The Wake

Lauren Aurelius, Maggie Boeck and Rachel Willems, seniors at the ‘U,’ have been friends since their freshman year in Territorial Hall. Aurelius, Boeck and Willems live with four more of their close friends in a cozy upstairs complex on 6th Street in Dinkytown. So far, they say it has been a great experience having seven friends under one roof, but that might change.

Due to the recent “housing sweep” by the Minneapolis City Inspections Department, the tight-knit group of seven might be two less if the city has its way.

“(According to city zoning), we are over-occupying this house,” Aurelius said. “There are seven bedrooms in this house, but only five people are supposed to live here.”

The friends settled on the house last April when they saw the listing advertised in the Minnesota Daily as a seven-bedroom house. Only four of the friends signed the lease when they met their landlord, Joe Welp. They say Welp was okay with only having four signatures on the lease, but he soon became aware that there were seven people living in the house.

Willems said Welp only reacted to their over-occupancy after the September Dinkytown house fire that killed three ‘U’ students.

“He told us that ‘We are going to have to do something, because you guys are only supposed to have five people living here,’” Willems said. “He lowered our rent by $30 per person, but we have been trying to get after him to find out what he was trying to do by compromising us like that. Is he trying to set us up for when the inspectors come?”

The roommates were worried about possible eviction if city inspectors discovered the over-occupancy, so in early October they went to University Student Legal Services for advice.

“(Legal services) told us the lease is pretty much void because only four people signed the lease and there is evidence that (Welp) knows we have seven living here,” Aurelius said. With a void lease, Aurelius and the rest of her roommates could move out without having to pay rent for subsequent months on the lease.

“We were freaking out initially, when we heard inspectors would come around because we didn’t know if they were coming to our house the next day,” Aurelius said.

Now, the roommates are confident that at least five of them will be able to stay if the city inspectors do cite their house for over-occupancy. Boeck said she is graduating in December and might leave the house, making the possibly difficult situation a little easier. But until the inspectors come, the group said they will continue to “over-occupy” the house.