Ash House residents move back in on Thursday Sept. 19, 2024, following a Boulder judge’s restraining order on the City of Boulder’s eviction. (Hannah Brennan/CU Independent)
On Monday, 60 residents of Ash House, many of whom are students at the University of Colorado Boulder, arrived home to a building closure and eviction notice.
The notice followed an inspection from Boulder’s Planning and Development Services. During the inspection, it was discovered that the building’s owner had added 15 new bedrooms to the property and did not obtain the proper permits to do so.
Following the order for tenants to vacate the building, the property owners of Ash House, 891 12th Street LLC, filed a lawsuit against the city of Boulder. The civil complaint filed by the property owners argues that the city of Boulder violated the owner’s due process rights. It also claims that there is not an immediate safety threat to tenants.
“The City did not provide notice to Owner, or an opportunity to be heard, before demanding that the Property be vacated just four hours and nineteen minutes later,” Andrew Peters, a lawyer for the property owners, wrote in the complaint.
The situation was first brought to the attention of authorities just over a week ago.
“On Sept. 10, our Code Compliance team was made aware, through complaints, about the number of occupants and bedrooms per unit, which prompted an inspection of the property,” the City of Boulder Planning and Development Services said in a statement.
A Boulder County district court judge issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday, preventing the city of Boulder’s enforcement of tenants of Ash House to vacate the property.
On the same day, in response to this restraining order, the city of Boulder filed a motion to lift the temporary restraining order.
The court date for this motion to be heard is set for Friday at 10 a.m. in the Boulder County District Court.
In a media statement obtained by the CU Independent, the property owners claim that they were not made aware of the fact that the city code enforcement officials planned to ask all tenants to evacuate until just 4 minutes prior to them posting eviction notices on the resident’s doors.
“Residents, shocked by the emergency notice and order, reported that city code enforcement officials threatened to have them forcibly removed by police and subject to arrest if they failed to vacate their apartments,” said 891 12th St. LLC in the statement.
Tenants said they were not able to get in contact with the property manager or owners upon receiving the original eviction notice.
“The property manager was not here or answering the texts that we were sending him. Nobody was helping us, and we were lost on what to do,” said Josh Lopez, a CU Boulder junior and a tenant at Ash House.
Lopez says he had just recently moved into the property.
“We just moved into the building on August 20. We had no idea that rooms were illegal,” he said. “Our property manager said that this was a four-bedroom apartment, and that turned out not to be true.”
Sixteen units in Ash House were approved by the city of Boulder as three bedroom units, the majority of these were then converted into four bedroom units. Some tenants claim that the fourth roommate in their unit was not included in their lease.
Leydon Hemsworth, a sophomore at CU Boulder, claims that he was one of Ash House’s renters who did not sign a lease.
“I was one of those people that was not included on the lease,” he said. “We asked to add me to the lease and were told there were problems with the payment portal.”
Leading into Friday morning’s trial, Hemsworth discussed what he hopes to see happen in court.
“An ideal solution in my mind would be for the city to fine the property management company, inspect the building and make sure it is safe, but allow all tenants to live out their lease…and then, if need be, remove the fourth bedroom in the units. However, I find this somewhat unlikely to happen,” he said.
The tenants of Ash House are allowed to move back in until the temporary restraining order expires on Oct. 1.
A second court date to address the issue has been set for Sept. 26.
In a press release, Brad Mueller, the director of the city of Boulder Planning and Development Services, said the situation requires urgent action to be resolved.
“The safety of Boulder community members is the city’s top priority, which is why we believe such urgent action is required,” Mueller said. “The current conditions at this location do not comply with the city’s building code and present an immediate risk to the people living at this address. The building code exists to ensure minimum safety, health and quality of life standards for Boulder community members.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Hannah Brennan at hannah.brennan@colorado.edu.
