Minnesota Attorney General's Office sues landlord over utility fees

Twenty-one Hennepin County renters could be spared imminent eviction over utility fees, after the state Attorney General's Office filed a civil enforcement lawsuit and emergency motion Thursday against a Utah-based property management company.

The Attorney General's suit alleged the company, Investment Property Group (IPG), illegally charged "exorbitant" utility fees to thousands of renters at the company's 34 Minnesota properties, including six in Minneapolis and four in Hopkins.

"It's tough enough for low-income renters to afford their lives," Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement. "When landlords charge them illegal, extra fees they never agreed to pay, then try to evict them when they don't pay those illegal fees, I will step in to stop it."

The civil enforcement suit, filed in Hennepin County District Court, alleges that Investment Property Group started charging utility fees in late 2022 without proper disclosure about the charges or local utility assistance.

"IPG did not comply with any of the legal disclosure requirements when charging its tenants for its buildings' electrical and gas utility usage and in fact began charging them in the middle of tenants' leases," the statement from the Attorney General's Office said.

The lawsuit alleged a "blatant violation of Minnesota's utility billing statute."

IPG did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, but the company has said previously that it believes its charges were "proper under Minnesota law" and that it cooperated with the investigation.

The company has also said it filed some evictions after residents did not pay rent during the pandemic. "IPG has followed all applicable Minnesota state laws, which allows residents ample opportunity to remedy the situation by paying their rent," the company said in a statement last month.

The case started in early 2023, according to the lawsuit. IPG filed dozens of evictions against tenants in one of its south Minneapolis buildings, the Greenway Apartments, over utility fees.

Forty-five eviction cases were dismissed and expunged after the Attorney General's Office contacted IPG, and the company agreed to stop evictions at the Greenway Apartments.

Evictions over utility charges have continued at other IPG properties, but the Attorney General's Office asked Thursday for an emergency court order to stop those evictions too.

"I'm very happy to see this is coming into light," said Hopkins resident Lee Vang. The stress of what she said were unpredictable utility bills weighed heavily on her.

She hopes for lasting change in the way landlords do business in Minnesota.

"The point of fighting is not just for us, but for future renters," Vang said. "So they don't step into the same minefield as we did."