Sharon Elkouby’s apartment on Court Street in Downtown Binghamton has an ant infestation and crumbling walls. The junior majoring in sociology is one of approximately 9,000 Binghamton University students who live off campus, many of whom don’t request property inspections before signing leases.

Tom Costello, ‘78, supervisor of building construction, zoning and code enforcement for the city of Binghamton, said very few students call his office and request a compliance inspection, a free service that determines whether a property is a safe living space. He said that without inspections, students can face serious problems with their housing.

“When they actually go to move in, in late summer, usually around August, that’s when the problems come up, but they already signed the lease and they have the pressure of school starting in a couple of weeks,” Costello said. “It becomes disastrous for everybody.”

The city’s inspection looks for issues including the presence of mold, infestations, water infiltration and various fire safety issues, according to Costello. If one doesn’t currently live at the residence, the permission of the property’s landlord is needed. Costello said once a request is filed, an inspection will take place within five days.

He noted the importance of knowing your rights as a tenant as well as your responsibilities, including knowing whose job it is to take out the garbage or shovel the sidewalk. Costello said he’s working with the University to come up with an effective way to inform students about their rights as renters.

Karen-edis Barzman, an associate professor of art history, regularly invites Costello to her class to discuss the various resources of his office. Barzman’s applied learning course, ARTH 483E: Zombie Revolution: Reclaiming Vacant Properties in Binghamton, New York, aims to look at the city’s housing policies and the effect of vacancy on residential neighborhoods and the Downtown area.

Barzman wrote in an email that she believes college students should be aware of their rights when renting a property.

“Even in this relatively depressed housing market, rent is going to cost you a big chunk of the money budgeted for college expenses,” Barzman wrote. “You have rights. You don’t have to settle for a leaky toilet, for dripping faucets, or worse, appliances that don’t work, heat that is intermittent, doors or windows without secure locks, vermin etc.”

The main informational resources at BU for off-campus housing include Off Campus College, which encompasses off-campus programs and services. This year, these resources included a Housing and Safety Fair held in September. But Costello said when his office attended this year, he was only able to speak with around 25 students.

Elkouby said she can only talk to a maintenance person, not her landlord, about her apartment’s problems. She said none of her roommates thought to request an inspection before they signed their lease.

She cited the competition to secure off-campus housing as a main reason her group signed a lease early last fall.

“I know from my experience and others’ that they sign up for housing situations where the conditions are much less than ideal,” Elkouby said.

Costello said he hopes to create more of a dialogue between his office and the University to ensure students know of the resources available to them.

“We just want people to have a positive experience — we want them to be safe and we want them to stay,” Costello said. “If they have a good experience as a student, it’s going to make them more inclined to want to stay because they’ll think it’s a good place.”