Slumlord Award

This Week In Blunders – March 9-15

Here’s a massive blunder you don’t see every day: A nationwide apartment management company and one of its complex owners just lost a $13.5 million slumlord lawsuit to tenants.

Tenants at the Mint Urban Infinity apartment complex at 1251 S. Bellaire St. in Glendale, Colo., came armed with a long list of complaints: Inoperable elevators, cockroach infestations, no hot water, broken air conditioners, insecure entry doors, trespassers and even homeless people sleeping in the halls.

On Thursday, they won what is believed to be the first class-action lawsuit for violating Colorado’s warranty of habitability laws – and perhaps one of the first in the nation.

An estimated 2,000 tenants will share in a judgement that will be delivered as a 31.42% monthly rent reduction – a payout estimated to total between $13 million and $15 million.

Join our community! Cockroaches included. (Illustration credit: AI generated.)

This is far bigger than the judgments that Business Blunders has recently covered against landlords who sexually harass their tenants.

The defendants have 60 days to appeal the verdict. But as it stands now, this case sets a nasty precedent for slumlords in Colorado and other states with similar laws protecting tenants.

It’s particularly embarrassing for Cardinal Group Companies which touts 52,700 units in 38 states on its website.