Rent From Ben: “No One Will be Homeless” Despite “Chaos” Created by Syracuse Semester Delay

Ricky Sayer, SYRACUSE, N.Y. – One of the Syracuse University neighborhood’s major property owners is committed to making sure no student becomes homeless on the closing days of the delayed spring semester.

Ben Tupper, the owner of Rent from Ben, said Monday they plan to work with residents to minimize the impacts of SU’s decision to move back the start of classes, allowing them to overstay their leases whenever possible for a nominal fee.

Rent from Ben’s most common date for the final day of leases is May 20th. The last day of SU’s finals was pushed back to May 21st.

It “creates a lot of chaos – but not end of the world chaos,” Tupper said.

The good news, Tupper said, is that about 45% of their tenants are not by the change because they are juniors and are staying in the same home for their senior years. 175 of Rent from Ben’s tenants are people who are impacted by the schedule shift, Tupperwares said.

A third of those incoming tenants previously told Tupper they want to move in right when their lease begins – May 1st. It’s these residents which pose the greatest issues. For everyone else, it will be easier for Tupper to allow them to stay in their apartments for extra days.

Out of the 1/3 of his 175 tenants who do plan to move in on time, Tupper is counting on most pushing back their move-in time because the semester itself was moved back.

Tupper is legally required to allow tenants to move-in on the day marked on their lease. So, if a student isn’t willing to be flexible to allow a home’s prior tenant to move-out late, Rent from Ben will be forced to allow the new tenant to move in on time.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we have one case where someone is just like a stickler,” Tupper said.

Despite the challenge, Tupper is confident, “no one will be homeless.”

“Fortunately, because we have so many houses, there’s always an apartment that’s empty,” Tupper said.

So, the worst thing that could happen, Tupper said, is a resident could have to “couch surf” in his other apartments for a few nights.

People who do overstay their lease will need to pay a nominal fee of about 15 dollars a night, Tupper said.

“It’s reasonable to expect that if you stay extra time you will pay extra money,” he said.

Tupper thinks it is very possible that other landlords are not as flexible and force residents to move out in the middle of their finals,