Before signing a house or apartment lease, students can bring their leases to the Department of Student Legal Services for a review to make sure they understand the lease jargon.

“We want students to be fully aware of the consequences of a lease before signing it, and there is no fee,” said Steve Davis, director of Student Legal Services.

The department wants to make sure students are informed of the lease agreements before moving into a place and make sure they are aware of the problems that could arise if the conditions of the lease are not met.

“I look at certain provisions in leases to bring to students’ attention that they may not see or quite understand,” Davis said.

The two most common leases are a joint lease and an individual lease.

In a joint lease, which is the most common of the two, each tenant cosigns for one another, and they are responsible for each roommate. If a tenant moves out, the remaining tenants are in charge of covering that person’s share.

In an individual lease, each tenant is just responsible for his or her own share. If someone moves out, then the remaining tenants aren’t held responsible for that person’s share.

Davis said it is important to examine certain clauses in a lease to see what responsibilities or rules a landlord may hold a tenant accountable for.

“Look at the repair clause,” Davis said. “Is the landlord obligated to make repairs, and if so, does the clause state a time frame that the repairs have to be made?”

Some landlords also might attach a cleaning clause to a lease. Such clause might include shampooing carpets and cleaning blinds regularly or when the tenants are ready to move out.

Davis said failure to understand or meet certain clauses in a lease could result in possible deductions of security deposits.

Tenants also should write out an exhaustive move-in condition report. The report should include any possible problems that were wrong with the property when they moved in as well as problems that could have occurred beyond their control while staying there.

“You don’t want to get charged with something you didn’t break,” Davis said.

He also said roommate problems are not landlord problems, and most landlords will not accept that as a reasonable excuse for moving out or trying to get out of a lease agreement.