PSU Houses

FAQ & Forms

Have questions or need a specific document?

Leasing

If you are renting an entire house from us, washer and dryers are located in the basement. For those renting on West Beaver Avenue or Barnard Street, the laundry room is located at the back of 433 West Beaver. For those renting on West College Avenue, laundry facilities are located across the street at 701 West College Avenue.

Parking is available on site at all of our properties. At some properties it is included in the rent at others it’s available for a fee. Check out our parking page to see what’s available and download an application.

Yes. Many people choose to do this each year. Prepaying your rent is a large convenience to both PSU Houses and you. If you do it by August 1st, we’ll probably give you a discount. Call the office for details.
If your parents don’t trust you to make the rent payment, should we? To remedy this, we offer the option to prepay your rent for the year. If done before August 1st, we usually offer a discount. Call the office to ask about this.
We realize that the parents are the ones paying for the housing, in most cases. If we don’t get the rent check, we can always track you down, but you don’t have any money. To get unpaid rent, we’ve found that parents are usually a good resource.

Everyone who is going to live in the house must sign the lease. In addition, you will need to get one parent per person to co-sign the lease in the form of a “Parental Guarantee”. After we get done signing the lease, we’ll email everyone copies of the lease. Then we’ll send a “Parental Guarantee” to each of your parents.

Leasing is a pretty easy process. Follow these simple steps and review the questions below and you’ll quickly be on your way to renting from us. The steps are…

 

  1. Find a place you would be interested in checking out
  2. Set up a tour
  3. If you like it, fill out a Rental Application
  4. Pay the application fee & security deposit via Venmo
  5. Call the office to verify we’ve received your completed applications and security deposit to secure the house
  6. Sign the lease
  7. Exhale
  8. Tell your parents that a Parental Guarantee is coming via the email address your provided for them on the Rental Application

Welcome to the future! We don’t do lease signings in person anymore.

We’ll review this on a case by case basis. If you have most of the money, and need a few days to get your parents to send the balance, We can probably live with that.

You need to have paid the security deposit (equal to one month’s rent) and an application fee for each tenant to be able to sign a lease. This deposit is non-refundable and you will lose it if you do change your mind after signing the lease.

If you think you want to rent one of our places, have your group ready and organized and call our office immediately. The time you spend getting your group together is the time that someone else may be renting your place. Please remember that it is our policy to NOT “hold” apartments or houses while people assemble their groups.

We usually have a good idea what’s going to be available by the middle of September. Our current tenants get the first shot at renewing their apartments.

If a house is available for next year (there may be seniors in the house now who will be graduating), we can sign the lease after all of the applications have been handed in and approved and the full security deposit has been paid.
To see the inside of one of our houses or apartments, call our office to set up an appointment to tour the property. We need at least 24 hours to give the current tenants notice that we are coming over.

Move In Information

Each apartment or house must choose a “Group Leader”. This person will be the main contact between your group and our office. We have too many tenants for everyone to call with same questions. This person will organize your move-in date, furniture, and address any other concerns that your group may have.
Most of our apartments and houses come unfurnished, so make sure to ask at your showing or lease signing. If furniture is supplied by us you are responsible for it. If any furniture is missing or damaged at move-out, it will be charged against your security deposit. Furniture isn’t cheap so please take care of it.
Your move-in date is printed clearly on the front page of your lease. We have many units to prepare for move in during the middle of August so moving in early is usually not an option. However, it can’t hurt to ask.
Electric/Gas
Your electric is provided by West Penn Power. Your gas service is provided by Columbia Gas.
 
Water
Water service is provided by State College Borough Water Authority. You can reach them at (814) 238-6766 or http://www.scbwa.org/.
 

Cable/Internet
Comcast is available in State College. You can reach them at 1-800-COMCAST or 1-800-266-2278 or www.comcast.com.

Cable and internet is also provided by www.windstream.com.

All of our properties that are rented as units in a home will have access to a dumpster directly behind your building or right next door. If you are in one of our 6 bedroom duplex homes, you will have trash cans behind your home on the alley.

The recycling for State College is handled by the Centre County Solid Waste Authority. All of your recycling questions can be answered here.

Move Out Information

Your move out date is printed clearly on the first page of your lease. All leases end at noon on the final day of your lease.

Yes, you signed a lease for twelve equal payments due the 1st day of each month. We do not prorate August rent.

Your security deposit will be returned within 30 days of the end of your lease.  An itemized list of deductions will be included with the check.

 

If you decide to trash the house on the way out, we will take digital photos and send them to you and your parental guarantor.

No. We only send out one check per house.

Yes. The house needs to be cleaned, including kitchens, bathrooms, stoves and floors. If you have carpets, they must be professionally steam cleaned. Please leave the house empty. Do not leave anything behind including clothes, cleaning supplies, canned food etc. You will be charged for removal of these items.

No. We charge to remove furniture. If you are leaving the furniture for the new tenants you need to inform us and mark the furniture with a post-it note so we don’t haul it away.

  1. Missing keys. (Put all entry keys on the counter.)
  2. Missing keys. (Put bedroom keys inside of deadbolts.)
  3. Cleaning.
  4. Stains and Cigarette burns on carpet. (If the carpet is ruined, you bought it)
  5. Missing or destroyed furniture.
  6. Scratches on hardwood floors.
  7. Anything that ruins the paint job on the wall.
  8. Garbage, personal items and furniture left behind.
  9. Repainting rooms back to Sherwin Williams Dover White or Repose Gray from any other color.

Things to Know

Getting locked out stinks and during normal business hours there is a $50 lockout fee. M-F 9:00-5:00 p.m.

 

However, if you call after hours, we will charge $75.00. Our charge is cheap compared to most locksmiths. Please keep track of your keys. If you happen to lose your keys, it might be cheaper to call your roommates or to sleep on the couch for the night.

 

Please be aware that our property managers have families and there might be a chance you will have to wait until the morning.

It is actually very rare for our homes to be infested with pests. Pests typically stop by for one reason and that is for food. If you clean up your garbage and wipe down your floors that will help prevent ants and rodents. If you call our office complaining about bugs or rodents and we find that your housekeeping, or lack thereof, is the reason you are having problems, you will be paying for the exterminator’s visit.

One suggestion for keeping clean carpet would be to have parties at your friend’s house. If you do have a large party and lots of beer gets on the carpet it is a great idea to have the carpets cleaned immediately. Google can help you find a good carpet cleaner in State College.

Many of our homes have hardwood floors. It is your responsibility to clean these floors. Please use Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean up any party residue on hardwood floors. You will be charged if the floors become beer damaged. If your hardwood floors have been restored it is your job to maintain them. This also includes picking up furniture when you are moving it on the floor. Do not drag or push furniture on hardwood floors. You will be charged for any scratches that occur during your lease term. If you bring your own furniture it is your responsibility to put felt on the bottom of the legs so they do not scratch the floor.

It’s easy for a rental to get out of control because of lack of cleaning and it causes issues between roommates. It’s cheap for you to have a cleaning company come through from time to time.  If you divide the cost by the number of roommates in the house, it’s probably less than a trip to the bars. Call the office and we’ll get you in touch with our cleaner.

If you find your couch missing from the front porch, you should also expect to get a bill for hauling it away. There is a city ordinance against interior furniture on front porches because it is a serious fire hazard. Also excluded from use on front porches are Tiki torches, lighter fluid, charcoal grills, etc. Having lost a property to fire in the past, we have a zero tolerance policy on this issue. If we find that these items contributed to the cause of your house catching on fire, you’ll assuredly be hearing from our insurance agent. Again, charcoal grills are strictly prohibited. Gas grills may be used but must remain 20 feet from the house.

We realize that college students like to have parties. Please do so responsibly. There is a point system in place in State College that targets nuisance properties. Once a property accumulates a certain amount of points, PSU Houses can lose its rental permit. If you accumulate points against your property, you will be charged $100 per point. If we lose our rental license, you will be responsible for all lost rental revenue until our license is restored by the Borough.

Please clean up after your parties. State College Borough routinely sends out inspectors on Saturday & Sunday mornings to give out fines to people with trash and party debris in their yards and on their porch. Yes, they will come up on the porch to inspect. This violation is one that results in points being applied to a property.

If you have a party and damages occur, you will be responsible for paying for the repairs. Large holes in walls, broken windows, and other obvious damage are billed at labor cost plus materials.

Climbing on the roof is strictly prohibited. Not only can you damage the shingles, you might kill yourself if you fall off.

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