged, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said other students could learn from tonight’s meeting. If she could, she would have sought out similar help prior to signing her lease and spending thousands of dollars in legal fees.
“I just wish I knew what my rights were as a tenant, because I felt completely manipulated,” she said.
