By Steve Babcock

For sophomore psychology major Shannon O’Karma, living at 165 Hemenway St., a building with Northeastern leased apartments, has had its up and downs. When she first moved in, she admitted she had her doubts.

“”It wasn’t clean … there were water stains on the walls,” she said. “The building is slanted; it kind of feels like a fun house.”

The apartment and those like it on Westland Avenue and Hemenway Street have come under scrutiny this week from the Boston Inspectional Services department when Northeastern was accused of dodging inspection laws, even going so far as to call the leased apartments unsafe in some cases.

Northeastern officials said the responsibility to secure inspection permits falls to the landlords, and according to several student occupants, including O’Karma, the landlords are being responsive and efficient.

“The landlords did paint the walls,” O’Karma said. “We called on Monday and they came on Thursday, so that was really good.”

Sean Mulcahy, a sophomore political science major who also lives in a leased apartment, said that, despite being a “little dirty,” his landlord was taking care of the flat.

“The landlords take care of mostly everything, they came in and fixed the light, the shade and the smoke detectors,” he said.

Both light fixtures and smoke detectors are mandated by city housing laws.

At 115 St. Stephen St., the conditions appear bleak to criminal justice middler Stephanie McClelland.

“It’s not too good over here. The whole apartment needs to be painted,” she said.

However, like Mulcahy and O’Karma, McClelland said her landlord was responsive to her needs.

“I’ve put in so many work orders and they’ve fixed everything — except for the paint,” she said.

Paint jobs are not mandated by the city’s inspection regulations.

Problems with the leased properties have spread to the neighborhood. The Symphony United Neighbors claimed the Northeastern students living in their neighborhood were disrupting their quality of life, especially on the weekends.

Area landlords, though, have reported relatively few instances.

“We’ve had a very low percentage of residents in the building complaining about other residents in the building,” said Derek Carney, who manages 115 St. Stephen St. There hasn’t been any in this building that I’ve known in the past six months.”

Joy Realty, which owns four of the apartment buildings on Westland Avenue, has only reported one resident complaint recently.

Other residents have different stories.

Residents at 45 Westland Ave. have reported that students have thrown bottles down the stairs, and were continuing to be loud until 3 a.m. over the past few weeks.

Most residents maintain that students have as much a right to the space as anyone else.

“I don’t think it’s really that big a problem. The only times that it does get a little bit loud is Friday and Saturday evenings. I mean, that’s the way it is pretty much for all campuses,” said 97 St. Stephen St. sophomore Alicia Wancheforti. “It’s college, that’s the way it is.”

A Gainsborough Street resident who wished to remain anonymous said that the police should be cracking down with the “paddy wagon,” but said there was no problem with the leased apartments.

“I have no problem with [students being so close to other tenants],” the resident said.

– News Correspondents Mike Naughton, Lindsey Hawkins and Jen Nelson contributed to this report.