Updated 4:14 p.m.

In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the University of Maryland will begin the school year entirely online for undergraduate students. But the state-affiliated entity that owns two on-campus apartment complexes has said it won’t allow students to cancel their lease agreements. The only option is to find another student to sublet.

Students were given the option to cancel housing and dining hall agreements on the College Park campus back in June without financial penalty until Aug. 12, according to the resident life website. But the 3,000 students living in The Courtyards and South Campus Commons managed by Capstone On-Campus Management were not given the same deal, despite the buildings being located on university-owned land and listed as an official residence community in UMD’s 2019-2020 handbook, and only being open to students.

According to the university’s student newspaper, Capstone said the owner of the apartments – the Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO) – can’t release every student from their lease because of its responsibility to “bond holders, vendors, and other entities,” the Diamondback reported. Capstone and MEDCO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The outlet also said that more than 100 students have organized an email campaign to state and local officials and urged them to file complaints with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. A spokeswoman for Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said in an email to WAMU that the office’s Consumer Protection Bureau “will attempt to mediate the complaints,” but didn’t offer any details on the state’s response to the issue.

According to the statement from Capstone on behalf of MEDCO to the Diamondback, students are able to transfer their lease to another student renter, but residents are saying that’s unrealistic given the status of classes and the pandemic. Alyssa Shermer is a senior at the university and has started a petition to release the students from their leases entirely.

“With a raging global pandemic, it is difficult to find another student who is willing to take over current leases and take on the risk of COVID-19,” Shermer wrote on the Change.org petition that now has nearly 2,500 signatures. Shermer wrote that it’s unfair to hold students to lease agreements they signed with the housing office in February “before anyone could have foreseen the pandemic and online courses. I believe it is the University’s responsibility to take care of its students,” Shermer wrote.

Shermer also organized a vehicle caravan to protest the situation on the College Park campus through the Change.org petition that now has almost 2,500 signatures. On Aug. 10, around 15 students and some parents drove their cars to campus starting from The Courtyards to the finance department, Maryland Matters reported, wielding signs with slogans like “people over profit,” and “#HousingHostages.”

Some consumer rights advocates have said Capstone and MEDCO are taking advantage of the renters because they are students.

“If these tenants were not students, they would face a financial penalty from breaking their lease and would not be forced to find another tenant to take over their lease,” Dariya Brown, who represents students for the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, said in an email. “However, because they are not allowed to sublet, these students’ only option to get out of their leases is to find another student to take over their lease.”

Brown cited increasing financial strain caused by the pandemic and an uncertain job market as reasons the management company and owner should consider letting the students out of their lease agreements.

“Why should students be stuck paying an additional $12,000 for an apartment they aren’t staying in and don’t feel safe in?” Brown said.

University students will begin online instruction on Aug. 31, with undergraduate in-person instruction set to begin mid-September. Student tenants of The Courtyard and South Campus Commons are continuing their effort to organize, passing along an online document to help students understand their rights.

Written by university senior Julia Kane, the document says “if you are one of the 3,000 or so students who signed a lease to live in South Campus Commons or Courtyards, you are NOT stuck! You should have a way out.”

A spokeswoman for the University of Maryland wrote in an email to DCist/WAMU that the administration is trying to make it easier for students to transfer their leases to other students looking for housing. Students can’t terminate their leases because the contracts are with a private company, not the university. “Some of our apartment communities are engaged in partnerships with private management companies that the university has no control over.”

This story has been updated with comment from the University of Maryland.