Some compensated for house loss

by Nikki Klemmer
THE POST

To make way for new facilities management buildings, Ohio University employees will tear down off-campus housing that has already been claimed for the next academic year.

While OU owns the property where the houses are located, Larry Conrath Realty, 280 E. State St., is the property manager. Because OU wishes to break the legally binding lease agreements, it compensated nine students for damages and the values of their contracts.

OU junior Chris Lloyd, along with four other men who were going to live at 197 W. Union St. next year, negotiated with OU and received $2,250 each.

"We said that without any compensation, we weren't going to move out," Lloyd said. "It's not the nicest house, but it has a backyard for parties."

After signing a lease for the property Fall Quarter, Lloyd's future roommate, OU senior Paul Liedtke, received a call from Larry Conrath Realty. The real estate agent informed him that OU wanted to demolish the house.

"He said we could bargain with them, so we thought OK and wanted to see what we could get," Liedtke said.

But OU did not monetarily compensate everyone living in the area affected by expansion.

In September 1998, OU senior Carrie Brannon signed a lease with three other women for property at 29 Moore Ave. The house caught on fire in April of 1999, but Larry Conrath Realty told her she still would be able to live there, Brannon said.

Nine weeks into Spring Quarter 1999, Brannon discovered the house would not be repaired because it soon would be torn down for the expansion. She and her roommates found a new place to live two weeks later, Brannon said.

"It was pretty difficult," she said. "We needed a place to live because we were all going to be seniors."

Brannon said she and her roommates were displeased when they heard through the grapevine that OU was going to compensate other students to get out of their leases.

"We did not get compensated," she said. "We are not very happy."

After going through the mediation service suggested by The Center for Student Advocacy, the women received one parking pass for four people and a letter of apology, Brannon said.

She said she does not understand why the men received money but they did not.

"Their situation isn't any different than ours," she said.

But Nicolette Dioguardi, OU's assistant director of legal affairs, said the circumstances in the two cases are not parallel.

"It's a very different situation," she said. "Their case is that property was destroyed prior to moving into it; it's not anybody's fault."

She said the students who received money did so because OU wanted to be released from legally binding lease agreements.

"If you breach a contract, you're responsible for the damages and value of the contract," Dioguardi said. "Knowing that, we sat down and negotiated with them."