Amid a flurry of move-in vans and lava lamps, hundreds of tickets and violations were handed out to landlords of the student-populated neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton last weekend.

Tickets were given to landlords for offenses ranging from holes in the walls of apartments to loose floorboards. The most common infractions were lacking smoke detectors, but inspectors also handed out citations for not putting batteries in the smoke detectors and neglecting to fix exposed wires.

While most violations were minor, some apartments were condemned because ‘the inspectors deemed them uninhabitable for human beings,’ said Lisa Kimberly, a spokesperson for the Boston Inspectional Services Department, an agency that oversees living conditions in Boston.

‘Nine BU students living on 5 Wallingford Rd. had to be relocated’ after their apartment was condemned, Kimberly said, adding that nine unrelated people living together in an apartment is illegal in Massachusetts.

‘Apartments rented by more than four students are illegal unless they have a lodging house license granted,’ Kimberly said.

Amanda Ernst, a College of Communication junior, said her apartment building was littered with abandoned trash moving materials, dressers and grills that residents who were moving out no longer wanted.

‘When people moved out and packed up and put whatever they didn’t want on the street, people were walking up and down the street taking stuff,’ Ernst said. ‘We had to say, ‘This is ours, you can’t have it.”

Ernst said her building received a citation for the piles of surrounding trash.

‘The trash wasn’t in bags,’ Ernst said. ‘There’s a place behind the building but it’s been full. The people who moved out just put it on the street. They don’t care.’

Landlords generally have 24 hours to correct any violations found. They must then call the ISD to ask for re-inspections of housing units in question. Ernst said the trash was finally removed yesterday.

Kimberly advised students to inspect their prospective apartments, regardless of what their landlords tell them. Many landlords threaten potential student renters with deadlines to deter them from thoroughly inspecting the condition of the unit before signing a lease agreement, she said.

‘Landlords will say that this is the last day to look at an apartment or that someone will take the apartment the next day,’ she said. ‘You should inspect the apartment and ask for a pre-rental inspection anyway.

‘Students should still inspect their properties, look for holes in the walls, light fixtures and make sure there’s no hanging wires. If they have any questions, they should call the ISD,’ she added.

She emphasized the importance of a pre-rental inspection conducted by the ISD.

‘Students should also make sure that when they’re renting the property they ask the landlord if they did a pre-rental inspection,’ Kimberly said. ‘An inspector will come in and make sure it’s a safe, clean and legal dwelling. Rented homes must be inspected within 45 days of a new residency.’

Kimberly also warned of bed bugs in apartments, an issue that gained city-wide attention in the spring after complaints of the critters increased in Allston and Brighton. The best way to prevent bed bugs is to avoid used furniture, she said.

‘Don’t pick up used furniture from the street,’ she said.

Students also should make sure they have functioning smoke detectors in their apartment buildings, Kimberly added.

‘I can’t emphasize enough that you should not take the batteries out of the smoke detector to use them for something else,’ she said.

Kimberly said students should also avoid piling too many tenants into a single apartment, as the BU students on 5 Wallingford Rd. did.

‘I know that rents are high, but do not overcrowd,’ she said. ‘It’s a safety hazard and illegal to have more than four residents living in one place.’

This weekend, the ISD will conduct another round of inspections in Allston and Brighton. They will work in conjunction with the Boston Police Department and ‘ respond to excessive noise and loud parties’ and hand out noise violations to individuals while also entering buildings to make sure that apartment conditions are adequate, Kimberly said.