On campus housing cancelation fee
Hi y'all, my roommates and I registered for on campus housing for the 2026-2027 school year in mid-february since that's when the housing contract signing deadline was, then found an apartment less than a month later. We got an apartment because we needed a place to live in Athens over the summer. We all canceled our housing contracts less than a month after signing, and we're told by friends that as long as we canceled before July 1st we'd be okay.
We are now each being charged ~$3600 for canceling, despite doing so in March when the university has plenty of time to fill our housing spaces before August. We now have 10 days to appeal.
I get it, we should have read the contract closer and not trusted others so easily. But none of us can afford $3600. Is there any loopholes to this or people we can talk with to potentially get this amount lowered? Thanks.