<p>Last year my daughter shared a double room at UofRichmond. When we moved her out in April my wife went through closet and drawers to make sure nothing was left behind. Well, a $70.00 charge showed up on her account for "Damage to Dresser Drawer". I emailed the school and told them I would be happy to pay for damage but what, specifically was the damage (since we saw none) and how do they know whose dresser was whose in the dorm. They told me that my daughter needed to get an email from her roommate saying the damage was to her dresser or we would be held responsible. Again I asked, "how do you know which dresser belonged to which girl?" I was told they don't know but my daughter needed to contact her roommate. Well, she did. Her roommate also got a $70.00 charge for "Damage to Dresser Drawer". </p>
<p>It's only $70 but it's the principle. She has two years left, has been on Dean's List four out of four semesters. I don't want to cause problems for her by making a stink about this but you can be sure Judge Judy would throw the case out!</p>
<p>Judge Judy might ask if the drawer got damaged all by itself. I think the school is right (what does your kid’s housing contract say?) and this matter of individual responsibility should be settled between the two roommates.</p>
<p>But, did the roommate admit that her dresser drawer was damaged? When confronted, I believe a lot of schools back down on these charges. If possible, always have a RA check out your room before you leave to avoid this problem.</p>
<p>Despite being a matter of principle, it is probably best to pay the 70 dollars. You will end up spending just as much in pleading your case if you paid yourself minimum wages. And then you need to add the frustration. </p>
<p>One avenue might for both students to send in 35 dollars with a note that it covers the damage for both students. </p>
<p>It is a good idea for parents and students to take a bunch of pictures or video of the dorm before and after moving in, plus one after moving out. It takes a few minutes and will provide ample proof. My sister once received a bill for close to $2,000 for carpet damages by an overzealous official who sent the bill the day she retired. The school would not budge until my mom remember she had taped the damage prior to moving in. She sent the video and a copy of the area rug she bought to cover the previous damages, and that was the last she heard about it.</p>
<p>Fwiw, getting a bill from MY school for only 70 dollars would have been seen as winning the lottery. I always had to pay a lot more, but the school was being … generous! The damages were real! :)</p>
<p>Seems to be the newest way to enhance revenues. I got a large bill ($1000) for a scratch I allegedly put in car from National car rental. It appears others are also being scammed by them.</p>
<p>Both girls say there was no damage that they were aware of. Since the school cannot tell me what the damage was or which dresser was damaged, I don’t think they have a case. As for “individual responsibility”, we would take full responsibility if they could give us specific information. Maybe the answer is the back of a drawer was cracked. Well, I would have to admit we may not have seen that. We aren’t trying to avoid responsibility. We just don’t believe there was any damage to be responsible for. BUT, I think you may be right that I should pay it and document better the next two years.</p>
<p>I would say that if they didn’t check out with the residence life staff and have that person note there was NO damage…you should pay the bill. Just make sure the RA walks through the room during move in…and then during move OUT for the next couple of years. At my kids’ schools there was a check off form that was completed when the folks moved in…with any damage noted (that was usually fixed), and at check out…when the RA or some other member of the residence life staff did a walk through and indicated no damage.</p>
<p>I will say…my kid had an issue her sophomore year because her roommate spent more time at home off campus than in the room…when it was time to check out, they had to CALL this girl to come get her stuff. DD was sort of caught in the middle because the reslife staff would not sign off of their room until it was empty.</p>
<p>I would fight it if you are sure there was no damage. Even if there was, they are attempting to double dip and get payment from both girls. Something about that just seems suspicious to me.</p>
<p>$30 for bathroom cleaning - although the RC checks the room and won’t sign off unless it’s clean - two years in a row. Still waiting for and expecting this year’s.</p>
<p>Barron’s, we did put a scratch in a rental car. Fortunately, we chose a car with scratches and had noted it when we picked car. They couldn’t have been able to tell the new one from the old ones. This experience taught me a lesson.</p>
<p>I took pictures for our kids’ school apartments before and after. They returned the full security deposit a few weeks ago with interest (nice surprise). I also take pictures before and after on rental cars. An attendant could damage the car after you drop it off and try to blame it on you.</p>
<p>A dresser might be a little harder depending on what the damage is. I would probably take a picture of the outside but not the inside. A damaged drawer wouldn’t be seen. It probably would help a lot if they just emailed you both a picture of the dresser in the room and the specific damage.</p>
<p>We recently had damage and minibar charges of $500 in a hotel. We don’t drink nor do we smoke and we talked with their accountant and got the charges removed. Someone with access to the room apparently did this stuff before we got there because my wife complained of smelling smoke in the room.</p>
<p>If you have the time, then fight it. Sometimes you can’t fight city hall but you can get some satisfaction for trying.</p>
<p>Thank you G#! I was going to look that up this evening. So, $140.00 damage to a drawer. I would think that would be pretty noticeable since the whole dresser is probably worth $250.00. Oh, well. I’ll pay up and chalk it up to lesson learned.</p>
<p>My daughter has twice been charged for things she didn’t do. The school charges the room or the suite and it is split evenly by everyone who lives there.</p>
<p>I intend to take many photos of any future rental cars. But it’s not easy when you get into rainy Juneau Alaska at night and the cars are outside in the dark parking lot. This car had 12,000 miles and numerous small scratches already including one noted on the lower front bumper where they claim there was a new one. If they had been reasonable and charged enough for some touch-up work–say $50–I might have just paid it. But $1000 is just nuts. We had an entire bumper replaced and painted for less than that when somebody backed into it hard and dented it. This is just a scratch about the length of a quarter–one of many on the car.</p>
<p>I have gotten very thorough about document dorm rooms, rental cars and apartments after all the charges we started seeing a few years ago. We once had money charged to the card that secured a rental car for an eastbound toll we supposed drove through…problem was we were west bound and DID go through the westbound toll. How do these things happen? Obvious damage I get but sometimes these wiley colleges smf rental car companies can come up with very obscure things that leave you between a rock and a hardplace to prove inaccurate. We got a bill with general comments like “common area dorm damage” that was assessed to everyone in the dorm. That stuff drives me nuts, for heaven’s sake raise the room fee $50 up front if you’re going to college $50 from every kid living in that dorm.</p>
<p>When I’ve rented cars the rental company always had us note and sign off on all the pre-existing scratches.</p>
<p>As for rooms, twice at Carnegie Mellon our son left before his slob roommates. I did more than 50% of the cleaning, but there was no way I could clean most of the mess. I took pictures and would have fought any charges.</p>
<p>This year S2’s roommate at Tufts left tons of tape and peeled paint on his side of the room. My son got the RA in there and made her sign off on his side of the room and made very sure she knew that all the damage belonged to the roommate. I won’t be paying that bill if one comes.</p>
<p>I would just add that I’d be astonished if the typical college dresser cost more than $140 new, especially bought in bulk. I’d probably pay, too, but I’d probably jerk them around a bit more by asking them to document for you the replacement cost of the dresser to see if a charge of $140 could possibly be justified.</p>
<p>Cross-posted–I guess we’d have to know a little more about these dressers.</p>