Mint Urban Infinity is a 561-unit complex comprising several buildings at 1261 South Bellaire Street, where tenants have long claimed that conditions don’t live up to the billing on the complex’s website. The Denver Department of Public Health & Environment has issued several citations for the property in the last five years.
Tenants have documented cases of mold, broken elevators, pests, unsecured doors and a lack of hot water, and argue that Cardinal Group Management, the complex’s property manager at the time, didn’t uphold its end of the leasing contract. The case has been in Denver District Court since October 2021, when tenants filed what became a class-action lawsuit alleging that Cardinal broke the Colorado Warranty of Habitability, which guarantees minimum rental standards in the state.
The trial is scheduled to last through March 12, after which a jury will determine what amount, if any, Cardinal owes former tenants. When those tenants first filed their lawsuit in 2021, their lawyers said the case could take years to get to court.
Keep reading for a recap of the action and what's on the line for both sides.
Parties in the Lawsuit
The tenants filed their complaint naming Cardinal and Mint Urban property owners Glendale Properties I and II. Cardinal managed the property from 2017 until September 2022, when Cortland took over. The class-action representatives are Brandon Smith, Kendra Raylene Keely, Lynette Rhodes and Shivani Mohan.In 2024, Judge Martin Egelhoff ruled that two sets of people could be part of the class-action suit: anyone who lived at Mint Urban from September 2018 to June 30, 2022, and anyone who lived there during that time 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, but the lawsuit alleges that maintenance never occurred, so tenants shouldn’t have been charged.
Thousands of Mint tenants, current and former, have had the option to exclude themselves or opt into the lawsuit since February 2024.
Often, class-action cases for apartment complexes are denied certification because building managers argue that each unit is different. In this case, Cardinal also argued that COVID-19 supply-chain issues impeded work, in an attempt to toss the lawsuit.
But Egelhoff didn’t think either was enough to prevent certification.
“The deficiencies as alleged affected not only individual units but common areas throughout the property, and occurred over an extended period of time,” the judge wrote in his decision to certify the lawsuit.
Therefore, Egelhoff said, the class would be large enough that litigating each case individually would be impractical. Additionally, because the claims are small, tenants likely wouldn’t have the motivation to take on the expense of individual lawsuits, so class action was the best path forward, according to the judge.
Cardinal appealed that decision to the Supreme Court of Colorado, which denied the petition.
The tenants are represented by Jason Legg of Justice for the People Legal Center, and Steven Woodrow, who is also a member of the state House of Representatives. Dre Chiriboga-Flor, who was executive director of economic justice nonprofit 9to5 Colorado at the time the lawsuit was filed, has also supported tenants through the process. Chiriboga-Flor and Legg have since formed the Justice for the People Legal Center to unite organizing work and legal work.
Why are Mint Urban Tenants Suing?
“The landlord hasn’t kept their part of the bargain — it’s as simple as that,” Legg told Westword in 2021. "These tenants have paid their rent, but Cardinal Group Management has not provided them with a safe, healthy place to live, as required by their lease contract and the law.”At the time, the tenants asked the court to allow them to break their leases without penalties and ensure they wouldn’t face penalties for withholding rent payments while their lease terms weren’t being met. They argued that because Cardinal violated the Warranty of Habitability, the company shouldn’t have been allowed to collect rent.
Thirty tenants had already signed affidavits regarding alleged violations of the Warranty of Habitability at the time the lawsuit was filed.
“I was catfished by a bad landlord, and their false advertising roped me in, and the place turned out to be a slum,” Smith, who moved out of Mint Urban in 2022, told Westword.
Elevators were constantly broken, hot water was out for nine days at one point in 2021, and the general maintenance and security of the property were woefully lacking, according to tenants.
The DDPHE has issued repeated violations to Mint Urban over the years, documenting some of the tenants’ allegations.
In 2021, the department cited the property for both exterior and interior doors that were either not sealed or not in sound condition. The DDPHE also identified mold-like substances, roaches and a handful of lighting, electric and structural problems at that time.
In 2022, residents experienced air-conditioning malfunctions during a heatwave. Subsequently, the DDPHE sent an inspector to the complex and discovered unsecured wiring in an elevator, water damage, uncovered heater baseboards and exterior doors that don’t lock properly. All of those issues violate Denver’s Rules and Regulations Governing Residential Health.
Later that year, Mint Urban wasn’t able to turn the heat on in five buildings until November 4, well after cold temperatures had hit Denver.
The health department issued multiple Notices of Violation to property management, requiring the landlord to make necessary repairs in order to meet the city's Rules and Regulations Governing Residential Health for heat. Although Cortland had taken over at the time, the conditions occurred during Cardinal's tenure.
In addition to alleging a lack of proper maintenance, tenants also argue that certain fees included in their standard leases violated Colorado law, such as the maintenance fee Egelhoff mentioned in his class certification ruling.
What are Mint Urban Tenants Asking for?
Tenants are asking for damages and refunds for overpayment during the months they lived in uninhabitable conditions. They’re also asking for refunds of certain fees charged by property management, as well as other costs incurred during the lawsuit.If the former Mint Urban residents' case is successful, a jury will determine the specific amount in damages owed. This could differ between the two classes in the suit, though many people are part of both.
“We need to set a precedent in Colorado that landlords can't do whatever they want,” Smith told Westword in 2024. “We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and just like [with] any other business, you should get what you paid for.”
At the time, Legg also shared that he’s run into many landlords who have behaved like Cardinal did at Mint Urban. He hopes that a victorious ruling will give sharper teeth to the Warranty of Habitability and create more incentives for property managers and landlords to respect tenants’ rights.
