I am a financial aid student attending UCLA full time and believe me it is tough to save enough money to pay rent every month...not to mention I must also save enough money to pay for food, utilities, books, gasoline, etc. etc BUT on top of trying to save money I must also go to school full time, and work part time which makes it difficult to earn enough when rent is due. In Los Angeles, more specifically Westwood, rent is not cheap. For a two bedroom/two bath apartment prices range from $2300 and up. In order to afford housing most students must share rooms with four to six people in a 2 bed/2bath. Even though individual prices go down with more roommates it is very cramped, and difficult to have privacy, keep the apartment clean, and more important study. Westwood apartments are not built, especially the older ones for more than 3 people. For my apartment our landlord only allows 3 people to sign the lease..if we have more than 3 people sign it we are charged an additional 10% to our housing price. But apparently this "rule" only applied to my roommates and I. I found that the landlord had not applied this rule to others I had befriended living in the same apartment building. Just last week I received a notice that my rent has been increased...when I asked other tenants if theirs had raised too they said no. So what is exactly going on? I don't know...I could has the manager but he's never home (he lives in the apartment building) doesn't have office hours, goes on vacation without letting any tenants aware of his absence, uses the complex for personal use (he filmed a movie in there) again without letting tenants aware of what was going on. He charges personal rates for additional parking spots-there is no set fee. Lastly, he does not complete work orders in a timely matter. In addition to my manager's self-applied rules the apartment complex is old, falling apart, and abestos contaminated. You could say that I could easily move out of my apartment complex because I am dissatisfied with my apartment complex/manager but I cannot. I cannot because I cannot afford to live anywhere else because rent is too expensive, and the further away I move the further I am away from school and life becomes more of a complicated mess! Unfortunately there is a hierarchy within Westwood, money matters, if you have it you are able to live in the "nicer" cleaner apartment complexes. If you're not endowed with some type of financial resource, like myself, you're stuck living in an apartment you're not fond of.
