DeKALB | With the fall semester nearer every day, students seeking off-campus housing may be wondering how to go about signing a lease.

A lease is a legally binding contract, and complications can arise when one or all parties involved do not adhere to the contract.

NIU Students’ Legal Assistance suggests students know the risks when entering into a lease.

“The landlords in town, their interest – as understandable – are to fill up capacity as soon as possible,” said Donald Henderson, director of Students’ Legal Assistance.

To protect the renter’s best interests, Henderson urges students to acquire a copy of the lease agreement and have his office review it before signing.

Renters should know their rights before signing a lease, he said. A lease is negotiable before it’s signed, so if a renter doesn’t see something included or would like to have something added, the issue should be addressed.

Henderson relies on an old philosophy when it comes to renters requesting an addition to the lease: “If you never ask, you never get.”

A typical issue that Students’ Legal Assistance sees with leases is the condition of the apartment at move-in and at move-out. Henderson suggests several tactics renters can use to protect their security deposit.

“The security deposit is the tenant’s money, and is to be returned to the tenant given that the conditions of the lease have been upheld,” Henderson said.

Henderson said that students don’t expect to have their security deposit returned to them, which he calls a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

To ensure the return of the security deposit, communication between the landlord and the tenant is important – especially to address maintenance issues, Henderson said.

“We recommend the first thing tenants do when they move in is to take a half hour taking pictures in the apartment,” Henderson said. This should be done before the tenant’s items are moved in.

In a situation where regular wear and tear occurs, the tenant’s security deposit should not be lost. However, there are situations where a landlord uses the security deposit without proper reason, Henderson said.

“We do take these cases to court, and if a tenant has taken care to protect themselves, the success rate is very high,” Henderson said.