David Meyer was told he wasn't supposed to reside in his East Lansing home.

Today the finance senior will head to court to fight a ticket he received for over-occupying a house on Stoddard Avenue.

"I'm not too happy about it," said Meyer, who has since moved to Lansing. "I don't think it's fair because the city has forced housing prices up so high by only allowing new homes to be leased for three people."

But Meyer won't be the only East Lansing resident battling occupancy issues today.

In an effort to scare off potential over-occupancy violators, the city council will discuss increasing fines and ways to better enforce the city's code at a council work session at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, 101 Linden St.

The city's code enforcement department requested the discussion in light of increasing concerns about over-occupancy in rental homes. Last week alone, 22 tenants were issued tickets for violating the occupancy rules, according to city officials.

"It's not worth the risk to save a little rent," said Annette Irwin, operations administrator with the Code Enforcement and Neighborhood Conservation Department of East Lansing.

The policy is scheduled for a routine review to examine punishments for landlords found in violation, Irwin said.

Tenants are usually issued one ticket per person whose name is not on the lease agreement - with fines ranging from $250 to $1,000, not including court costs. The ordinance is also designed to penalize landlords who are aware of the violations.

To discourage repeat offenses and encourage landlords to pay closer attention to the number of tenants living at a rental property, landlords can be ticketed for each day an over-occupancy violation can be proved.

"Some think fines should be higher or tenants need to be ticketed every day," Irwin said.

Still, students often repeat the violations and ignore fines.

There were 116 over-occupancy violations of tenants and 916 violations of landlords from January to July this year, Irwin said. Another 585 tickets were issued to 15 owners who rented out property without a license.

But some students say the cost of housing is ridiculous - and easily solved by splitting the costs as many ways as possible.

"Without having illegal people in your house, you can't make the rent hardly at all," psychology senior Raquel Harris said. "We don't have illegal people and we pay over $450 a month each. That's more than my parents pay for their mortgage and their house is four times as big as ours."

The city understands the high cost of living, but strictly enforces the policy for residents' safety, the city's Deputy City Manager Jean Golden said.

"It's always a problem in East Lansing - always," Golden said. "The policy is designed to prevent disaster."

Violating the policy can cause fire hazards - especially when students set up living spaces in basements and attics. In these locations, there is usually one exit and when that is blocked by a fire, they are trapped, Fire Marshal Bob Pratt said.

"They never expect to have a fire and some don't have a renters' license, so they don't expect it to ever happen to them," he said.

Even though ticketing is not popular among students, Councilmember Beverly Baten says the city must take action to stop repeat violators.

"Over-occupancy seems to be the biggest problem we have," she said - adding council members also will discuss where the burden lies, whether it's the landlords or tenants.

Mayor Pro Tem Sam Singh said he will review the policy and listen to opinions of city officials on the subject. Landlords who know tenants are in violation of the ordinance should be punished, he added.

"We might have to change our policies to ensure it's fair for both the landlord and the tenants," he said.

Staff writer Joseph Montes contributed to this report.

Brian Charlton can be reached at charlt10@msu.edu.