Print friendly
E-mail story
Tip Us Off
Comments
Share Article
Facebook
Twitter
Google+1
del.icio.us.
Digg!
Yahoo! Buzz
Diigo
google
newsvine
reddit
technorati
Yahoo!
MyspaceOur favorite student slum has finally found a way to stay one step ahead of the landlords, who make a killing off of people willing to pay whatever it takes to be able to walk to campus. Isla Vista residents have long been at the mercy of landlords who know they can charge nearly anything for any room and find a willing spender to sign the lease.
Now, thanks to UCSB Senior James McGuire, residents have a way to organize. Last year, McGuire launched ivliving.com, a Web site that allows tenants to post reviews, warnings, or praises of good and bad landlords. After all, if ratemyprofessors.com can tell students what classes to take, and rottentomatoes.com tells them what films to see, ivliving.com fills another void of information by creating reputations among landlords that aim to affect business.
“There are some great landlords,” said McGuire, making assurances that the site is not just a sounding board for angry, overpaying students. “You can see them on our site.” There are also, however, some inarguably not-so-great landlords according to I.V. residents. McGuire does not hope that his site will create boycotts of these negligent property managers, but rather inspire the management side of renting in I.V. to clean up its act. “If enough people are hesitant to rent from a bad landlord,” he says, “they will have to change their ways to make money.”
McGuire was inspired to create the site in the wake of a bad experience with a less-than-professional landlord who made him realize that some were “taking advantage of students living on their own in I.V. for the first time.” If all goes well, ivliving.com will force responsibility onto lessors, and provide an opportunity for bad policies to catch up with their creators.
The response has already been very positive, McGuire said. Parents in particular are thankful for the site, and happy that their money will hopefully now be spent on higher quality housing. The advertising for the site has been largely word of mouth. Anyone can post a review, and reviews are filtered for profanity and monitored to discourage purely abusive articles.
If all goes well, McGuire hopes that the site will provide a way for students to help each other out. The senior computer science major is happy to have created something that he hopes will strengthen the I.V. community.
Sam Rolens is an Independent intern.
Previous Month
Comments
Just as there are bad landlords, there are bad tenants. My neighbors of the past couple of years have consistently tried to "ghettofy" or "ghettoize" the triplex my wife & me live @ (I've personally lived there 20 yrs.).
When 1 nearly torched the place he was shocked that the landlord served his parents w/ papers for a lawsuit for the damages incurred as a function of his carelessness.
Let's not even bring their friends who constantly come to tool them for beer & pot. They seem to think their friends are the only people living there. Can't even beging to tell you how many ill-parked beach cruisers I've GLADLY run over w/ my car pulling into & out of my driveway!
Our landlord (super-gracious, private, not out to make a killing) has had to replace the carpet numerous times from all the burn holes from their water pipe & numerous bong accidents, had the front of the unit re-done due to the fire, has had to have the place rid of all the butts left on the lawn & whatnot & replace numerous appliances they've ruined.
So please, when you talk "tenant's rights" keep in mind that civil behavior goes BOTH WAYS.
Why doesn't McGuire start a "ratemytenant" site? Seems that the majority of tenant issues in I.V. are caused by the actual tenants & their wannabe ghetto attitude :) henry
hank (anonymous profile)
May 5, 2009 at 12:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Who is ultimately at fault in your situation, Hank? Your neighbor's landlord is, for renting to those morons, despite the negative impacts that his irresponsible decision to do so has on you and your landlord.
The kid with the website is concerned about landlords engaging in criminal behavior against good tenants. You are concerned about landlords enabling criminal behavior by renting to bad tenants. Either way, THE BUCK STOPS WITH THE LANDLORD.
Speaking of which: you say you have destroyed peoples' bicycles because you don't like where they are parked -- multiple times, no less. A responsible landlord would evict your neighbors --- and also evict you, because a tenant who destroys other peoples' property for petty reasons (or any reasons) is an unacceptable liability.
treedom (anonymous profile)
May 5, 2009 at 11:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Correction: you said it's a triplex, which makes your landlord and your neighbor's landlord the same person. I apologize for the oversight.
treedom (anonymous profile)
May 5, 2009 at 11:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Tenants Rights are about tenants and they have fewer rights in Santa Barbara County than other counties in the state. Rent Control for instance is not in effect in Santa Barbara County and landlords continue to raise the rental prices each year - with the only improvement being a coat of paint.
I'm surprised that this person has acted independently to create this website. UCSB students and any resident of Isla Vista can receive free information, education and advocacy regarding tenant issues through the Isla Vista Tenants Union. The group meets Tuesdays 3-4 pm and has office hours Monday-Friday. More information can be found at: www.ivtu.org
taceohat (anonymous profile)
May 6, 2009 at 7:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)