$187,390 Sanction Against Minneapolis Landlord Largest Ever

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Stephen Frenz, who holds licenses for more than 60 rental properties in Minneapolis, has been ordered to pay a $187,390 fine for “bad faith litigation conduct,” according to media reports. The sanction is the largest in the 27-year history of housing courts in Minnesota, but far below the $1 million than lawyers for plaintiff tenants had asked.

The award, ordered by a Hennepin County court referee, stems from what in the beginning appeared to be a routine landlord-tenant dispute. But as lawyers for the neighborhood association that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the tenants, dug deeper, they discovered Frenz had created phony leases and staged his apartments to make it look as if they were occupied.

One of the requirements for the lawsuit was that a majority of the tenants agreed with the action, and the “slumlord fraudster,” as Ferenz was called in court, ginned up the phony leases, the reports said.

Attorney Michael Cockson, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the sanction sends “a strong message to bad actors like Mr. Ferenz.”

Lawrence McDonough, a lawyer for the Dorsey & Whitney firm who is not involved in the case but who has represented or advised about 10,000 housing clients in more than 30 years, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune he has “never seen a sanction even close to this number.”

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal said lawyers may also refer the case to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman for prosecution to get tenants’ rent payments returned.

Frenz, who controls more than 1,200 rental units in Minneapolis, is perhaps city’s most notorious landlord. In November, city housing officials began the process to revoke Frenz’s rental license, potentially affecting as many as 4,000 tenants, the Star Tribune reported last fall. Action probably won’t take place until this spring, according to the report.

Tenants who have lived in Frenz’s properties have reported everything from bed bugs to backed up toilets that spilled fecal matter on floors to automated thermostat controls that showed apartments would get as cold as 55 degrees, below the city law’s minimum of 62 degrees, City Pages reported.

Photo via Shutterstock