AURORA | The city is seeking volunteers and accepting applications for its Rental Registration Task Force to advise city lawmakers on the creation of a rental registration and licensing program.
In June, city council approved moving forward with creating a registration and licensing program for rental properties to bolster the city’s rental inspection program and code enforcement.
The task force is set to provide input on what the program should look like.
The task force will have 13 members, including three tenant representatives, two small rental-property owners with seven or fewer units, two large multifamily owners or operators with eight or more units, one property-management professional, one affordable-housing or nonprofit housing provider, one legal-aid or tenant-services representative and one neighborhood or community representative. Two council members will also serve on the board.
The task force is expected to meet once or twice per month and meetings will be public.
Gia Nyhuis, an attorney for Justice for the People Legal Center, told city council members in June there are not enough legal resources in the region to help tenants navigate habitability issues.
“This type of program is an incredibly important tool in ensuring that the laws on the books — laws that say that if a landlord chooses to rent a unit, that unit must be livable — that those laws are enforced, and that the renters in Aurora are living in safe and habitable housing,” Nyhuis said. “As it currently operates, the legal field alone is not enough of an enforcement mechanism for warranty of habitability violations.”
The licensing program aims to build on the city’s existing apartment rental inspection program, which regularly evaluates buildings with more than eight units for health and safety standards. Inspections for other rental properties are available at the request of tenants.
Even with the inspection program, the city regularly hears issues about troubling rental conditions, including when the issue drew national attention after managers of an apartment complex claimed, without evidence, that poor conditions were caused by Venezuelan gangs. The city has since settled a lawsuit against the property owners, after shutting down the apartments and deeming them unlivable for a period of time.
Applications to serve on the board can be found online at AuroraGov.org/Boards and are due Nov. 16.
Let’s look deeper into the ongoing legal issues between the city and the owner of the apartments that the Sentinel believes has been settled and undisputed.
“the issue drew national attention after managers of an apartment complex claimed, without evidence, that poor conditions were caused by Venezuelan gangs. The city has since settled a lawsuit against the property owners, after shutting down the apartments and deeming them unlivable for a period of time.”
OH Yea! This is far from over. Ostensibly the city says they have full control, despite they’re unable to figure out how to finish the job. What to do with the massively broken property sinking and taking on more water? And as you will see the city offers no answers during the 7-news report. Councilman Curtis Gardner has now said he is on the case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNHyHtEOSKw
In addition, in the years of long drama is the upcoming city prosecution of the CBZ owner, Zev Baumgarten. This unfinished case is for the enforcement of many city code violations by CBZ. It is set for a weeklong trial starting in January. Baumgarten, the mystery man will get to have his say in what happened. He has been very private up till now and has shown himself to be very adroit in putting the city on defense. The city has tried with politics, the mayor specifically to water things down from what was going on in the community. This trial should be fascinating as it will have Stan Garnett with his fully skilled legal team against the city. Baumgarten without doubt means business as he made a pretrial appearance at a hearing and then surprisingly shows up on YouTube as a reporter finds him. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tRD8EvYSatQ
Perhaps the Sentinel will have some interest follow the story?
All I know is that with the rental rates as high as they are in Colorado, there should be plenty of room in an owner’s profits to keep repairs up. The issue here is enforcement. Inspections should be on a schedule, there should be a mechanism for renter complaints to trigger an off-schedule inspections followed by swift action to force the owner to make repairs or pay for the renter’s move to another facility, and as we now know that years-long litigation does not bring action, there must be a mechanism to shut down apartments owned by deadbeats quickly!