Tenant Advocate Suggests a Route For Dealing With Country Village

In just a few short days, the owners of Country Village Apartments could lose their rental license for good, forcing hundreds residents living in the crumbling complex to move within 30 days.

But there may be another option available to the City of Burnsville in its ongoing battle with the complex's owners, Lindahl Properties LP.

Homeline, a nonprofit dedicated to giving free legal advice to residential tenants, is encouraging residents and city staff to consider petitioning Dakota County to grant what's called a receivership. Acting on the petition, a judge could strip Lindahl of its management role with Country Village and, instead, hand those responsibilities to another property manager while workers come in to clean and repair the complex's . 

“There's a way to do this without cuasing homelessness. In our experience it works well,” said Paul Birnberg, senior housing attorney with the non-profit Homeline. “We’re surprised (city officials) haven't done it, and we even offered to help with that.”

Deputy City Manager Tom Hansen and City Attorney Joel Jamnik said the city had considered such a measure. Jamnik said the city decided against such a measure because Lindahl eventually cooperated and contracted for repairs. 

For his part, Hansen felt such a move would be preemptive.

“We’re not at that stage yet,” Hansen said. “We’re focusing on getting the units compliant. It would be jumping the gun to do anything else.”

City inspectors first cited Lindahl this past spring for a range of violations, from jammed and broken fire doors to rampant infestations of mice. In December, the  only for units deemed habitable. At the time, only 30 or so units qualified, leaving about 100 in limbo. The city planned a new round of inspections in January: The license to rent would be extended to Lindahl for each unit that had been brought up to code.

Some units need only minor repairs, Hansen said, but residents in units that don’t pass muster would have 30 days to move. Last Wednesday, Hansen said that only two of the five units inspected since Dec. 20 had passed.

Meanwhile, if Lindahl hasn't meet a city-imposed deadline of January 17, today, for buying new fire doors for the complex, every Country Village tenant could face eviction.

Rather than revoking the license immediately in December, city council said it wanted to give a repreive to residents who couldn’t afford to move. Rental units of any kind are scarce in Dakota County, which is seeing the lowest vacancy rate in a decade, and many residents would find it difficult to find a new home within their price range or pass the background checks required by other companies.

“We think the council got (the Lindahls’) attention,” Hansen said. “I’m hoping we can keep (evictions) to a minimum, not 50 families displaced.”

Birnberg said the city's current approach is counterintuitive. If the council wants to keep residents from being kicked out and force the landlord’s hand, he said, a receivership is the way to go.

The rental company brought in under a receivership contract would collect rents. That revenue would go to repairs first, the complex's mortgage second, Birnberg said — which means that the landlord is nor only faced with lost income in the short-term, but could lose the property entirely to foreclosure. 

The concept was new to Council Member Mary Sherry, who staunchly opposed renewing Country Village’s license. In Sherry’s opinion, the city wasn't offering residents a reprieve but, instead, sentencing them to continue living in miserable conditions.

“I wouldn’t want the residents to have to pay for repairs the landlord neglected. I would want to see that make sure there were no escape clauses (for the landlord),” Sherry said of Lindahl. “They’ve just been such escape artists on this. It's been very disappointing.” 

Sherry still favors complete revocation, a position many residents agree with. Resident Heather Taylor said it would be a relief if the council revoked Country Village’s licens, which would make all lease agreements null and void. By the terms of her lease, Taylor, a forklift driver, is bound to her two-bedroom unit for five more months.

A self-confessed neat freak, Taylor keeps the place spotless and orderly. However, when Patch met with Taylor in late December, she said she her toilet hadn't worked for over a month and that mice routinely scuttled under the half-inch crack under her front door, bound for a network of tunnels threading throughout the building’s walls.

“I’m not happy with (their decision),” Taylor said of city council. “I just want out. It’s not safe to live here.”