Several SF State students are saying The Village at Centennial Square is conducting unethical business practices, charging for services not rendered and keeping an inequitable amount of their housing deposits once they move out.

“I think they hold the last person’s money in the apartment hostage to blackmail them to do all the cleaning and then they still take the deposit,” said J Martin, 22, an economics major.

Martin said The Village kept $180 of the $250 deposit he paid to live in a two-bedroom apartment with three roommates, who each paid the same amount for deposit.

“I could understand if there was something broken, but we didn’t break anything," Martin said. "We scrubbed everything spotless. I don’t want the same thing to happen to other students."

Martin and other students are saying they’re being charged for cleaning fees that are unnecessary.

Cinema major Dustin Devoy, 25, moved out of The Village in May. His itemized room condition report shows his rent was $825 to share one bedroom in a two-bedroom apartment. The cost of cleaning his living room, bedroom and bathroom was $37.50 each, his kitchen cleaning cost him $43.75 and his “move out damage” charges were $60.50.

Out of Devoy’s $250.00 deposit, The Village gave him $33.35 back.

“I think there is something very wrong here," Devoy said. "I spent three days scrubbing and I didn’t do any damage."

Jeff Pettibone moved into The Village for the 2006 spring semester and he said his apartment was “trashed” upon arrival.

“I made a full report of the damages, but they still charged me when I left. According to them, I still owe $131.75 plus my deposit,” Pettibone, a political science major, said.

Pettibone said he has friends who left their rooms in worse condition, but received all or most of their deposits back.

“I think they just randomly charge whoever,” Pettibone said.

Students are also finding difficulty in corresponding with The Village management.

“They overcharged me for the summer semester and told me I would get a refund," said John Jewell, a 20-year-old psychology major. "Four months later, they still do not return my calls."

Jewell said he has been unable to contact an Ecumenical Association for Housing representative, since the management company turned over administration to SFSU Housing & Residential Services in the summer.

“My room had no holes, spots or anything. We didn’t party there,” Jewell said.

David Rios, business office coordinator at SFSU Housing, agrees that many problems and complaints carried over after The Village changed hands. He said there is little his office can do about them.

“It’s been a real mess. Their old files and all the complaints have been an ordeal. You have to talk with them or the SFSU Foundation,” Rios said.

Calls to the SFSU Foundation, which administers The Village, and SFSU Housing Executive Director Jan Andreasen, were not returned.