The tenant-landlord relationship has always been tenuous, with horror stories on both sides: nosy landlords who get up in your business, refuse to fix a leaky refrigerator or broken windows. Tenants who steal appliances, ruin carpet and fail to pay rent for months.
Those are the exceptions, but some disputes can end in evictions or lawsuits that sour the relationship with those who follow.
In Colorado, the scale is often tipped toward the landlord, according to RentCafe.com, which ranks states on renters' rights, based on 10 criteria, including security deposits and termination notices. There are only six states worse than Colorado when it comes to renters' protections, the survey said.
Landlords, for instance, can kick a tenant out with three days notice for nonpayment of rent or violating a lease, but they have up to two months to return a security deposit. Landlords can enter the property at any time without notice and charge whatever they want for a security deposit — even though most charge one month or first and last month's rent.
Affordable housing advocacy groups have been fighting for decades to level the playing field. But it's been a long slog, with many setbacks and few incremental successes.
That's not great news for Fort Collins, where about 47 percent of the population rents and units are in short supply and costly, inherently giving landlords the upper hand.
Renters' experiences
When the heat went out on a Saturday in February during a cold snap, the temperature fell below zero.
The landlord of a home being rented by a family of six didn't want to pay the $100 to help get the heat fixed during the weekend and instead brought two space heaters for the 1,356 square-foot house, the renters said.
The family went to a motel for two nights. They submitted the bill to the management company, which refused to pay. "They called my husband ignorant and asked, 'Who gave you permission to go to a motel?'" said the mother of four.
The couple, who had lived in the house for more than four years, are now eating the cost and have been asked to vacate their lease early. The family asked their names not be used because they need a reference from the landlord to rent a new place.
"I have four kids and they were not going to suffer," the woman said.
Rocio Chartier of Fort Collins said she had just rented a new apartment and was given the wrong key about a half hour before the management company closed for the weekend.
"I had to break into my own apartment and buy new locks," Chartier said in a Facebook message. The cost of the locks was deducted from her rent. But it didn't stop there. "They secured the kitchen sink pipe with painters tape so once I finally got in, the pipe instantly became disconnected and sprayed water all over the floor and the toilet wouldn't flush.
"Home sweet home," she said.
Ali Gillis said her management company "flat out ignores tenant complaints and repair requests. It's a complete night and day difference before and after signing a lease."
Landlord perspective
Longtime landlord Charles Clarke sees it differently.
"There's a lot of asymmetrical stuff in the law," said Clarke, who owns 40 units in Fort Collins and Windsor. "The landlord has to give the security deposit back within a certain amount of time (30-60 days), but the tenant doesn't have to pay (damages) within a certain amount of time" after they leave.
"If they don't pay the utilities, the landlord ends up paying. The tenant doesn't pay," said Clarke, who has evicted only about 10 tenants in his 40-plus years of renting property. But he says he's replaced plenty of pee-stained carpet and repainted walls covered in less-than-desirable colors.
A recent tenant painted wood cabinets and sprayed silver paint on a wood chandelier. Clarke said he'd charge them when they moved out, but admits, "It's an empty threat. They don't have the money to replace the cabinets."
He can withhold their security deposit but otherwise has no leverage other than to take them to court.
Every time he hears about changes in renters' rights, he hopes they are fair to both sides.
In Joan Welsh's 20 years as a Fort Collins landlord, she's evicted only one tenant, who had fallen woefully behind on his rent. When he left, he stole her washer and dryer.
She blames herself for not trusting her own instincts. "In all these years, I found when I accept tenants that I have reservations about, that's when I have problems."
Changing the law
According to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, the office participated in 270 evictions in fiscal year 2017. The sheriff's office participates in evictions when a tenant refuses a judge's order to vacate the premises. Nearly 360 evictions were scheduled, but not all were carried out.
"Historically, we have not had strong tenant protections," said Chaer Robert, manager of Family Economic Security Program for the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, a Denver-based advocacy group that researches and makes policy recommendations on topics ranging from health care access to economic security.
The group released a report last year, "Facing Eviction Alone," examining Denver eviction data over several years. Researchers found most tenants going through eviction proceedings were rarely represented by an attorney and almost always lost in court.
Fighting it is often time consuming and expensive, and the odds of winning are slim, said Andrea "Dre" Chiriboga-Flor, transit/housing organizer for 9to5, a membership organization of working women in the U.S. dedicated to putting working women’s issues on the public agenda.
Every year, advocacy groups introduce legislation to strengthen tenants' rights, "but it didn't matter," Robert said. "We got absolutely nowhere."
Membership groups and nonprofits that work with low-income and homeless groups are adding their voices to increase the number of affordable housing units and strengthen renters' rights.
"It's amazing to me the number of health-related nonprofits telling me they can't do their job because of the high cost of housing," Robert said. "More and more advocacy groups and concerned citizens are recognizing it's time for some degree of rebalancing," she said.
This legislative session in Colorado this year has seen limited success for new affordable housing or renters' rights issues.
Senate Bill 10, which requires landlords to give a copy of their lease and receipts for rent that's paid in cash, passed the House and Senate and is awaiting Gov. John Hickenlooper's signature.
Tongue-in-cheek, Robert calls it "a radical bill."
Another bill, House Bill 1127, would have capped rental application fees but died in committee.
“Skyrocketing rent prices are squeezing low-income workers who apply to live in rental housing — and high application fees and a secretive process makes it worse," said Neha Mahajan, 9to5 executive director, in a statement.
"Many working families find that exorbitant fees make it difficult and sometimes impossible to take even that first step in finding housing," Chiriboga-Flor said.
"Many working families find that exorbitant fees make it difficult and sometimes impossible to take even that first step in finding housing," Chiriboga-Flor said.
Clarke, the Fort Collins-Windsor landlord, charges application fees but takes one at a time. If that person doesn't check out, he'll accept another application. More than that, "it's too much hurting my brain. If it's a good tenant, why wouldn't I take them?"
Most landlords, he said, want good tenants and don't want to evict anyone. "If they're a good tenant and paying their rent, I have no desire to make things difficult for them."
9to5 blames the Colorado Apartment Association and Colorado Association of Realtors for HB1127's defeat. "We were surprised that this reasonable proposal for fair rental application fees and a transparent application process faced such fierce pushback from special interest groups," Mahajan said.
The vice president of government and community affairs for the Colorado Apartment Association said she, too, was disappointed 1127 was killed.
"We worked with the sponsors in the House and were really close," said Nancy Burke. "At the Capitol, it's baby steps. I hope we can look at it again and see how we can make it work."
The association is not trying to make it harder for renters, she said. "But we are watching and any legislation that would increase the administrative burden and would ultimately increase rents, we would be opposed to it."
Landlords, she said, are not trying to evict renters. "It takes on average a month to two months to turn an apartment when someone leaves," she said. "That's lost dollars."
In Denver, the market is beginning to soften, meaning more supply is coming online, which will drive down rents. "It's not the case that we are kicking people out to get more money."
Nonrefundable application fees are generally required for most rentals, but there is no accountability as to how and when the money is spent, Chiriboga-Flor said. Landlords could accept 20 applications, each with a $40 application fee, and it's never known if the fees were used to run background checks or not.
One 9to5 member racked up $5,600 in application fees within 18 months, never got calls back and never got any explanation why she was not selected, Chiriboga-Flor said. "Of course landlords should be able to recover their actual costs, but they shouldn’t be able to use applications to generate profits."
While disappointed, Chiriboga-Flor said "there was no way in hell the bill was going to pass. We thought it was a logical piece."
One bill yet to be introduced would expand on the "warranty of habitability" law already on the books. It would allow a tenant to end a lease and withhold rent if a landlord violates the warranty of habitability: basically, if the unit is uninhabitable.
It would require a strict notice process or relief from a court. "The noticing requirements for injunctive relief are even more absurd (not only notice to the landlord, but the tenant must also notify their municipal government)," said Jack Regenbogen, attorney for Colorado Center on Law and Policy.
The center is optimistic that attitudes toward renters are beginning to change. Nationally, the rate of homeownership is dropping, and unlike 20 years ago "when it was more likely that a homeowner was more active civically and tenants were seen as short-timers who didn't get involved in long-term policy making," Robert said.
"Now, people who can't afford to or choose not to be homeowners are getting more involved. And, people are moving here from states that have more protections so they're coming in with a set of presumptions," she said.
"If you can't live in a unit because of something, mold or bugs, should you still have to pay rent? The fight for basic habitability has been a 20-year struggle," Robert said.