District judge rules against Iowa City’s largest landlord company

IOWA CITY - A Johnson County District Judge has ruled that Iowa City's largest landlord company, Apts. Downtown, violated Iowa Code in the standard lease document signed by thousands of tenants.

According to a Tuesday ruling, Judge Chad Kepros found that the standard lease used by Apts. Downtown, owned and operated by the Clark family, violated the Iowa Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act with leases signed from 2010 through 2014.

As a class-action lawsuit, the ruling has what attorney Christopher Warnock - who brought the first suit forward almost five years ago on behalf of local tenants with the Iowa Tenants Project - described as massive implications.

'It's a very significant victory, not just for Apts. Downtown tenants, but for all tenants in Johnson County,” Warnock said. 'These guys are the ones to set the tone for everybody.”

Officials with Apartments Downtown, who have the right to appeal the use of class action in the ruling, could not immediately be reached Wednesday for comment.

The ruling found that several sections of the standard lease document for Apts. Downtown, which included set penalty fees and automatic carpet cleaning charges, along with illegally charging tenants for maintenance and repair, charging illegal fines, penalties and set damages and illegally releasing Apts. Downtown from liability all represented violations of the Landlord Tenant Act.

Thinking conservatively, Warnock estimated the total amount of illegal charges on tenants and possible punitive damages could total several million dollars.

Warnock said it is important to note that, should the class action suit go to trial, other tenants need not reach out to be included in the case, but rather will be contacted at a later date, with the option of opting out.

In the end, Warnock said his hope is not to simply punish Iowa City's largest landlord company, but rather to change the relationship between tenant and landlord in the community.

'It essentially feels like to us that it's a war,” he said. 'The tenants are angry with the landlords and the landlords are angry with the tenants. It doesn't have to be that way.”