Benjamin Stark remembers precisely when he started having problems with his apartment.
“That would be day one,” he said, referring to when he moved into the Felix apartment complex in southeast Denver in summer 2021. “I didn’t have (air conditioning) for about a month and a half. It was a heat wave. That was like the first red flag of three years of red flags at that first unit.”
Spurred on by the conditions at the Felix cited by tenants like Stark — and by a Colorado appellate court ruling last summer that highlighted shortcomings in existing law — state lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis this month tightened the state’s warrant of habitability. That is the section of statute governing safe and clean housing.
The newly strengthened law, which Polis signed May 3, requires faster and detailed timelines for landlords to fix problems, eases requirements for tenants to raise concerns and gives guidance for when landlords need to house tenants elsewhere.
Some tweaks to state law were directly informed by Felix tenants’ ongoing problems, lawmakers said. Some of the changes include requirements that landlords maintain records of complaints. Stark said his records at the Felix were deleted when a new property manager took over.
That was an experience that Zainab Adib said she shared. She’d heard about problems at the Felix, 11100 E. Dartmouth Ave., before she even moved in — and said the concerns were borne out during her short tenancy.
Originally from Afghanistan, Adib, 27, was living in a host family’s second bedroom. An agency was helping her find more permanent housing and focused on the Felix, but her host family warned her about the complex’s reputation.
In search of a place of her own — and to give more space back to her hosts — Adib agreed in September to rent an apartment at the Felix, albeit for only six months.
Like for Stark and other tenants, her hot water was spotty at best, she said. Often, it was non-existent, so she showered at the gym. (Stark said he washed using water in a bucket.) Despite paying a monthly fee for trash collection, garbage piled up. Some units had roach infestations. Adib’s mailbox was broken, and personal mail went missing, she said.
She’s since moved out.
“I’m glad that I can get out,” Adib said. “But I’m sorry that more people are stuck there and can’t get out.”
The recent legislation includes other changes, such as making it easier for tenants to formally flag problems to landlords, that came in response to a ruling last summer by the Colorado Court of Appeals. It found that a tenant at a separate property hadn’t properly informed his landlord of problems in his unit. The ruling, which pointed out potential loopholes in the state’s existing safe-housing laws, served as a call for legislators to amend the statute.
“Folks are asking to live in units that are free from mold; that if you’re lucky enough to live in an accessible unit (for people with disabilities) with an elevator, that your elevator gets fixed in a timely manner,” Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who was one of the legislators who backed the changes, said at the bill signing ceremony this month.
The measure was also sponsored by Sen. Tony Exum and Reps. Mandy Lindsay and Meg Froelich, all fellow Democrats.
The Miami- and West Hollywood, California-based Trion Properties, which owns the Felix, did not return a request for comment.
The company owns three other metro Denver properties, according to its website, and a group registered to one of its managing partners recently opposed separate Colorado legislation that would allow local governments to buy subsidized housing properties when they go up for sale.
Apartment Management Consultants, which assumed oversight of the property in late December, said in a statement to The Denver Post that it “immediately began resolving any ongoing issues from prior management” once it took over. MaryAnn Dewey, who testified on the company’s behalf in an early April hearing, told lawmakers that the hot water issues had been addressed, and she accused one tenant of lying to get cheap rent.
Other property owners who testified against tightening the safe-housing law said renters often contributed to issues in their apartments, including by pouring grease into drains, and that the new requirements were unreasonable for landlords.
An inspection of the Felix, conducted by the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment three weeks after Dewey testified, found the property was still noncompliant with more than a dozen parts of city code. That included issues with hot water, leaks, bug and animal problems, and overflowing dumpsters.
The property previously has been fined and has not been fully licensed with the city, said Eric Escudero, a spokesman for the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses.
Stark still lives in the Felix. He can’t afford the upfront costs to move, he said, and he and other tenants have organized with the Denver Metro Tenants Union to demand action from the landlord.
He said he was hopeful the changes to the safe-housing law would spur change and prevent property managers from promising to fix problems without following through.
“That was the problem: the law,” he said. “This would provide a protection for people.”
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