<p>Just received a $150 bill from UA housing for wall damage to DD’s room at RCS. She did use a few of those Command Strips and probably ripped some of the drywall when she removed them (don’t think she applied them correctly in the first place). I personally didn’t see the damage at move out but at move in the condition of her walls was terrible and she did report it to her RA.</p>
<p>Any chance we can argue this charge and win?</p>
<p>Here is what I wrote on CC on 8/11/2012</p>
<p>Moved DD into RCS yesterday. The move in was smooth and easy. The building is beautiful. The living area and kitchen in DD’s unit were freshly painted. DD’s room and her roommate’s rooms were a mess. There were nail holes in the walls and the drywall was ripped like posters had been taped up. There are dark smudges in places where past students had hung things. DD is all moved in now but I don’t want to be charged for someone else’s damage. Also the carpet was so filthy that my white socks were black in 1 hour. For $10,000 a year I woul have hoped for at least a clean unit.</p>
<p>A couple years ago, UA reversed its policy of allowing command hooks in every residence hall because of potential damage to the walls.</p>
<p>There is likely a way to contest the charge. Your D will likely have better luck with an appeal if the existing room condition was extensively documented on the room condition report and with pictures.</p>
<p>If she reported the wall damage to her RA at move-in, then I would most definitely get in touch with Housing and dispute the charge. I would want to know how many repairs were necessary and what the charge was for each repair, and I’d want to see the move-in and move-out reports. Of course, I’d check with your student first to find out how much additional damage she thinks she caused, and what was noted on the report when the RA did the move-out inspection. And since Housing does have a presence on these boards, I might even point out to them your contemporaneous post about the walls.</p>
<p>ETA: Here’s a link to the list of damage charges. It looks like the $150 charge is to repaint the room. It sounds like the room needed painting due to damage when your D moved in, so no surprise that it needs repair/painting now. <a href=“http://housing.ua.edu/pdfs/DamageCharges2013.pdf[/url]”>http://housing.ua.edu/pdfs/DamageCharges2013.pdf</a></p>
<p>Bluehen how did the bill arrive? Crimson email, student account or us mail?</p>
<p>We got a bill in the mail for $12.50 for a dirty fridge. We were second to last to leave, so don’t know how the last roommate left it. Maybe he left things behind. Fridge looked clean to me when I left. No exploding beer cans and the like. I’m hoping the other roommates got the same bill, especially the one who left a few weeks earlier and didn’t contribute at all to the cleaning. He used one of those fancy shower gels and it was a PIA to clean the shower and get that soap scum out.</p>
<p>I think the bill will just go on his student account, and we’ll just pay it at the end of the month, along with his summer housing bill.</p>
<p>Bluehen,</p>
<p>Since the condition of the walls weren’t great at move-in, you should be able to argue some of the cost down, maybe not 100%. I would offer to pay XX amount as reasonable, and suggest that the rest be cancelled because the condition wasn’t what it should have been from the beginning (do you have pictures?).</p>
<p>Considering the condition that the room was received, I’d offer a low amount…like $20.</p>
<p>Are these amounts showing in your student’s MyBama account?</p>
<p>Whoa, thanks for warning us newcomers. I’ll make a point of taking lots of pictures (while DS sighs repeatedly and attempts to shoo me out the door), and maybe even an iphone video with voice-over. Sounds like even normal wear and tear may result in fines.</p>
<p>Regardless of how carefully you follow the directions on the package when applying or removing Command strips they often leave behind damage to drywall in humid conditions. My advice to parents of students entering in the fall would be to document any existing damage on the room inspection when moving in, take pictures, follow the Housing guidelines and use nails rather than Command strips unless your student is in a dorm with block walls rather than drywall, and to also take pictures and document the condition of the room at move out.</p>
<p>We made several nail holes as anticipated with normal wear and tear. We did not receive any charges or damages.</p>
<p>Command Strips are no longer allowed in the super suites. I think 4 nail holes are allowed.</p>
<p>Normal wear and tear should not result in fines, however if there are “issues” during move in, be sure to document them (with pics) and send them to the right folks in housing AND make notes of them on the “move in” documentation with the RA. </p>
<p>Don’t tolerate dirty dorms upon move in. The dorms get used over the summer with Bama Bounds, band camps, science camps, etc. It’s very possible that Housekeeping doesn’t get to every room before move in.</p>
<p>i don’t know why the command strips have been outlawed. we used them (lots) for two (no, three) years without any wall damage at all. if you use them as directed … they work.</p>
<p>At least last year during Orientation, command strips were still on the “things to bring” list – see page 11 – <a href=“http://www.universityparent.com/sites/default/files/2012-university-of-alabama-orientation-WEB.pdf[/url]”>http://www.universityparent.com/sites/default/files/2012-university-of-alabama-orientation-WEB.pdf</a> In fact, I bought some at Wal-Mart this weekend for my D, who is starting this fall and in RCW. I guess we’ll find out if they are still OK at Bama Bound next month.</p>
<p>Well, upon further review (and Googling), here is the list of where you can and can’t use command strips - <a href=“http://housing.ua.edu/pdfs/settling-in.pdf[/url]”>About - Housing and Residential Communities. I guess I will pull the command strips from her Bama boxes! Although 4 push pins per room seems a bit extreme. That’s enough for one poster. Anyone use those 2 sided sticky discs for posters, or are they forbidden as well? Looks like we’ll just bring the dry wall spackle when we depart next spring.</p>
<p>For hanging lightweight items like posters, I wonder if you could put two nails 5’-6’ apart and run a wire or heavy string between them. You could then hang poster from the wire/string. Anyone ever try this in the dorm?</p>
<p>I imagine that Command Strips have been banned because kids weren’t removing them correctly. I have seen wall damage from them, even when the attempt seems to be right (pulling down on the tail). </p>
<p>I like the wire idea, but I wonder if the hole marks would be too big? </p>
<p>I wonder if blue painters tape made into circles and placed on the backs of posters would be easily removed months later???</p>
<p>UA Housing doesn’t really want to fine people for damage to the rooms unless the damage is very visible or requires a lot of extra work. I had the opportunity to stay in my building after the normal move out deadline and watched how three cleaning people would enter each suite and clean them as best they could. Housing operations comes by after students leave to survey damage, but they may not notice everything. or have different standards on what constitutes normal wear and tear. </p>
<p>I’ve been surprised at how many students don’t know how to file work orders to fix stuff in their dorm rooms and will just let things go. Housing encourages students to report maintenance issues ASAP so they can be fixed before they become more costly to fix.</p>
<p>Blue painter’s tape works well on walls to hang posters because the walls don’t have glossy paint. Signs were posted before move out that students should not attempt to remove any stick-on whiteboards or message boards as doing so would likely cause damage to the doors.</p>
<p>A dirty place can always occur off campus. When my son moved into the Bluffs for his junior year, the place looked as if a bomb had gone off. The carpeting and floors were filthy. Trash left in bags. Nothing was clean. My son’s roommate called housing and pitched a fit. Nothing was really done about it, so his mom brought down the carpet cleaner from their home and cleaned the carpets. She also cleaned the floors. The guys took out all the trash and cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms. What a mess. </p>
<p>The guys were also fined when they lived on campus – for not cleaning a shower. Well, they tried. They even called me and asked what to buy, but no matter what was tried, nothing worked.</p>
<p>My son filed a work order last move in for a problem with a sofa. The guys came and subsequently said since it wasn’t completely broken, don’t worry about it. We got a bill for $100 in the mail Friday. It seems now it IS a problem…</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>There probably is a record of that work order request, so use that as evidence that the sofa was already broken.</p>