Franklin Ramirez felt duped.
When he moved to Denver a little more than a year ago, he was told monthly rent at his two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in the downtown Civic Lofts building cost $2,355.
Then came the monthly fees.
Ramirez pays nearly $25 a month for “valet trash,” in which someone collects garbage outside the apartment doors of the 14-story, 176-unit building and walks it to the dumpster. Then he pays nearly $60 more for waste-management employees to drive the garbage to the dump.
There’s also a nearly $20 monthly boiler management fee. A $1 pest control fee. Close to $80 for a community electric bill and fluctuating charges for community gas, sewer and water — fees he said appear to cover utilities for communal spaces, too, and not just his unit.
Then there’s a $6 service fee. That fee, Ramirez was told, pays for a program that adds up all the other fees at the end of the month.
Including the $100 monthly parking fee he agreed to upfront, Ramirez’s total payment in October grew to $2,761 — more than 17% higher than his base rent.
Long an irritant of other services like cellphone contracts or concert tickets, so-called “junk fees” have increasingly found their way into Colorado’s rental housing, attorneys and advocates told The Denver Post, further exacerbating an already cost-burdened and supply-strained housing market. Often buried in lease agreements that run dozens of pages, millions of American renters pay monthly charges that advocates say should be covered either by rent or by the landlord. Some, they argue, are outright deceptive and illegal.
David Bennett, community manager at Civic Lofts, told The Post his team is upfront about any costs residents may incur during their tenancy. He said the complex is billing back what they get charged.
“We’re not aiming to make money off these things,” he said.
This summer, nearly 50 renters wrote to The Post about the fees they pay. There are fees for pest control and fees for “common-area maintenance,” fees for parking and package delivery, fees to pay utility bills and fees to process rental payments that can only be made online. Some wrote that they pay fees to cover their buildings’ property taxes. Former tenants of CBZ Management — the troubled owner of now-infamous Aurora properties — previously told The Post they paid fees for security cameras that didn’t work or didn’t exist.
The growing prevalence of the fees has drawn the attention of a group of Colorado lawmakers, tenants’ advocates and lawyers, who’ve tightened laws and filed lawsuits against large property owners in a bid to use the Colorado Consumer Protection Act to crack down on housing fees.
Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office has also taken notice: Earlier this year, Weiser announced a $1 million settlement with a property owner for improperly charging tenants, and Weiser told The Post that his office wants more tenants to come forward.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, left, shakes hands with Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty during a news conference at the Colorado …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Business
