The Michigan Daily -Tuesday, July 19, 1983 - Page 3
tenants win cleaning fee ease
By MICHAEL WESTON
Two former Eastern Michigan Univ-
ersity students won a major court bat-
tle against their landlord last week that
could save all Michigan renters some
money.
Mike Smolen and Pete Mikelonis won
hack $37.50 that their landlord,
Dahlman Apartments, took out of their
security deposit for cleaning carpeting
and furniture in their apartment after
they moved out.
THE TWO filed suit in Washtenaw
County Circuit Court in early 1980 but
when Judge Henry Conlin refused to
hear the case, they took it to the
Michigan State Court of Appeals in
Lansing.
Last week, their persistence paid off
- a three-member panel of appeals
Dooley's
moves to
the beat:
Dance floor
approved
By HALLE CZECHOWSKI
Students will have a chance to shake
their thing at Dooley's now, after city
council voted unanimously last night to
let the popular bar build a dance floor.
Three years ago Dooley's had a small
dance floor and juke box, but assistant
manager Bernie Knoblich said they are
planning something to trip the light fan-
tastic this time around.
"IT'S GOING to be a lighted dance
floor with lights right in the floor,"
Knoblich said.
Knoblich said the bar owners decided
to request a dance floor after receiving
several requests from patrons for a
place to dance.
The owners are also planning to ex-
tend the present bar eight-and-a-half
feet and to build a small bar on the
second floor so no thirsty patron has to
wait more than two or three minutes for
a drink.
OTHER renovations will include new
fans and lights on the bar, new car-
peting and tiling, and a new paint job for
the walls.
Council also awarded a permit to
Ashley's, a restaurant/bar on State
Street, to feature a solo entertainer
Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Jeff More, one of Ashley's owners,
said the restaurant has already begun
booking acts.
In other council action, members
unanimously approved a resolution
authorizing the city to try additional
methods to control Ann Arbor's
troublesome pigeon population. About
10 residents came to the meeting to
support the move.
Council also passed a resolution sup-
porting a group of students who are
bicycling from Seattle, Washington to
. New York in order to raise money for
charities. The group is expected to pass
through Ann Arbor in the next week or
two.
Landlord must repay money
taken from security deposit
judges ruled that under the state's Lan-
dlord-Tenant Relations Act and Con-
sumer Protection Act, apartment
managers cannot take money for
cleaning out of a security deposit.
Money can be deducted from security
deposits only for unpaid rent or
utilities, and damage which results
from conduct that is not "ordinary," the
court said.
HOWEVER, the judges left intact the
right of landlords to charge a non-
refundable cleaning fee up front - at
the signing of the lease - completely
separate from the security deposit.
Attorney Gary Victor, and EMU
business law professor who represented
the two former students, said that the
case could help many renters who want
to sue their landlord over a similar
violation.
Victor is in the process of filing a
class action suit against Dahlman
Apartments, which will entitle all of the
company's tenants to recover any
cleaning fees they were assessed
illegally.
DAHLMAN Apartments and its at-
torney Steven Zarnowitz had no com-
ment on the decision.
Jonathon Rose, an attorney for the
University's Student Legal Services,
agreed that the precedent-setting
decision meant that renters in Ann Ar-
bor and throughout the slate could try
to recover any cleaning costs deducted
from their security deposits.
But even though Rose said he saw the
victory as "significant" for tenants, he
added that it would have little effect on
area landlords. "All landlords have to
do when they lose (a security deposit
case) is add a couple dollars to the mon-
thly rent, and they're back to go,'' he
said.
Ice cream man
A cloud of dry ice mist floats past Gino Ventura as he unloads ice cream at the Michigan Union yesterday. With the
weather being so unbearably hot, it's a safe bet that ice cream isn't the only kind of Stroh's that's selling.
H
jun
ex
the
H
Re
fill
wit
tra
son
his
at
ton
stu
rel
str
thi
sur
sai
Potter's credtivitydoesn t pay
By JAYNE HENDEL to eat he has to sacrifice his own in- can still sell pots," he said. F
terests and create works that will sell. have lost much of their indepe]
is studio looks like a tree fort kids in Instead of making sculptures, Remson because of the financial squeeze
ior high school would love to play in - must make practical items which artists market, he said.
cept for the collection of teapots and people will buy such as teapots. ALTHOUGH Remson earn
sculptures baking in the sun. "The basic middle-class housewife Master's degree in fine arts frc
Hiding beneath the trees behind I.B. sort of things sell," he said adding that University, finding work wasn'
mson's enormous kitchen and rooms only about half of his customers buy his "I came off the education assemt
ed with pottery is a studio decorated works as pieces of art. with nowhere else to go,"he said.
h mounds of wet clay waiting to be Remson's teapots are expensive and Remson sells his work at art fa
nsformed by the magic skill of Rem- he counts on buyers paying more for galleries nationwide in addit
's hands. hand-sculpted beauty that is also fun- teaching pottery classes at the A
ctional. "People will get their money's bor Art Association.
REMSON, a local artist, will display worth in an emotional sort of way," he But there are even problems
works in front of the Michigan Union said. at art fairs, Remson said. Art fai
the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair THE PRICE is mostly determined by have a hierarchy of artists th(
norrow. Remson built his backyard the amount of time Remson spends from, he said, and although R
idio, and although he loves his working on a piece, he said. has set up a booth at the Ann Arb
axed style of living, it has been a Art fairs are Remson's bread-and- for 12 years, he said it takes a lon
uggle, he says. butter. Artists not only make money to build a clientele that will buy
"I've spent as long learning to do from the fair but also exchange ideas artistic works.
s as someone does to be a brain and learn from each other. There is hope, though, Remso
rgeon, but it doesn't pay as well," he The poor economy in recent years has since potters don't really pea]
d. had a crippling effect on artists, Rem- they're about 50.
FOR A potter to make enough money son said. "It's astounding that any of us
Potters
ndence
in the
ned a
om the
I easy.
bly line
irs and
ion to
Ann Ar-
selling
r goers
ey buy
lemson
bor fair
ng time
purely
an said,
k until