Ed and Elaine Welling
Windgate Apartments
Provo, Utah

I lived in an apartment during the month of September, and I needed to move out because I was contacted by Provo City Zoning, who informed me that my apartment was zoned for three people, not four, and that someone would have to move out immediately. I volunteered because I had a friend with an open space in her house.

Naively, I thought that this zoning issue would be an easy problem to solve. I reasoned that after I explained (and Provo City explained) to my landlords the situation that everyone would agree that it was an unfortunate situation (and zoning regulation) but it had to be complied with, and the only way to do that was for one person to move out. However, this did not happen. When I talked to my landlords about the situation they became very angry and would not listen to what I had to say about zoning regulations. They kept on saying over and over again that I had to stay with my contract through April, and had no response when I told them that it was a Provo City law and that someone legally had to move.

After a few phone calls between several different officials and BYU and Provo City, my landlords agreed that I could move out at the end of September. I did so and wrote them an email about getting my last month’s rent and deposit back. They responded by telling me that on top of the $650 I had paid them for September, April, and for the deposit, that I owed them $650 more dollars for items that included late fees for October’s rent, October's rent, November’s rent, late fees for November’s rent, and carpet cleaning. (They were asking for all of this rent money in spite of the fact that they asked me to move out ASAP after they got a letter from Provo City confirming that the apartment was only zoned for three and that someone needed to move out by October 31st). Thinking that $1,300 was a bit much to pay for one month in a shared bedroom apartment in Provo, Utah, I asked one of my professor’s for advice and she recommended the free mediation available at BYU. I ended up settling in mediation, but now I realize that I probably would have won my case if I went to arbitration.

My landlords had contacted their son who was a lawyer about the situation. He found out that Provo City was giving until November 30th to fix the zoning problem and suggested that they should be able to collect for October’s and November’s rent (originally, Provo City gave them until October 31st to fix the problem, but they got an extension AFTER I told them that I moved out). This made me angry because they were given a letter by Provo City telling them that someone had to move out by the end of October, which I did; then they got an extension after I told them that I had moved out and were trying to charge me for the extra time! I felt that I was dealing with really dishonest and irrational people. Also, during mediation, one of my landlords told the mediator that she felt like I had “abandoned” them (which was strange to me because I thought I was simply moving to comply with the zoning ordinance).

Bottom line: do not rent from these people!

**As a side note to this...when I was moving in one of the girls that lived there spring/summer told me that the landlords were kind of weird and she had had some problems with them cashing her rent checks months after she turned them in and with them saying that she hadn't paid her rent when she had given them her check and they had lost it...I wish I would have listenend and never moved into that place! Now I make sure to quiz people who have lived in the apartment before I move in...if they have bad things to say I am outta there!