Imagine that you come to the Pikes Peak region and fall in love with it, as people do.
Imagine you’re renting an apartment where you can look out your window and see Pikes Peak. But your little piece of paradise will make your life hell.
Justin Drake moved into a small apartment at 28 El Paso Blvd. in May 2021. That building and the one at 30 El Paso Blvd. are managed by Abuzz Property Management, based in Colorado Springs.
Drake has to run the water for several minutes before it’s hot, because his one-bedroom apartment and seven others share one water heater. He pays the landlord $90 per month for water, which includes what’s wasted while he’s waiting for it to heat up.
According to Drake, a maintenance man arrived, ran the water for a few minutes and said the management company already knew about it. It’s not their problem and Drake should have checked the water situation before he moved in.
Ironically, water in the shower comes out so hot Drake and his neighbors risk being scalded.
That’s a major problem for Drake, who lost a leg in an accident in mid-2018. He sits in a shower chair, which makes it hard to move out of the way.
But it gets much, much worse.
Imagine that, the next month, sewage starts leaking from under your toilet. Naturally, you ask for help via the management company’s tenant portal.
The Abuzz maintenance man called Drake and said that, if sewage isn’t still coming up, they don’t care about it.
Drake doesn’t have a record of that phone call, but started communicating via email after that.
He’s also tracking the problems and every action he’s taken to try to get help.
On Oct. 1, Drake’s toilet stopped working at all. A plumbing company arrived late in the evening and cleared the sewage line up to 100 feet.
The toilet was usable, but water was coming up from under it again. Drake and his mother, Lynn, said they cleaned it up and contacted Abuzz several times, with no response.
The next day, the toilet started flooding the bathroom floor and the Drakes notified management. A plumber came out, the flooding stopped and the Drakes cleaned up yet again.
On Oct. 3, sewage water flooded the bathroom again and wouldn’t stop. Justin Drake called the emergency number and was told a plumber was on the way.
“We waited for eight hours, until 2 a.m. for a plumber, all while the two of us tried to keep the sewage water down,” he said.
About midnight, Drake said, one of the management company staffers said that he’d tried the three plumbers Abuzz usually calls, but no one was available.
Drake asked them to call another plumber, but the staffer just left Drake’s phone number with that business.
“Basically, if they had come out to help fix the problem, they would have charged us and not the landlord,” Drake said.
He told the management company he needed a safe place to stay, and the Abuzz staffers, including employing broker Shelly Kueker, said he’d have to pay for it himself or use his renter’s insurance.
But they offered to pay $220 for temporary lodging.
“I don’t think we should use our insurance policy to cover damages caused by gross management negligence. There is a $500 deductible if we use it and it will ding my insurance report, causing me higher premiums in the future,” Drake said.
That night, just to try to get some sleep, “We ended up building a dam with cat litter to prevent the sewage water from overcoming the bathroom,” he said.
A plumber arrived the next morning and stopped the flooding. The Drakes again cleaned up as best they could.
“The smell of sewage is very bad at this point. A restoration company came to get an estimate of the damage. Shelly said it was too high of a price, and mentioned insurance,” Justin Drake recalled.
“Shelly also said that someone will come clean up for us, but no one ever came.”
On Oct. 5, another restoration company came out to estimate costs for repairs. He called Kueker again and she said someone would come to clean up.
“Nobody came, again. Another day of smelling the sewage,” Drake said.
The next day, workers came to cut out the damaged carpet and sprayed some sort of cleaning solution on the floor, Drake said. But, when the Bulletin visited the apartment Oct. 28, he pointed out what looked like black mold on walls, near the floor.
Inspectors have tested for asbestos, a building material that has been proven to cause severe health problems. The structures at 28 and 30 El Paso Boulevard were built in 1971, before asbestos was phased out in the United States.
The inspectors notified the Drakes on Oct. 14 that the hazardous material was present.
On Oct. 12, Lynn Drake called Abuzz and was told that construction would take at least three to five days. Kueker said Justin would have to use his renter’s insurance to pay for a temporary living situation for himself and his blind cat.
“She also said that she has included some language in our lease that legally allows them to terminate the lease in ‘events like these,’” Justin Drake said.
On Oct. 19, the Drakes again contacted Abuzz to ask what was happening. They were told it’s an insurance issue and will take a long time.
On Oct. 22, they spoke to a lawyer from Colorado Legal Services. The pro bono lawyer helped them write a “notice of breach of habitability” that was sent to the landlord the same day.
“This notice is supposed to help us break the lease after five business days from being sent, but we are having a hard time finding a place to move to,” Drake said.
His lease runs through next May. He pays $895 rent for the 540-square-foot apartment, plus the $90 water fee, along with $9 for renter’s insurance and about $50 for electricity.
On Oct. 30, Drake contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. On Nov. 3, he received a response that the ACLU can’t help him.
He’s also contacted the El Paso County Public Health Department; on Nov. 2, he received a response that included this: “Local public health agencies do not have the authority to enforce living standards for rental housing. Some local governments have adopted housing codes, but those vary from city to city.”
Drake has been in touch with Manitou Springs Code Enforcement, which also hasn’t been able to do anything. The Bulletin followed up with questions for Cindy Schwartz, code enforcement officer, and Roy Chaney, deputy city administrator, though Alex Trefry, the city’s public information officer.
To the question, “Is raw sewage coming up in a residence not covered in code enforcement?” they responded:
“Raw sewage entering a home with no steps taken to resolve the issue (their emphasis), could be an issue that Neighborhood Services, as well as El Paso County Public Health and other entities would address. If steps are being taken to resolve the issue, but there is still a dispute, other governing entities such as the Colorado Department of Local Affairs or the County Judicial Department would be other means of addressing the problem — and of course, the city does not have involvement in either of these processes.”
To the question, “Asbestos has also been found in Justin Drake’s apartment. … Any comment on that?” they responded:
“The city is unaware of any asbestos on the property, as it was not mentioned to our Neighborhood Services official. Asbestos is common in older homes, and if asbestos is found, homeowners must go through a process through government entities through the county and/or the state — the city does not have any additional asbestos mitigation requirements.”
Abuzz Property Management sent Drake a letter, dated Oct. 26, from Regional Asbestos Mitigation Services, a company that works throughout Colorado.
The company applied for a permit that day to mitigate damage in the building’s boiler room, Drake’s apartment and one other apartment. The project manager explained they would have to wait 10 business days, which means the first day they could start work is Wednesday, Nov. 10.
The first containment, to prevent asbestos fibers from spreading, will be set up in the boiler room and the apartment next to it. That removal will take approximately four days.
Once that’s done, they can move on to Drake’s apartment for removal estimated to take four days. The project manager expects to be done by Nov. 17.
One of Drake’s neighbors also contacted the Bulletin about the situation.
“We’re still living in squalor,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous. “Our place is completely destroyed.”
He is unable to move out because of financial constraints.
Justin Drake is 35 years old. Before his accident, he was a chef and worked around the country, most notably in Chicago.
He receives $1,050 per month in Social Security Disability Insurance. He earned a bachelor’s degree in internet technology in January 2021 and has been looking for a job since then.
With his approximately $1,000 per month in basic living expenses — not counting food, etc. — he can’t afford to pay moving costs.
On Tuesday, Nov. 2, Drake said that he’d decided to bite the bullet and tap into his renter’s insurance to pay for a hotel room.
“So far we have only been given an eight-day period of abatement. Afterward, they still need to replace the bathroom floors, carpeting, walls, sink/cabinets, etc. We haven’t received any dates or timelines for the additional work just mentioned.
“Because we do not have much of a definitive schedule for construction, my hotel room is booked for 21 days and can be extended if needed.”
Lynn Drake is a retired nurse who travels the country in her RV doing volunteer work, so she at least has a safe, clean place to live and can be here to help her son. But, of course, she wants him to live somewhere that doesn’t threaten his health.
Surely, he has a right to that.
Editor’s note: This is a rapidly evolving situation; the Bulletin will follow up as events warrant.
Garden of the Gods Village Apartments are at the corner of El Paso Boulevard and Via Linda Vista.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT’S RESPONSE
On Oct. 29, the Bulletin contacted Shelly Kueker of Abuzz Property Management about Drake’s complaints.
That day, she responded with an email that included, “… we have addressed all his needs in a timely fashion.” When the Bulletin responded with, “It seems unreasonable to expect someone to live with sewage, asbestos and mold in their home,” she followed up on Nov. 1.
That email includes:
“We went in right away with a professional remediation company that is an expert in this type of situation (Service Master) and they proceeded to follow state and county protocols and deemed the residence safe and habitable until we received further testing, we also brought the insurance company on board to assist.
“They in turn just picked a contractor for repairs and the contractor has applied for permits and such. We are in the midst of establishing a time frame for all the repairs needed and logistics to occur.”
The Bulletin also mentioned that other tenants have complained to Justin Drake but they’re afraid to speak up. Kueker’s response:
“We are aware of one other residents (sic) that was affected and we have been in contact with the residents and they are aware of the situation and we have been in communication with them as well. We have checked with other residents and found no issues.”
Kueker’s Nov. 1 email ends with, “It’s very unfortunate for what has occurred and we will continue to do our best in the care of our residents.”
Justin Drake’s response
“It took 48 hours for them to get a plumber out to stop the flooding of sewage water. The floors and walls were soaking in sewage water this whole time.
“It has been 31 days since the major sewage flooding and soakage of walls and floors, which still remain in the unit.…
“They have a total of at least four units in these two buildings with major mold and sewage damage.”
ABOUT THE PROPERTY
In 1995, Garden of the Gods Village Apartments, including 0.8 acre of land, sold for $374,800, according to the El Paso County Assessor’s Office. It has since passed through a few hands, with its appraised value steadily increasing. In September 2015, it was appraised at $1 million; the current market value is $1,847,650. The current owner is Zepto LLC, based in San Jose, Calif. That company has not responded to Justin Drake’s inquiries.