Students willing to pay higher legal fees might see legal services improve if a referendum for a tenant union is voted on this semester.

This semester, after the Student Association senate meetings get rolling, a referendum for a tenant union will be voted on and the SA senate and executive branch will see how willing students are to have their legal services improved, said Dave Ivers, community affairs adviser.

Students now pay about $2.25 a semester for legal fees.

Forming a tenant union would add two or three dollars to that figure. The hike in fees would be refundable, Ivers said.

Ivers said the SA is aiming to convince students it is worth it to pay the extra $4 per year if students will be better protected.

Student Legal Assistance handles tenant-landlord disputes but at times is overwhelmed with these complaints, Ivers said.

It can take weeks for complaints to be dealt with and some of these tenants could be helped in a shorter amount of time without the need for a lawyer, he said.

“What you need is quick explanation in a legal way,” Ivers said.

“We’d like to have something to handle (student-landlord problems) separate from, but in conjunction with, Student Legal Assistance,” Ivers said.

Student Legal Assistance and the tenant union would work together. However, the tenant union would be legally separate, Ivers said.

Problems tenants have concerning landlords could be dealt with more directly, he said.

Sometimes it is a matter of a tenant understanding the lease, Ivers said.

There is a good chance of adding arbitration clauses to most leases and having arbitrators satisfactory to both the tenant’s union and legal assistance and to the landlords’ association, Ivers said.

“Very few people spend four years in the dorm. The odds are incredibly high that you will have a dispute with your landlord,” Ivers said.

With a tenant union, legal services would not need to be tied up with tenant problems, Ivers said.