Attorney: Iowa Supreme Court ruling further defines landlord-tenant rules

IOWA CITY - A recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling involving Iowa City housing giant Apartments Downtown marks Iowa Tenants' Project's latest victory, an attorney with the project said.

Christopher Warnock, attorney with Iowa Tenants' Project in Iowa City, said the Friday ruling reaffirmed the illegality of automatic carpet cleaning fees for tenants and found the landlord liable for an instance of third-party vandalism.

As with previous Iowa Tenants' Project cases, Warnock said the ruling better defines the landlord-tenant relationship in Iowa.

'What the Supreme Court has done is put its seal of approval on the work we've done at the Iowa Tenants' Project,” Warnock said. 'It's a big win for the Iowa Tenants' Project and what it has done is, the Supreme Court has turned its attention to landlords and tenants.”

James Affeldt, with Elderkin & Pirnie in Cedar Rapids, said he hadn't yet spoken with his client Apartments Downtown Friday afternoon.

Apartments Downtown's primary attorney Joseph Holland could not be reached for comment Friday.

Court documents state that four University of Iowa students signed a lease with Apartments Downtown in 2010 for a four-bedroom house in Iowa City.

That October, a burglary occurred at the house, leaving the exterior door frame and lock broken.

Among the 70 paragraphs in the lease document was a clause that said tenants must pay for all damages to the apartment windows, screens and doors, 'including random acts of vandalism,” according to documents.

Apartments Downtown's maintenance company fixed the door and charged the tenants $600 for door replacement and labor.

In 2011, at the end of the lease, Apartments Downtown charged the tenants for automatic carpet cleaning costs - another clause included in the original lease.

Warnock said the case had to be appealed and later granted special permission to go to the Supreme Court to get to Friday's ruling, which found that tenants cannot be charged for third-party vandalism to the exterior of the building. It also reaffirmed that carpet cleaning fees must follow individual inspections and cannot be automatic.

Court documents did go on to say that while the cleaning cost was illegal, there was no evidence that the landlord was intentionally dishonest. The ruling did not find that Apartments Downtown acted in bad faith against the tenants and did not grant punitive damages.

'It's obviously a win for us, but you never get 100 percent of what you want,” Warnock said.

A recent ruling in a different Iowa Tenants' Project class action lawsuit against Apartments Downtown found that automatic carpet cleaning fees are in violation of the Iowa Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act.

The class action suit - estimated to be a nearly $1 million lawsuit - is approaching a July settlement hearing, with both the project and landlord agreeing to terms of settlement.

One of the terms in the settlement would include a court order so an Iowa Tenants Project lawyer would handle any future tenant complaints against Apartments Downtown.

That lawyer would represent the tenants to ensure fairness while providing more accountability from the landlord, Warnock said.

Meanwhile, a similar Iowa Tenants' Project suit - again pertaining to automatic carpet cleaning fees - against Iowa City's Big Ten Property Management on Tuesday received preliminary approval of settlement in Johnson County District Court.

Warnock said the progress made by Iowa Tenants' Project lawsuits in recent months has better shaped the landlord-tenant relationships in Iowa City.

'The great thing about this is now we know what the rules are, what we have now is a much clearer idea of what the law is,” Warnock said. 'It's a victory for landlords and tenants, it's a victory for clarity.”