The Student Legal Services Office held a presentation for a handful of attendees in the Campus Center focusing on tenants’ rights Wednesday starting at 5:30 p.m.

Raquel Manzanares, a staff attorney at SLSO, presented Renting 102, a continuation of Renting 101, a previous housing presentation.

Renting 102 focused on students’ rights as tenants after their tenancy begins, while Renting 101 considered things to keep in mind when a student is looking for housing.

Manzanares summarized what tenants should do before their tenancy begins. Students should know when the rent is due, notify their landlord in writing of any problems, keep copies of all documents and communicate with their housemates, she said.

Manzanares also reviewed legal aspects of security deposits, Amherst town bylaws, discrimination in housing and landlord violations of the state sanitary code.

Legally, landlords must give potential tenants a statement of the condition of the apartment within 10 days of the start of the tenancy, she said.

Within 15 days, the tenant must give the landlord a corrected copy of the statement of condition if he or she disagrees with its contents, according to the Massachusetts Consumer Guide to Tenant Rights and Responsibilities.

Manzanares said tenants “absolutely should” give the landlord a statement of condition with pictures of any damage if he or she does not provide one.

If a tenant does not provide an explanation of other damages at the start of the tenancy, the landlord’s statement of condition is presumed valid, she said.

Landlords sometimes keep portions of the security deposit without correctly itemizing what the damages are, she said, adding that they are required to provide an itemized list of damages, along with estimates of the cost to repair the damage or receipts.

Manzanares also discussed the Amherst Town Bylaws regarding housing.

The four-person bylaw limiting the number of unrelated roommates to four has led to difficult situations for students recently, she said. One situation she encountered involved tenants who lived in a rental but were not on the lease.

“You need to be on the lease if you want to be protected by the lease,” she said.

If a landlord tells tenants they have to move out for an illegitimate reason, the protection tenants have depends on how well they can prove the landlord knew about the other tenants in addition to those on the lease, she said.

Only a judge can order the eviction of a legal tenant, but those who live in a rental in violation of the bylaw could be defined as squatters, she continued.

“They’re the mice in the house. They don’t have any rights,” she said.

Tenants living in illegal situations can also be reluctant to call the Board of Health about other potential violations of the sanitary code, Manzanares added. The state sanitary code forbids things like rodents and mice, and also requires an independent heating source for each room.

The Amherst Board of Health enforces the sanitary code. Tenants are protected from retaliatory actions when they report violations of the housing code, according to Manzanares.

Under the law, if a landlord takes adverse action – like initiating an eviction – against a tenant within six months of reporting a violation of the code, the landlord is presumed to have retaliated against the tenant.

Manzanares said SLSO plans on creating a database of landlords in response to the office’s experiences with landlords who violate the state sanitary code and town bylaws this summer.

She explained the fines that can be issued when tenants violate the bylaw against unlawful noise in Amherst – $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second offense and $300 for the third offense.

The nuisance bylaw also enables each individual roommate to be fined $300 for a nuisance violation. Manzanares clarified that each individual tenant’s contribution to the noise does not matter in terms of levying fines.

Manzanares also cautioned that federal laws forbidding discrimination in housing are less strict for owner-occupied homes.

Patricia LeBoeuf can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @leboeuf_trisha.