I RUN FOR MSA See Editorial Page , L Sic 44un :43 atl PEACHY See Today for details Vol. LXXXVIII, NO. 44 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, October 28, 1977 Ten Cents 12 Pages CITY, STATE CLAUSES DECEPTIVE: g PIRGIM reveals A2 lease violations I $ By RICHARD BERKE Widespread examples of decep- tion and abuse in housing leases used by landlords have been found in Ann Arbor and 18 other Michigan cities, the Public Interest Group in Michi- gan (PIRGIM) announced yester- day. Findings of the student-based re- search and lobby group show "objec- tionable {clauses" in all of the 46 leases examined in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, with violations averaging 6.6 per lease. 'he 18-month study revealed that of 200 leases investi- gated state-wide, 99 per cent con- tained "illegal, unenforceable, or abusive clauses." Violations in Ann Arbor and East. Lansing are more common than in any other of the cities studied, ac- cording to PIRGIM program director Bernard Shaefer. "In student areas, landlords are especially careful to hold students to everything they can possibly imagine," he said. SHAEFER CITED eight apart- ments or management companies which he called the "worst (lease) offenders" in Ann Arbor: McKinley Management Company, Huron Plaza Apartments, Roseville Arms Apart- ments, Pheasant Run Management Company, Broadview Apartments, Independence Apartments, 800 Ful- ler Apartments and Slovik Manage- ment, Inc. "Most of the provisions we studied had been rejected by courts and House approves sweeping Social would not be enforceable if a landlord took the tenant to court," Shaefer said. "Some are of questionable legality, with varying or unclear court deci- sions. Others have been found by the courts not to be covered by existing law, leaving tenants without legal protection from these abuses," he added., GLORIA FLEMING, legislative assistant for the Michigan Landlord Association in Lansing said she hasn't read the study yet, but questions the extent of the sampling. "Two-hundred leases doesn't rep- resent a true sampling," she said. "In greater Lansing alone, there are over 3,000 landlords . . and what about abuse of landlords by tenants?" Lease terms PIRGIM called unfair or illegal include: - leases requiring tenants to pay rent even if the'landlord reneges on maintenance obligations (The study cited Longshore Apartments as among the 34 buildings in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti violating state law by having tenants waive this right of habitability); " a requirement that tenants give up their rights under a 1972 law which provides that security deposits can not be forfeited arbitrarily (Seven- teen apartments in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti have such terms, according to PIRGIM); " a waiver of the right to redeem, meaning a landlord can force the tenant to move even if legal claims are satisfied (This appeared only twice in the state-wide study - one violator being McKinley Associates, Inc., of Ann Arbor); * provisions excusing the landlord from liability for injuries or damages suffered by tenants or their guests due to the landlord's negligence (This violation surfaced 36 times in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti); « requirementsthat tenants pay all or some of the landlord's legal costs arising from any suitinvolving the landlord (Such requirements were found in 21 of the apartments investigated in Ann Arbor and Ypsi- lanti); TA' blindness no curb on zeal By STEVE MILLS Blind TA Dorothea Martin instructs an Honors Great Books section in her Mason Hall classroom. Blindness is considered a handicap by most people. But don't tell Dorothea Martin that. Despite the blindness that has trailed her since birth, Martin is feverishly pursuing a doctorate in Comparative Literature as