The Iowa City Tenant Project Proceeds in Class-Action Lawsuits Against Clark Family Properties: Apartments Downtown, Apartments Near Campus, Michael's Properties

I'm so excited! The Iowa City Tenant Project [1]scored a win when the Iowa Court of Appeals recently overturned Judge Paul Miller's ruling against the tenants and reinstated the Tenant Project's class-action lawsuits. So the suits against the Clark family, which owns Apartments Downtown, Apartments Near Campus, and Michael's Properties, can proceed!

Now I have very little confidence in the Iowa Supreme Court now that Gov.-for-Life Branstad has packed the court with conservatives. The court's decision to allow a dentist's decision to fire a dental assistant for being "irresistably attractive" in her scrubs and therefore "a threat to his marriage" to stand made the court the laughing stock of the nation, much like Kansas' one-time decision to disallow the teaching of evolution in the public schools.

However, the Iowa Supreme Court, in a surprise move, has agreed to revisit its own decision in the case of the dental assistant fired for being too attractive. So there's hope.

I'd like to compliment Christopher Warnock, the attorney representing the Tenant Project, and Greg Bal, the supervising attorney for University of Iowa Student Legal Services, who are helping students to avoid exploitation in the form of illegal fines and fees by the Clark family.

I must say that when first moved to Iowa in 1974 from Ithaca, New York, after graduating from and working at Cornell University, nobody in New York or Iowa understood why I was moving. Once I experienced Iowa's landlord-tenant laws, grossly tilted in favor of landlords, I began to understand why. I can still honestly say that Iowa has not yet, 40 years later, caught up to where New York was in 1974.

In New York, if your apartment was uninhabitable, you could walk, with your rent unpaid and unowed. If your faucet or lock was broken and the landlord wouldn't fix or replace it, you could fix or replace it at your own expense and deduct the expense from the rent.

Here there are numerous charges, fees, all of which benefit the landlord and many of which are illegal. Here the best thing you can do if you need a repair on your apartment is to write a letter describing the problem, date it, sign it, and mail it to your landlord. Keep a copy. That way you have a record of your complaint. Your landlord might make the repair without further action. It’s been known to happen.

Does anyone care about the plight of tenants, many of whom are students facing a lousy economy, lousy wages, and rising tuition? Now there are. Nearly 40 years after I moved here and dealt with Iowa City's miserable landlord/tenant laws as a grad student and have watched my children do the same, I see two committed attorneys and their clients making headway in the courts. 

I want to give them money. I want to donate my time if they need help with something. I hope you will consider doing the same. I can't find a business address or phone number for Christopher Warnock, but I did find a home address. I will write him a letter and offer money if he needs it and my services if he needs them.

Bravo, guys!