According to the Student Housing Agreement, "As a condition of the room occupancy all students must pay the College a $75.00 Room Damage Deposit prior to occupying the room (exceptions are not made for students on scholarships). This deposit shall be refunded within 30 days of termination of this Contract, if and when the resident will not be residing in a College residence during the subsequent semester and provided there are no damages to the premises and the student's college account is current. Damage claims upon final departure will be deducted from the $75.00 deposit. Damage charges during occupancy will be billed directly to the resident."

If you have received or will be receiving a bill that includes a damage charge from the Residence Life Office, this information should assist you with that charge.

Bill Payment
Checks should be made out to the College of William and Mary and mailed to:
The Bursar's Office
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795

Billing for Damage Charges
All bills must be paid by their due date except when a letter of appeal has been filed as outlined below. Failure to clear outstanding bills will be considered a violation of the Housing Agreement and may result in
(a) ineligibility for participation in the room selection process or special interest housing membership;
(b) ineligibility for official check-in procedures, i.e., obtaining key and
(c) withholding of registration materials.

The damage deposit ($75.00) remains on account as long as a student is assigned college housing. Only upon final departure will damage claims be deducted.

Damage Charges Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a Common Area Charge?
2. How is this money collected?
3. Why does Residence Life bill residents?
4. What about the Room Damage Deposit?
5. Why is there an additional charge?

What is a Common Area Charge?
In the case of the common area charges, they are assessed by the area Hall / Apartments Council, not Residence Life. As part of our policy of Self-Determination in the residence halls and as outlined in the Housing Agreement, Hall / Apartments Councils are given the authority to assess responsibility for common area charges. These charges can include vandalism and/or extra cleaning charges (ex: broken lounge chair, remnants of a shaving cream fight, garbage bags left in the hallway). The Hall / Apartments Council can either assign responsibility to an individual, hall or building or they can designate the charge as unassigned if, in their opinion, there is no way to assign responsibility and the residents of the building should not be held accountable.

How is this money collected?
Hall / Apartments Councils are responsible for collecting the monies and forwarding payment for the common area charges to Residence Life. Thus this charge should not be a surprise to residents, as there was an opportunity to pay the charge prior to leaving. The Hall / Apartments Council also includes a list of those residents who did not pay their portion to the Hall / Apartments Council representatives. At that point, Residence Life then bills those residents.

Why does Residence Life bill residents?
For two reasons:

1. Billing those who do not pay underscores the importance of the policy of Self Determination and supports the Hall / Apartments Councils efforts to curb damages in the halls. Peer enforcement has been found to be the most effective way to cut down on damage costs. If these outstanding charges (no matter how small) were not collected there would be no motivation for residents to take responsibility for their halls and share in the costs for damages. In addition to the educational benefit of giving residents an opportunity to address their own concerns as a community, common area damages remain at a manageable level because of the Hall / Apartments Council’s ability to recover the majority of those costs. Unrecovered costs would then be passed onto residents in either increased rent or diminished services.
2. There is the simple issue of fairness. Usually about 80% of residents who owe Hall / Apartments Council charges will pay their Hall / Apartments Council Representatives. It would not be fair to those residents to allow the other 20% to avoid payment.

What about the Room Damage Deposit?
Regarding the $75.00 Room Damage Deposit, residents are refunded this deposit when they leave housing (and are not contracted for housing for the following year) minus any room charges. All of the deposits are kept in an interest bearing account and unassigned damages to common areas in the residence halls are then recovered through the interest money. The remaining interest money is made available to area Hall / Apartments Councils to use to buy recreational equipment for resident use. Hence the motivation for Hall / Apartments Councils to help minimize common area damages.

Why is there an additional charge?
The administrative service charge is only added to Hall / Apartments Council charges to cover the additional overhead required to list and collect these charges.

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