Room/Apartment Swap | Contract Reassignment | Fall Term Wait List Process | Winter Term Wait List Process

General Policy
All resident-initiated room or apartment changes must be authorized in advance by the appropriate Community Center, the Northwood Community Center, or the Housing Information Office, dependent on the type of change requested. Such changes may take place based on an approved room swap or on an offer from a waitlist. University Housing will not honor informal or different procedures. Individuals may not occupy any space to which they have not been assigned (originally or through room swap, waitlist or another authorized process), even if it appears to be vacant. Residents must ensure that any unassigned space, including furnishings, in their room or suite remain ready for a new occupant at all times.

No one may pressure a resident to make a room/apartment change, including by making offers of monetary compensation or other incentives or rewards. University Housing will remove any mentions of such offers from listings and residents who make such offers may be referred to the Housing Student Conflict Resolution process. In addition, room swaps made to circumvent the waitlist process will be null and void.

Room/Apartment Swap
Two residents may agree to exchange room or apartment assignments at any time provided the change is properly coordinated as noted below.

• You can swap one residence hall room for another, within your same hall or into another residence hall; or swap one Northwood III apartment for another; or you can swap a residence hall room for a space in a Northwood III undergraduate apartment and vice versa.
• University Housing does not facilitate swaps other than providing space on this web site as an information clearinghouse.
• You cannot do a swap into a vacant space; it must be done with another resident who has a signed contract.
• If this swap results in changing your billing type, please be aware before completing the swap that you will be billed at the rate of the room/Northwood III apartment into which you move.
• Make sure you understand if this is a non-smoking or substance-free space. Residence hall rooms are designated as either non-smoking or substance-free. Northwood III undergraduate apartments are all non-smoking.
• Both students must be eligible for each other's space in order for the swap to be approved.
• Residents of the Martha Cook Building cannot submit a room swap because of the separate application process administered by the hall.

Find a student in your own Hall/Northwood III complex or another Hall/Northwood III complex who wants to trade places with you. You can do this by completing the on-line Swap Advertisement that conveys your interest in making a swap and specifically what kind of swap you are interested in making. Submissions will be removed after 3 weeks, so if you want to stay on the swap bulletin board, you will need to resubmit your information at that time.

The person you swap with must be eligible to live in your space, and vice versa. Usually this just means that you have to be the same sex, but it can also involve eligibility requirements for an academic program space or other considerations. If you have questions about eligibility, contact the Housing Information Office in advance of coming in to be sure the request will be approved.

If you identify someone who wants to swap a room/Northwood III apartment with you, there are three time dependent processes for applying for a swap during normal business hours. Before August 14, 2009, you both must apply at the Housing Information Office. Beginning with Move-In and after, you may do a room swap at your hall's Community Center/Community Center and no fee will be charged.

Making offers of monetary compensation or other non-monetary incentives or rewards as part of a listing for a swap are strictly prohibited. Mentions of such offers will be removed from any listing by University Housing, and you may lose your contract.

Please consult the Housing Information Office if you have questions about making a swap.

Contract Reassignment Bulletin Board

Sometimes students who have signed a Housing contract for the upcoming academic year decide they would like to live off-campus instead. It is University Housing’s policy not to reassume or “take back” contracts for this reason. However, these students can attempt to reassign or “sell” their contract to an eligible student. During the Fall term, contracts can only be reassigned to newly admitted students. It is entirely the obligation of students interested in pursuing this possibility to follow through on making direct connection with other students. University Housing does not facilitate contract reassignments other than by providing this service on this web site and administering the appropriate paperwork. Submissions will be removed after 3 weeks, so if you want to stay on the contract reassignment bulletin board, you will need to resubmit your information at that time.

Looking for a Contract Reassignment?
If you do not want the space offered to you, regardless of the reason, but still wish to live in a University residence hall or Northwood III apartment, you may consider “buying” another student’s contract by means of a contract reassignment. You can browse the postings by accessing the contract reassignment bulletin board. You must be eligible for the space you want to “buy” and must not already have a signed contract. If you are interested in a contract reassignment, you are responsible for contacting the student whose contract you wish to “take over.” Both students are required to appear in person at the Housing Information Office (beginning August 1 for Fall reassignments and beginning Dec. 1 for Winter reassignments) to complete and sign the reassignment paperwork.

There is no guarantee that you will be able to successfully obtain a contract through this reassignment process. It is entirely dependent on continuing UM students with contracts posting ads, you and such a student agreeing to a reassignment, and then both of you coming to the Housing Information to complete the paperwork.

Offering a Contract Reassignment?
You can post an ad by accessing the contract reassignment bulletin board here. You are responsible for your Housing contract until the time you and the other student have actually completed and signed the reassignment paperwork in the Housing Information Office. You should not sign an off-campus lease until this is done and you have been released from your obligation. If the other student, for any reason, either cannot or does not appear in the Housing Information Office to complete and sign the reassignment paperwork, you will still be responsible for your contract. In the past some students have signed an off-campus lease before completing the reassignment process and have then been left monetarily responsible for two dwellings.

Making offers of monetary compensation or other non-monetary incentives or rewards as part of a listing for a contract reassignment are strictly prohibited. Mentions of such offers will be removed from by the University Housing webmaster and the student may have their ad removed from the bulletin board and be barred from submitting ads in the future.

Fall Term Wait List Process
Residents may sign up on-line to join residence hall/Northwood III apartment wait lists. Entries submitted between Monday, September 14 and Wednesday, September 16, 2009, Midnight, will be entered in a random drawing to determine rank order on each wait list. You may check your wait list student profile on Monday, September 21, 2009 to obtain your various lottery numbers. You may submit additional entries, or if you missed the first lottery, after Tuesday, September 22, 2009 and will then be placed at the end of the current wait list in the order submitted. Residents may submit only one wait list entry per complex. There is no system-wide wait list.

There is no guarantee that being on a wait list will ultimately result in an offer to move. Priority for vacant spaces is given in the following order: residents currently living in temporary spaces; residents remaining from the March 2009 wait list sign-up; residents who sign up to change rooms within their current complex; all other residents. Wait list offers will be made via email sent to your UMich address. You only have 24 hours to accept an offer from the time it is sent, so please review your umich email frequently.

Fall wait lists will be valid through November 25, 2009.

Residents who are offered a new space and accept the offer will have their contract transferred to the new space and will have no further responsibility for the space from which they are moving after completing the required checkout procedures. If you move to a room/apartment with a different rate than the room/apartment you are moving out of, the new billing will start on the day you move into the new space.

Names of residents who accept a new space are removed from all wait lists for the remainder of the Fall term, unless the Housing Information Office is notified to keep a specific name on the list. Residents who refuse an offered space will have their name placed at the bottom of the list.

University Housing reserves the right to make an administrative change into vacant space, independent of the wait list, when it deems such a change necessary.

The Housing Information Office is the final authority on all changes. Fraudulent use of this process will result in the resident's name being removed from all wait lists.

You must be a current residence hall/Northwood III apartment resident to access the wait list. You will need your UMID and date of birth to login into the on-line wait list system. You will then be able to input your wait list preferences. After you submit a wait list request, please make sure to print a confirmation of each separate submission as an official record of your transaction. Please proceed to the On-line Fall '09 Wait List Process.

If you have questions about the Wait List, please email housing@umich.edu.

Winter Term Wait List Process
A new wait list sign-up will begin at noon on January 11, 2010 and end at midnight on January 13, 2010. A drawing will be held on January 14 and results will be available on January 15 when offers will begin. You can sign up after January 15th , but your name will go to the end of the list. Priority for vacant spaces is given to students in the drawing for their same hall or complex, students in the drawing from another hall or complex, all other students.

There is no guarantee that being on a Wait List will result in an offer of a new space.

Residents who are offered a new space and accept the offer will have their contract transferred to the new space and will have no further responsibility for the space from which they are moving after completing the required checkout procedures. If you move to a room/apartment with a different rate than the room you are moving out of, the new billing will start on the day you move into the new space.

Names of residents who accept a new space are removed from all wait lists for the remainder of the Winter term, unless the Housing Information Office is notified to keep a specific name on the list. Residents who refuse an offered space will have their name placed at the bottom of the list.

Winter wait lists will be valid through February 26, 2010. Wait list room offers will be made via email sent to your UMich address. You only have 24 hours to accept an offer from the time that the email is sent, so please review your email frequently.

University Housing reserves the right to make an administrative change into vacant space, independent of the wait list, when it deems such a change necessary.

The Housing Information Office is the final authority on all room changes. Fraudulent use of this process will result in the resident's name being removed from all complex wait lists.

You must be a current residence hall/Northwood III apartment resident to access the wait list. You will need your UMID and date of birth to login into the on-line wait list system. You will then be able to input your wait list preferences. After you submit a wait list request, please make sure to print a confirmation of each separate submission as an official record of your transaction.

If you have questions about the Wait List, please email housing@umich.edu.