According to one resident, her mother fell into an open hole in the dog park on the Cortland property, requiring a shoulder replacement, while another tenant's entire apartment flooded, destroying most of his belongings. Both say Cortland hasn’t been helpful, and one has retained an attorney to sue for negligence and damages.
These are extreme examples, but residents at the 1451 24th Street property have complained for years that Cortland doesn't respond to maintenance requests and leaves the property in poor condition.
“I haven't met a person in this building that doesn't have some sort of an issue,” says Margot Cucinella, whose mother allegedly fell into the hole on Cortland property. According to Cucinella, a drain hole with a wrapped cover was hidden by the snow in February, and her mother unknowingly stepped into it.
Her mother has to have a shoulder replacement as a result, Cucinella says, but Cortland has argued that her mother should have known not to walk there, offering a settlement that did not cover costs her the emergency room visit.
Cucinella says her family did not want to sue, which is why they've waited until months after the injury, but when an agreement couldn't be reached with Cortland they felt they had nowhere else to turn.
“I’ve exhausted so many outlets,” Cucinella says. “I can’t seem to get any help.”
Before and after her mother's injury, Cucinella says the conditions of Cortland on Blake have been both disappointing and dangerous.
"Whether it's leaking pipes, no AC, mice in the unit, roaches in the unit, no water, no hot water; I mean, the list just goes on and on,” she says.
On Cucinella's move-in day, "the apartment was filthy, absolutely filthy," she recalls. Not only that, but a closet door in the apartment fell off the hinges and onto her shortly after she moved in.
When she reported injuries from the incident, she says Cortland told her that "the door is hollow." Since then, the door has continued to fall off the hinges, according to Cucinella.
Many of the appliances, including the refrigerator, weren’t working properly from the start of her lease, either, she says. But Cortland ignored her maintenance requests about the refrigerator until the appliance gave out entirely, causing her to lose hundreds of dollars in groceries, according to Cucinella.
Cucinella says she's noticed an understaffed and overworked maintenance staff, and that upper management doesn’t take residents seriously when they report building issues. Air conditioning problems are common for residents, too, she says, but repairs at her unit often take two or three weeks to fix.
Even when Cortland is responsive, the solutions aren’t permanent, she adds.
According to Cucinella, her unit's patio floods any time there it rains or snows because there is no drain built into the ground-level area. Each time the patio floods, someone from the maintenance team has to come drain it as multiple inches of water build up. She says the building wants to give her a sump pump, but that she would have to run it using her own electricity, which she does not think is a fair solution.
“Why is that my responsibility?” Cucinella questions.
Cucinella has documented cockroaches on her patio and mice inside her unit, as well, pointing to trash removal issues at the building; she says people regularly leave waste in the hallways and no one cleans up feces from the dog walk area, either.
The pool and hot tubs rarely work and the elevators have problems at the Cortland on Blake, she adds. That is backed up by the Denver Fire Department, which confirms there have been two elevator rescue incidents at the building already in 2025.
The Denver Department of Excise and Licenses reports that the complex’s swimming pool license, meant to ensure the pool and hot tub are safe and operational, expired in 2022. The building has a pending application for a new swimming pool license that will require an inspection by the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment.
The DDPHE has been active at the property, too, but not for pool upkeep. According to the health department, six complaints at Cortland on Blake have been investigated between February 2024 and July 2025, with complaints including a lack of air conditioning, methamphetamine contamination, exterior doors not latching or locking, and a lack of running water.
Cucinella reported a broken garage door, broken exterior doors, trash accumulation in trash chute rooms and dog waste in the interior courtyard area to the DDPHE on July 7. As of July 15, the DDPHE found that the garage doors, trash cute room and courtyard comply with city regulations. However, the department issued the building a notice of violation as one of the exterior doors does not properly latch and lock.
“If it remains uncorrected at the time of reinspection, it could result in an administrative citation and fine,” according to the DDPHE.
Despite the many complaints, the property has an active local residential rental license through 2027, according to Excise and Licenses.
Cortland passed an inspection by a private inspector in December 2022 after initially failing due to smoke detectors working improperly. The license could be re-examined if DDPHE cites the property and the property does not fix the issue or pay fines, but that process has not started.
Flooded Unit
Cortland on Blake resident Kyle Shinkle says Cortland “doesn’t deserve to be a company” after his experience with building management. He corroborates Cucinella's account of a broken garage door, and both say they have dealt with hot water problems. Shinkle says he'd had leaking pipes in his apartment for the last two years without Cortland permanently fixing the problem.“Every time I've sent emails and maintenance requests,” he says, but those requests were repeatedly ignored until one of those pipes burst on July 8, flooding his apartment.
“Everything is destroyed,” Shinkle says. “My couch was flooded. My 65-inch Samsung TV is done. Rug, done. Appliances, my bed. It's just a total loss.”
He says that rather than being sympathetic or helpful, Cortland told him he should have purchased better renters insurance since his pipes were leaking all the time.
“They're awful,” he says of Cortland.
According to Shinkle, Cortland originally put him up in a hotel but then changed his hotel location during the middle of the day while he was at work. Because he didn’t register to the new hotel on time, Cortland canceled the reservation, leaving him without a place to stay, he says.
Cortland then offered to let Shinkle move into an empty apartment at the building or back into his unit, he says, but neither are realistic options because all of his furniture was ruined in the flood, and Shinkle isn't very keen on coming back after his last experience.
“For them to even say that is mind-blowing, because everything in my living room is just piled up in the middle of my living room, and it's all damaged,” he says. “My apartment is demolished. It's dirty. They unplugged my fridge, so all the food has rotted and it stinks.”
Shinkle says he purchased renters’ insurance but has been told it only covers fire damage; he doesn’t think he should have to go through renter’s insurance, anyway, as the problem was caused by the negligence of his landlord. Still, he doubts Cortland plans to give him a cent.
For now, Shinkle is crashing at his girlfriend’s place while he searches for another apartment. His lease with Cortland ends August 9, and he says he can’t wait to be out.
Cortland has not replied to requests for comment.
