Class Action Lawsuit Against Mint Urban Apartments to Move Forward

After more than three years of waiting, tenants of the Mint Urban Infinity apartments in Denver have received class certification for their lawsuit alleging that the property was improperly managed and charged fees for unprovided services.

“I felt like I got the wind knocked out of me,” says Brandon Smith, one of the named members of the class action lawsuit, which could encompass thousands of people. “I was just overwhelmed with relief and joy.”

According to Smith, he and his neighbors began organizing a lawsuit when conditions at their multi-building, 561-unit apartment complex at 1225 South Bellaire Street and 1253 South Birch Street got so bad that they couldn't afford not to act.

“I was catfished by a bad landlord, and their false advertising roped me in, and the place turned out to be a slum,” says Smith, who moved out of Mint Urban in 2022. “There was black mold, cockroaches. There were no doors on the exteriors of the buildings or security, so they were all broken. We had unhoused people sleeping in our laundry rooms, strangers walking around and checking doors to see who left their apartment door unlocked.”

Nearly all the elevators in the complex were broken, and the air conditioning and heating systems regularly went out, resulting in uninhabitable temperatures, according to residents. Smith says the property manager at the time, Cardinal Group Management, didn’t take action to fix any of the issues.

“They were gaslighting us, telling us that these were isolated incidents, until we started talking to one another,” he says. “The Warranty of Habitability in its entirety was used as toilet paper by our landlord.”

The Colorado Warranty of Habitability law requires landlords to maintain minimum living standards and complete repairs to items that impact health and safety. Residents in the lawsuit argue that Cardinal did neither, and they’re demanding a refund. They filed their original legal complaint naming Cardinal and Mint Urban property owners Glendale Properties I and II in September 2021.

Mint residents argued that the property's poor state created a breach of the Warranty of Habitability for everyone who lived there at the time, and that certain fees included in the standard lease violated Colorado law. The lawsuit seeks damages and refunds for overpayment during months that residents lived in uninhabitable conditions, as well as certain fees charged by property management and other costs incurred over the course of the lawsuit. If the former Mint residents' case is successful, a jury will determine the specific amount in damages owed.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jason Legg, of Justice for the People Legal Center, and Steven Woodrow, who is also a member of the Colorado House of Representatives.

Around ten months after an April 2023 hearing in Denver District Court to determine if the lawsuit was eligible for class action, Judge Martin Egelhoff ruled on February 22 that there are two sets of people who fit the bill: anyone who lived at Mint Urban from September 2018 to June 30, 2022, and anyone who lived there during that time period and was charged an administrative fee on or after August 2, 2019. That fee was assessed to all tenants and was meant to cover the costs of addressing maintenance during the lease period.

“The deficiencies as alleged affected not only individual units but common areas throughout the property, and occurred over an extended period of time,” Egelhoff writes in his decision.

Therefore, Egelhoff continues, the class would be large enough that litigating each case individually would be impractical. Egelhoff added that because the claims are small, tenants likely wouldn’t have the motivation to take on the expense of individual lawsuits, so class action is the best path forward.
The lawsuit had also petitioned for a third class of plaintiffs who claim they were charged illegal move-out fees by Mint Urban, but Egelhoff denied that request because he didn't believe there were enough people in that category to warrant its inclusion. Still, the plaintiffs' attorneys were pleased with the outcome.

“We're very, very happy the court agreed,” Legg says of the two classes that got certified. “Now we'll be able to do something: take them to trial. A ruling there, if we prevail, would mean that a whole community would get justice.”

Because there are 561 units and the case spans almost four years, thousands of people could get compensation should the jury agree with Smith and his former neighbors. But Cardinal Group doesn't expect the jury to see it that way.

“Cardinal cares deeply about creating communities where residents thrive,” the company says through a spokesperson. “This lawsuit erroneously challenges our dedication to that mission, so we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously in court against these allegations. Of course, we plan to request leave to appeal the recent class certification decisions. We believe that the facts in this case will speak for themselves, and we will allow the Denver District Court to decide this case, rather than the court of public opinion.”

Cardinal managed the property from 2017 until September 2022, when Cortland took over. Cardinal currently manages 26 buildings in Denver.

“We need to set a precedent in Colorado that landlords can't do whatever they want,” Smith says. “We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and just like [with] any other business, you should get what you paid for. You go to a restaurant and order a meal and they give you something else, you're going to get a refund or they replace the meal. That's not the case with housing in Colorado, because it's largely unregulated.”

Smith testified at the Colorado State Capitol on February 27 in support of a bill that would strengthen the state’s Warranty of Habitability so that other renters don't have to resort to a lawsuit like he and his neighbors did.

“We shouldn't have to tell landlords that the bare minimum is that we don't have cockroaches and we have to have heat in winter,” he says.

Legg says he’s run into many landlords who have behaved like Cardinal allegedly did at Mint Urban. He hopes that a victorious ruling will show sharper teeth on the Warranty of Habitability and create more incentives for property managers and landlords to better respect tenants’ rights.

Class certification under the Warranty is a good first step, Legg adds.

“This, hopefully, is a strong signal about enforcement of those rights in the future that will encourage landlords to do the right thing,” he says.

The case will now go through additional discovery as both sides prepare for a trial, though Cardinal plans to file arguing against the class certification.

Smith is holding steadfast as the long legal road continues, citing "an overwhelming amount of evidence against" Cardinal and Mint Urban.

“It might have been Jason, my attorney, or somebody else, but someone has kept drilling into me that the gears of justice grind slow, but they grind fine,” Smith says. "That's really resonated with me, because nobody wants to wait years to get a resolution to a dispute like this. ... I have to keep reminding myself that we're not going to lose.”