Latest news with #AspenPlace
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former Aspen Place residents make new allegations in lawsuit against ownership
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Former residents of Aspen Place are suing after the city condemned the apartment complex, giving residents 48 hours to move out. On Tuesday, May 6, the city condemned the 180 units due to 'significant safety concerns.' 700 residents impacted by Aspen Place Condemnation in Gardner, Kansas Aric Cooperwood, Anthony Fellows and Rachel Fellows filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and residents of Aspen Place, dating as far back as five years ago. They are suing the following companies: KDR AP, LLC KDR Realty, LLC Axiom Property Management, LLC Axiom Property Management II, LLC Axiom Equities Investments, LLC Axiom Family of Companies, LLC KDR is the current owner and manager of Aspen Place. Axiom sold Aspen Place to KDR in 2022, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that KDR AP and KDR Realty comprise a family-run business; KDR's president, Puneet Gorawara, is married to KDR's vice president, Aabha Gorawara – and their daughter, Gauri, performs property-management services. Axiom is accused of potentially failing to disclose the ongoing issues and 'abject state' of Aspen Place before selling the property to KDR. The lawsuit claims that 700 residents were wrongfully evicted due to KDR's negligence and accuses ownership and management of failing to provide essential services, among other violations. 'The water lines at Aspen Place had presented significant long-term maintenance problems affecting the delivery of essential services to tenants (such as water) well before the condemnation,' the lawsuit reads. The lawsuit claims this was an avoidable disaster since ownership and management were aware of these long-running issues. Residents, however, were not made aware of what they were getting themselves into, the lawsuit argues. 'The systemic water-related problems at Aspen Place…were not disclosed to eventual residents before they entered their leases,' the lawsuit states. Despite KDR's claims that it planned to 'completely overhaul' Aspen Place's water system, the lawsuit argues that more evidence is needed to determine whether KDR could have actually afforded a complete overhaul. It accuses the company of secretly pushing off some of its maintenance costs to tenants by charging them monthly fees for 'liability landlord insurance' and an 'administrative fee.' 'It seems that KDR here unconscionably passed the cost of its own general liability policy(ies) onto its tenants,' the lawsuit states. The lawsuit claims that Cooperwood's lease agreement also contained other unfair, as well as unclear, terms and charges. 'KDR shamelessly nickel-and-dimed the Aspen Place tenants,' the lawsuit claims. According to the lawsuit, KDR began charging tenants for utilities, including water, via a lease addendum beginning in late 2023. The lawsuit says KDR claimed in the lease that it would not be responsible for water overflow/leakage, mold or utility interruption[s]. 'These terms…were unconscionable, if not overtly unlawful,' the lawsuit states. 'KDR charged tenants every month for its own liability insurance and required them to purchase outsized liability policies with KDR as an insured, while making it evident that water-related problems were a primary concern, and while requiring tenants to pay the actual utility bills…while also failing to reliably supply water.' The lawsuit claims KDR even began requiring tenants to pay a 'water-usage fee,' which was based on the number of people living in the complex, not the tenant's actual 'usage' of water. KDR is accused of taking part in some sort of 'insurance arbitrage scheme.' The lawsuit says KDR pushed off these costs onto residents through lease addendums that were sometimes added to lease agreements during lease terms. In the lawsuit, KDR's property management is called 'absurdly inadequate' and 'functionally nonexistent.' 'KDR was exceedingly slow to respond to burst pipes, while also leaving visible leaks unrepaired for months, which caused property damage,' the lawsuit states. 'KDR tactically used unconscionable insurance-related conditions and practices as a shield relative to its own property-management and ownership deficiencies.' The lawsuit argues that KDR may have profited from its insurance and utility-billing practices. 'Discovery is required into KDR's utility-related billing practices, including but not limited to inflation, manipulation, and/or misrepresentation of consumer water bills,' the lawsuit reads. According to the lawsuit, KDR demanded that the Fellowses sign a new utility addendum after a water outage during Christmas 2023, when residents dealt with persistent water outages for at least two weeks. The lawsuit says the Fellowses encountered substantial mold and mildew issues as a result of pipe bursts and leaks, as well as sewage backup. However, KDR never fixed the sewage drain that was malfunctioning just outside their unit, the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit also claims that KDR would mark maintenance requests 'complete' despite having done nothing – or leave requests dangling in 'contractor status' indefinitely. In January 2024, the lawsuit says KDR rejected the Fellowses' lease-renewal application 'because the Fellowses had left negative reviews about it online and Rachel Fellows had appeared in the news with respect to KDR's mismanagement.' In order to have the application accepted, 'KDR compelled Ms. Fellows to delete the negative reviews in its presence.' The property manager quit shortly after this incident, the lawsuit states. The former Aspen Place residents are demanding a jury trial for all issues so triable. This lawsuit was filed on May 16, 2025, in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, Kansas City Division (Case No. 2:25-CV-2267).Community steps up to help after Gardner apartment condemned 700 residents impacted by Aspen Place Condemnation in Gardner, Kansas Gardner food pantry running out of goods in wake of condemned apartment Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Attorneys meeting with former Aspen Place residents
GARDNER, Kan. — Attorneys will meet with former tenants Tuesday night of a now condemned apartment complex in Gardner, Kansas. Last week, the City of Gardner condemned Aspen Place Apartments, saying they were unfit for living. The 180 families in the complex had 48 hours to vacate, and take all of their belongings. Community steps up to help after Gardner apartment condemned A Tuesday night meeting at the Hampton Inn Conference Center in Gardner is (KLS), a nonprofit law firm based in Topeka that currently represents 45 people at the apartments. 'In the space of landlord-tenant, there is not a level playing field,' Matthew Keenan, KLS's executive director, said. Keenan and his team of attorneys frequently represents low-income client in civil cases at no cost. KLS's Tuesday night meeting is meant to help tenants learn their rights, and to help many of them recover security deposits and last month's rent paid to Aspen Place. Keenan said, under these circumstances, Aspen Place is legally required to give those refunds. 'I've been in direct negotiations with the attorney for the landlord in an effort to make certain the tenants are treated fairly, and to make sure there isn't a waiver of rights or a release that they need to sign in order to get their rents or deposits back,' Keenan told FOX4. Some former Aspen Place residents are , where Lt. Nate Woodard can house 250 people per night. Woodard said he hasn't reached capacity yet, but he's concerned that's possible, since some hotel and short-term housing vouchers will expire soon. 'What I know is, the amount of affordable housing in Johnson County is few and far between. What I know is that some people are scraping their last pennies together. Their last dimes together,' Woodard said. Keenan added some displaced renters are being asked to pay large application fees as they search for new homes. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android A spokesperson for the City of Gardner said the city wants to help ensure these displaced residents' needs are met as they search for their next homes. Keenan clarifies — Aspen Place was not a Section Eight housing complex, but if it had been, he believes there would have been more oversight to prevent the bad conditions reported. He said someone should answer for this. He's trying to determine who. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Community steps up to help after Gardner apartment condemned
GARDNER, Kan. — While residents at Aspen Place are scrambling after their complex was condemned on Tuesday, their community was also scrambling to get them some help. The complex was shut down due to safety concerns on Tuesday morning, leaving residents a mere 48 hours to vacate their homes. Downtown Kansas City business owners issuing a warning: 'This isn't a political issue—it's a safety issue' 'I can't imagine that,' said Melissa Prins. 'It's completely heartbreaking to think of all those families and they have all walks of life there. They have single parents; they have elderly families. It's just flabbergasting.' Prins is the director of the Hope Market, a food pantry in Gardner. She's leading the charge on helping residents, and getting resources together from other nonprofits and churches. 'We're going to try and get all of our eggs in one basket to see how we can best help everyone,' she said. Folks are eager to help. 'We've had people walking in off the street going, 'Hey, I heard that this is a need. How can we help?'' said Joey Lang, lead pastor of Grace Baptist Church. 'It makes you proud to be part of Gardner.' Community leaders along with city officials and law enforcement gathered at Grace Baptist Church, collaborating on what everyone could bring to the table. 'Whether that's moving boxes, whether that's help moving, where there's help getting here, we want to make sure that there is a just a steady flood of resources available to help these people land where they need to land,' Lang said. The parking lot was packed at the church before the 6:30 meeting on Tuesday. More than 100 people came to see how they could help their neighbors and come up with a game plan to present to residents on Wednesday evening. During the meeting, two organizations pledged $30,000 each to help put residents up at hotels for the next several days. Prins and Lang both say the generosity is just part of living in Gardner. 'That's the best thing about Gardner; is everybody just comes together here to help everyone,' Prins said. 'So, I know we can do something great for them.' Lang said that the community won't let them go through this by themselves. 'If you can find a highlight here in the tragedy, it is the love these people are going to feel from their community that's going to come together and just acknowledge them, see them, and not let them walk this road alone,' Lang said. While some in the meeting offered hotel rooms, vans, moving boxes and more, Nick Blessing with the Kansas Legal Service was offering legal help. 'This shouldn't have gotten to this point, and I think accountability is necessary here. All of them are being are being removed from this property,' Blessing said. 'And that's and I think there are claims that arise out of just that.' Kansas dispatcher commended for 'outstanding job' handling crash that killed 8 The Kansas Legal Service provides legal services free of charge to low-income clients. 'From what I understand, the water system there has not been compliant with code for a long time,' Blessing told FOX4. 'Anybody who started renting their wall, it was in this condition. Aspen Place failed to deliver possession of that rental units in compliance with the law, which means that arguably all or a portion of the rent that those tenants have paid while living there, while it's in that condition, they have a claim for that to be paid back.' Those looking to help residents at Aspen Place should reach out to Melissa at the Hope Market, or can donate through Hope Market here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
