In my original, if lengthy, testimony in support of Safe & Healthy Homes this past session I managed to explain how landlords take advantage of the law's presumption of good intentions and in fact exploit renters, rip us off, treat us as worthless yet expect us to pay rent for dilapidated conditions. Here's my original full written testimony.
Today, this committee is considering a
bill that strengthens equitable enforcement of a lease contract
between tenants and landlords. I am here to share my experience as a
renter so you know the impact on human lives and community when
renters bear the presumption of bad faith as the General Assembly
codified into Warranty of Habitability law in 2008. The presumption
in law favoring the landlord's so-called good intentions almost cost
me my life and in another incident almost destroyed my credit and
access to assistance.
In 2009, I moved into an apartment
that was affordable based on my income only to learn that winter that
the property manager had not disclosed that the gas heating unit had
been red-tagged. I found out after I woke up so dizzy and nauseous in
the middle of the night that I had to crawl from my bedroom across
the living room to open the front door and fall out across the
threshold into the snow. When my head cleared up enough that I could
stand again, I opened every window in the apartment and shut off the
heater that was burning bright orange flames. I left a message for
the property manager describing what happened and asked to have
someone check the gas heat unit. When I got home from work the
following day, the manager and an employee of a well-known reputable
heating and cooling company were in my apartment. I asked if the
heater was the problem and what had happened. The manager simply said
that it was fixed now but the guy that did the work turned to me and
said, “I don't know how you're still alive.” He further informed
me that the unit had been red-tagged by the City as hazardous and
should not have been used until it had been repaired and inspected. I
was that close to being a casualty of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Simply because the landlord preferred to risk my life than spend a
few bucks to repair a red-tagged gas heater.
My second experience with a slumlord
took place in 2014 ending in early 2015 with the advice of Colorado
Legal Services. When I moved into an apartment in Fountain, I noted a
long list of discrepancies including mold in a bathroom wall and
ceiling, loose tiles around the tub, a broken window that could not
be closed or locked, a sliding patio door that did not have a lock,
and other maintenance problems. For the next month I kept asking
about the promised repairs, then things got worse. The day after
Thanksgiving started out as a normal day. But that quickly changed.
As I ran the water in the bathroom sink to brush my teeth I noticed
the drain was sluggish, then the toilet bowl started to gurgle and
back up with brown water. The same gurgling sound crept under the
bathtub followed by a stench, then debris and brown
water—technically, greywater. Within minutes I heard a rush of
people pass my front door, panic in their voices. I ran to the door
and stepped out into the hall. No one could find the manager or
figure out how to shut off the water main.
Over the next hour, greywater filled
the bathtubs, sinks, and toilets of every apartment on the first
floor. We were flooded. Someone finally reached the property owner;
he was not eager to leave his $500,000 home in Monument on a holiday
weekend to deal with a maintenance issue at his slum property in
Fountain. When he finally arrived about six hours later, he said he
would wait until Monday to call a plumber because the repair would
already be expensive; calling a plumber on a holiday would cost even
more. I told him to get a plumber out here today or I will call the
police and the local paper.
As we waited for the plumber to arrive,
I listened to the owner's wife complain about the amount of money
they spent on maintenance and that she had told her husband
repeatedly to sell the place. One of the tenants cautiously
approached. Choking back tears, she said that her mattress had been
ruined; she kept it on the floor because it was easier on her back
injury. She didn't have renter's insurance. The owner's wife snidely
remarked that no one was getting a penny out of her over this mess.
Maintenance problems compounded over
the following months. After the Thanksgiving flood,waking up one
December morning to a dusting of snow in my bedroom thanks to a
broken window, and a bathroom moldy ceiling bulging under the weight
of a water leak, I contacted City Code Enforcement. Apparently that
made me a target for eviction. I had some help from legal aid in
drafting a reply including Code Enforcement's order to repair that
owner ignored all to effectively result in a constructive eviction
and the filing deadlines gave me some room to find another place. It
worked. But the owner tried to come after me for the cost of repairs
that were never conducted as well as rent. That didn't work. I was bankrupt.
For the many landlords that take
advantage of the presumption of good intentions, their objective is
pure profit. For renters, this poses an existential crisis. It's
strange to see how people are treated in a city that seems to have
churches on every block like other cities have 7-11s. But that isn't
enough. There is a persistent, cruel attitude toward low-income and
renters in particular. This is evident on the El Paso County
Sheriff's Office's website offering landlords assistance in finding
“good” tenants. This attitude reflects the presumption of a
landlord's good intentions set in law in 2008 and inversely demonizes
renters. You can't have good without bad, right without wrong. The 2008 law targets low-income earners who are never more than one
paycheck away from living on the street; this law makes that terror
even more likely to occur. There were 7,171 evictions filed in El
Paso County court in FY2018, almost always due to inability to pay
rent. In eviction court, the only issue is whether the tenant will
pay rent and when, or when the tenant will move. There is no room for
consideration of extenuating circumstances, no room for trying to
keep from adding to the homeless population, no humanity or justice
in the law at all.
A professor in the economics department
at UCCS explained that what is missing in business is ethics. I
believe that is evident in how I see people treated: moved along,
tossed out of their home, homeless, labeled by NIMBYs as “those
people.” I also believe that can be changed. That's all I want in
life. To make it better for all of us.
Home is the foundation of human
development and building safe, healthy, sustainable communities.
After 11 years of putting profit margins over people, I urge putting
people and community first by adopting this bill to make tenant
landlord law equitable.
NOTE: It passed and was signed into law, effective August 2, 2019.
