A loophole in the city's new student-friendly leasing law seems to have rendered it largely impotent in stopping the fall housing rush it was designed to correct.

Citing pressure from landlords and other students and a lack of awareness about the ordinance, many current and prospective tenants said they are feeling no less anxiety about their housing now then they were at this time last year.

City Council passed the ordinance in the spring in an effort to push back the earliest lease-signing date so students don't feel pressure to scramble for housing early in the school year.

The ordinance, for which the student leaders lobbied the Council heavily states that landlords cannot show property or sign leases until 90 days of the current lease period has expired.

But a condition in the language of the ordinance provides a loophole, giving students the option of signing a form to waive the required 90-day waiting period.

The waiver allows landlords to show their properties and sign leases early if the current tenant signs.

A signed waiver form is essentially a golden ticket for landlords who want to sell early and students who want to find housing early. Landlords have proven extremely careful and clever about approaching tenants to with the forms.

A current Campus Rentals tenant said her landlord asked her to sign a waiver form when she picked up the keys to her house during move-in in August.

"They handed me a form that asked whether or not we were planning on signing the lease for the following year," said the tenant, who requested anonymity to avoid conflict with her landlord. "That was shocking to me. I mean, I hadn't even walked in the front door of the house yet."

According to several students, the practice of asking tenants to sign the waivers immediately upon moving in is not uncommon among major campus rental companies.

Many tenants have already received at least one - if not two - follow-up letters regarding their status for the upcoming year.

Although many letters appear simply to ask for information, students said they made them feel pressured to make decisions about their upcoming plans.

The feeling of pressure is compounded by the fact that most tenants do not know the details of the new ordinance.

Phil Choi, an electrical engineering graduate student who rents from Oppenheimer Properties, described a letter he received in the mail, which left him under the impression that if he did not re-sign his lease by Oct. 30, he could lose his apartment.

"It was pretty vague - they stapled a paraphrased version of the ordinance to the back of the letter," Choi said. "It said that if they didn't hear from us by Oct. 30, then they would assume that our apartment would be available."

Jon Keller, an Oppenheimer Properties official, said that after Oct. 30, the rent for next years for the houses could increase. However, he said tenants have until Nov. 30 to declare their status for next year.

"Everything we've been sending out has gone directly through our attorney," Keller said.

He said the company has been sending out a form for tenants to fill out if they feel like it. If they know for a fact they won't re-sign, they have the option of sending it back.

"We are not asking the tenants over the phone or pressuring them, we just give them the opportunity to tell us," Keller said. "We aren't signing any leases until the 90th day."

Some landlords have been encouraging students to sign the waivers by offering incentives.

Dan's Houses sent out an e-mail telling tenants that if they sign by Oct. 1, the landlord would guarantee not to increase rent the next year.

Campus Management is holding a raffle for students who send back their waiver forms. According to a mass mailing from the rental company, if tenants complete a response form by Oct. 20, they will be entered in a prize drawing for $100 and $200 Best Buy gift cards.

City Councilman Leigh Greden said that when the ordinance was passed, it was clear that the Council would review it after a year.

"If we hear numerous stories of landlords taking advantage of the condition, we would be willing to look at it again," Greden said.

Laura Van Hyfte, the former liaison between the City Council and the Michigan Student Assembly who served during the push for the ordinance, said the Council added the waiver provision to benefit University seniors.

"The idea was that if seniors knew that they wouldn't be returning to Ann Arbor, they could sign the waiver and it would take the pressure off of them and off of the landlords," Van Hyfte said. "It was a courtesy issue."

But the waiver provision has affected more students than simply the seniors for whom it was intended.

"The draft that (the City Council) passed was the best foreseeable solution to the problem at hand," Van Hyfte said.