business homework

winter 2013 235

CREATE A CONTRACT

Instructions:

I will give you a fact scenario below that involves some college students who are having difficulty living together as roommates.

Your task will be to create a contract to solve the problems and issues that the fact pattern raises. Hint I had (sixteen) 16 issues when I did the assignment.

After you create the contract, you will then include around a two page written description about WHY you chose to design the provisions of the contract the way you did.

Your grade will be based on:

1. Whether your contract identifies and solves the problems

2. Whether your contract is realistic

a. (ie a clause that says no roommate shall ever enter the room of another roommate is not practical because what if you hear them yelling for help, or if you haven’t seen them in 14 days.) I want you to think about “loopholes” and the “what if” types of things that can go wrong.

3. Language… Really in this assignment PLEASE pay attention to the words you type because one missing word can make the contract really silly… In last year’s contracts I had someone write… A roommate can eat any food in the apartment that has their name on it… (Great give me a pen and I’ll just put my name on everything).

4. Your explanation, did you have sound reasoning for putting in something in the contract.

5. Following the LAW:… This assignment requires you to have a general understanding of what a contract is and how it works… That is, after all, what we have been studying.

a. Do not include items in your contract that are illegal or are not a contract… For example do not say if the roommate leaves the toilet seat up, they will place their hands on the toilet and have their fingers slammed 10 times by the toilet seat. (That’s not enforceable)

b. Do NOT include something like… If roommate “brion” doesn’t like the punishment he can change it to what he wants, or if I don’t want to follow this rule I don’t have to”… (It is not a contract if one person can CHOOSE to not follow something, It also not a contract when you leave punishments, requirements ect for the “future to be determined”

6. Creativity/problem solving/format of contract

a. You must follow the general format of a contract I have included after the fact scenario… Trust me I am including the sections that ALL your contracts must have for your benefit. It will make organizing it a lot easier for you.

b. You must CHOOSE to write your contract from the viewpoint of one of the four people below or as a disinterested outside party… This is critical because if you are writing the contract from the perspective of one of the people it should FAVOR that person (in a reasonable way), if you are writing as a disinterested third party (an attorney) you should try and be as fair to all as possible.

c. In your explanation tell me from what viewpoint…actually make that your first sentence.

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CONTRACT FORMAT

The contract must conform to the specifications below.

Introduction:

Here one sentence that names the parties to the contract and the date of the contract and how long the contract will last.

Section One:

Will be titled Definition Section: This section is very important it will define key terms through-out your contract. Ie if someone in a contract says it is Eric’s job to “clean the kitchen” there better be a definition for what clean is or what clean the kitchen means because one person’s clean is another person’s pig sty.

Other definitions (Guest, Party are often over-looked) … Depends on how you write it… if there is something that can be misinterpreted you probably ought to tell people what you mean by that word in this section.

Section Two:

Describes the duties (jobs) that roomates have to accomplish. Unless there is a specific rotation (cleaning duties) it is prob best to write them as general duties for all roommates, so you don’t have to rewrite the same language over and over.

Section Three: The “RIGHTS” of the roommates… Here you can group everyone together if they have the same rights or break it down by person. Make sure the rights address the problems and make sure the duties also address the problems… An example of a right would be… All roommates have the right of sole possession of their room and no other roommate can enter another person’s room except in specific emergency circumstances… (and here “emergency circumstances” might be something that would be defined… yes, I gave you that one as a good example of what I hope to see. )

Section Four: Title this section “Breach of Contract”: In this section you will describe what happens to the people if they do NOT perform their “duties or jobs” or if they violate someone’s “Rights”. Be Creative here, try and fit the punishment to the crime I guess. You can either have general punishments for all or specific for each person.

Explanation:

On a new page explain why you drafted the contract they way you did. I guess I am looking for why you made the decisions and punishments that you did… I.e. I choose to make Eric’s punishment for not cleaning “some punishment” because… and tell me anything else creative that you did to solve the problems presented.

As a side note, this story is purely fictional and resemblance to real life situations or people is purely coincidental. However, these issues often do arise in a college roommate atmosphere if you are lucky/unlucky enough to have roommates.

The Story

O

n May 15th 2011, Kathy, Mark, Eric and Jennifer have decided to rent a 4 (four) bedroom apartment on School Street about a block from Philadelphia Street. The lease agreement is to begin on August 1st 2011. They all sign the lease and in this assignment you do not need to bring up anything regarding the lease.

The house has two stories. The bottom level has a kitchen, bathroom, living room and two bedrooms. Each room is about 11 feet by 14 feet. The upstairs has two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small extra room. Each room is 11 by 14 feet except the extra room which is 8 feet by 9 feet.

I am about to describe the first five months of them living together and the problems they encountered, but before that, I am going to give you a little background on each of them.

Kathy 20 years old, In the Fall of 2011 she will be a Sophomore at IUP majoring in accounting. In her freshman year she was roommates with Jennifer on campus in the freshman dorm. In the Fall of 2011 she is taking 15 credits and will also be working 15 hours at Perkins as a Waitress. She also is an IUP soccer player, and a business honors student. She currently has a 3.6 GPA.

She is very organized, very clean, doesn’t deal well with conflict, and wishes to graduate in 4 years and go on with her life. Her studies are important to her and she needs to maintain above a 3.2 average for her full tuition scholarship. She enjoys a social life but doesn’t really find any purpose in going out to get drunk. She hangs out with the female soccer players and has had a long distance relationship with a high school boyfriend from Altoona. She is in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

Jennifer

21 years old, In the Fall of 2011 she will be a Sophomore at IUP majoring in English. She was Kathy’s roommate freshmen year and they got along fairly well. Well… from Jennifer’s perspective they got along fairly well because Kathy was rarely around and Jennifer had the place to herself 80% of the time. Jennifer is taking 12 credits in the fall of 2011 and has a 1.8 GPA from her freshman year. She got swept up in the whole college life scene and partied too much. She has made a vow to herself to do better this year and work hard. She works on the weekends at a local bar, “Wolfs” as a bartender and makes good tips. She has tons of friends and is into the whole bar scene, dating scene, and has been known to consume pot and prescription pills. She is more laid back when it comes to cleaning than Kathy but still is fairly clean. She always cleans her dishes but also might leave clothes or makeup bottles in the bathroom. She is in the upstairs bedroom.

Mark

21 years old, In the fall of 2011 he will be a sophomore majoring in Biology. He is a soccer player on the IUP men’s team. He currently has a 2.8 average. He knows Kathy from Soccer and he was roommates with Eric his Freshman Year. He doesn’t know Jennifer. Mark doesn’t work, but he is in a Band called the Raging Hormones and he plays electric guitar. The Band sometimes plays at “Wolfs” where Jennifer is a bar tender.

ERIC

24 years old, In the fall of 2011 he will be a sophomore majoring in Anthropology. He is a little older because he took classes part time for a year or two at a community college but failed out. His current GPA is 1.5. He was originally denied entry into IUP but oddly the university then admitted him. Eric is taking 15 credits most of which are “freshmen” classes and general requirements. Eric loves World of War Craft and spends many hours “leveling” his character. He has one of the best computers and monitors on the market but has no other possessions and his very poor. He sleeps on a futon and buys clothes at the Salvation Army. Essentially when he is not at class he is at home on his computer or watching TV. His style of cleanliness is summarized by his often repeated statement that, “unless bugs and maggots are crawling on it, it is clean.” On the bright side though, Eric never gets mad… at anything and has a wonderful sense of humor.

WHAT HAPPENED:

Like in the film Pulp Fiction, I am going to start at the ending. It is now February 2012 and the “SH**” has hit the fan, people are crying, yelling, staying over with friends ect….

It was decided that a general meeting would be called for the four house mates and that a contract for roommates would be drafted and all would sign the contract. This contract would seek to address the issues of the house and the problems they have had.

Below is a Summary list of problems people have encountered over the course of the six months they have lived together… Note I put the problems under the names of the people that think they are problems….

KATHY:

(has had issues with the following people) This section tells you the problems that KATHY has encountered with the other three people.

Problems with Jennifer:

Jennifer leaves her dirty clothes in the bathroom, her makeup is all over. In October Kathy came home at 1:00 am and found Jennifer passed out in Kathy’s bed with Mark… Jennifer has been having a casual “intimate” relationship with Mark for the last six weeks but this annoys Kathy because she has wanted to go out with Mark and they even started dating in September until Jennifer slept with him.

Kathy also has a problem with Jennifer because she has seen “Roxicodone” pills in the bathroom and she knows Jennifer doesn’t have a prescription. She thinks Jennifer will ruin the good guy that Mark is with her drug use.

PROBLEMS WITH ERIC:

Eric has set up his personal gaming center in the unused room on the second floor and is up there all the time. He even uses the upstairs bathroom. This makes Jennifer uncomfortable because he is a guy and it, in her words, “just isn’t right”. Also she can hear the sounds of the game at 2am in the morning sometimes when she is trying to sleep or study.

Eric never pays his share of the electric bill. The electric bill is in Jennifer’s name and she is the one who has to pay it. When Jennifer tells Eric what he owes he says I’ll get right to it, but never pays her back.

Problems with Mark:

He slept with that floozie Jennifer… Can he be that shallow I mean so she’s blonde big deal. I’ll tell you something else they AREN’T real… Personally I don’t care if Mark jumps off a bridge I refuse to talk to him anymore. I should’ve known a band called the raging hormones… What an idiot am I… Wait till he discovers who scratched his precious little guitar… and I have been sabotaging his soccer cleats by grinding down one side of the cleats… He won’t be a starter on the team for long.

JENNIFER: (has had issues with the following people) This section tells you the problems that JENNIFER has encountered with the other three people

Problems with KATHY:

She is always in my business… She flushed $100 worth of “medicine” and pills down the toilet. She put a lock on the bathroom door and wouldn’t unlock it unless she was awake and at home. That just isn’t right. She also goes in my room when I am not there to borrow clothes for her dates… In September she had this date with this super great guy and wore my best dress and ruined it by spilling chocolate and then bleach all over it… I found out that, that date was with Mark. Guess I had the last laugh there.

Kathy also thinks she can tell me to turn down my radio and tv at 7pm on a Thursday… Look Honey, we are in college the weekend begins on Thursday and get real who studies at 7pm anyway… IUP has a library you know.

Kathy wants to complain about my “party” lifestyle but she always gets in for free where I work and I always get her and her friends free drinks… she has even come to expect this kind of thing now…

Problems with Eric:

I, Jennifer have the cable bill in my name and Eric is ordering pay per view movies and such… He usually does pay but it is always 30-60 days late… and him being up on “our” floor all the time is a little weird.

Eric is a pig and never does he share of the chores. In fact chores in this stupid house never get done at all. He cooks a meal and then it sits there… It is horrible because no one has a schedule or knows what items need to be cleaned and when. He is also Home ALL THE TIME…. I mean get a life go out and got some sun would ya. I just wish someone could detail a cleaning schedule and assign responsibility for jobs on a weekly basis. Garbage, Dishes, vacuuming, Bathroom, Toilet, responsibility for food in the refrigerator.

Problems with Mark:

Well, he has this little… I mean he has this little problem where he practices his music on Saturday mornings at 9am… Um… Please some of us actually are getting to bed at 9am…

MARK:

(has had issues with the following people) This section tells you the problems that MARK has encountered with the other three people.

Problems with Jennifer:

She makes a ton of cash at her job and she always buys the most expensive food and then asks us to split the bill. Why buy premium brands when Generic will do? Also there was this one time where I was exhausted from a soccer game and I come back on a Friday and just want to crash and sleep for like 12 hour, and then I find that Jennifer has planned a party at our house for that night. I tried to shut them out but my room is on the first floor and they are playing music, yelling and drinking… I told Jennifer that I just can handle the party and everyone needs to go home… She said just let me fix you a drink first and you will feel better… The next thing I know I am passed out. There needs to be some rules for what happens when someone throws or wants to throw a party.

Problems with Kathy,

Kathy had this long distance relationship in August and September… Well, I say long distance but the guy would come over every Friday and Stay till Tuesday… It was ridiculous… He never paid rent, he would eat the food, he made messes and didn’t clean them up, I think he even tried playing my guitar and scratched it… Finally, I had to take the guy aside and tell him if he ever came back here I would have to beat him to a pulp… He never came back and I think Kathy and this dude from Altoona broke up after that. I felt a little guilty so I went out with Kathy once or twice to make her feel better.

Problems with Eric,

Eric is here all the time and he keeps the place at 78 degrees during the winter and 63 degrees in the summer… All that air conditioning and Heating… it is more expensive for everyone else and its not fair.

ERIC:

(has had issues with the following people) This section tells you the problems that ERIC has encountered with the other three people

Problems with KATHY:

She constantly yells at me for being up on “her” floor but the only stupid reason I put my computer up there was so others could use it. Kathy never complains when she is using the computer to do her accounting spreadsheets or downloading music, video ect.

She also complains that I don’t pay my share of the electric bill… Well she doesn’t pay anything for the road runner broad band access she uses to download all her movies and music… Really she downloaded a whole film, “She’s just not that into you”, like I really want to watch that. So what if I am on the computer a lot.. It is MY computer…

Problems with Jennifer:

She had a party at our house and I wasn’t invited… I find out about it from a friend and they used my computer to do some video projection. That’s just rude to not invite your own housemates to a party… They also drank all of my beer from the fridge.

Jennifer also comes in after work and makes a lot of noise… She usually comes in around 3am and its bang on this bang on that, slam the kitchen doors… I mean my room is on the first floor.

Problems with Mark:

His parents came to visit and they stayed with… “US”! I mean Indiana has about 3 or 4 hotels why should your parents stay here… He took Home coming weekend a bit too seriously… That should have been our weekend and instead everyone in the house had to leave because the old folks were camped out in the living room for the entire weekend.

Mark also wants to label and control everything… If you open the fridge he has his name on everything he buys… even the Ketchup… so now we have two ketchups one for him and one for the rest of the house… Pretty soon everyone will have their own dishes… I think we could get buy with just 4 plates, 4 glasses, I would drink after anyone… Well, maybe not Jennifer… Mark told me some stories,,,