Colorado’s attorney general says Denver-based landlord Baron Properties improperly hit renters with insurance charges and used rental-application language that treated unresolved criminal matters as if they were convictions. The enforcement action, which affects residents at several Baron-managed communities, ends with the company agreeing to repay money to tenants and the state. It is the latest sign that state officials are watching landlord fees in the Denver area very closely.
According to The Denver Post, Baron agreed to pay $67,635 to the state and $7,300 in restitution to 368 tenants, or roughly $75,000 in total. The payment resolves claims that the company charged renters insurance fees even after residents showed proof they already had coverage. State investigators also found that the company’s rental-application language treated pending or unresolved criminal cases as convictions and as grounds to deny applications. Attorney General Phil Weiser called the practice unacceptable, the paper reported.
Baron pushed back in a statement, arguing that most of the overcharges were “minor personnel and software errors” that have since been fixed. The firm “strongly objects to any notion that the company was either intentionally deceiving tenants, or somehow willfully ignorant of our duties as landlord,” spokesman Matthew Riggs told The Denver Post. The company said it has committed to reimburse affected residents and to revise the application language after discussions with the Attorney General’s office…