Landlord Gives Easter Bunny the Boot

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Would you evict a tenant over a marshmallow ‘Peep’ pyramid?

One Colorado landlord was faced with this dilemma.

The tenant was asked, but refused to take down an edible Easter decoration that she displayed in the common interior hallway outside her apartment door.

The display remained for two and a half weeks after Easter.

While the tenant claimed she had the support of her neighbors to maintain the decorations, the landlord feared the display would attract insects and otherwise prevent him from keeping the building safe and sanitary.

The tenant received a notice informing her that the display violated terms of her lease.

After the tenant’s continued refusal to take down the sweet-tasting display, the landlord did it for her.

In retaliation, the tenant refused to pay her May rent. The landlord filed an eviction action for failure to pay rent.

The tenant has retained an attorney and is challenging the eviction proceeding in court.

See our feature, Landlord Struggles to Evict Tenant’s for Over-Exposure.

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Tags: landlords, landlord+tenant+disputes, apartment+owners, apartment+owners+associations, landlord+associations, landlord+forum, landlord+blog, real+estate+forms, tenant+background+checks, evictions

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Posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under AAOA Forum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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4 Responses to “Landlord Gives Easter Bunny the Boot”

Kim Ezzell says:

June 26, 2009 at 10:44 am

Hi Rennie,
Thanks for your comment. This case has not gone to court yet. I’ll watch for the outcome and report back. Kim/AAOA
Kim Ezzell says:

June 26, 2009 at 10:46 am

Rennie Gabriel said at June 26th, 2009 at 10:32 am

I was looking for the outcome of the case with the manager who threw away the tenant’s Easter display after the tenant refused to take it down 1.5 weeks after Easter and then would not pay rent and is now facing eviction. Has that been settled?
Evicted Tenant Enjoys Celebrity Status | AAOA - American Apartment Owners Association says:

July 30, 2009 at 9:47 am

[...] Status Easter Bunny Tenant to Appear on Colbert? You may remember our eviction story, Landlord Gives Easter Bunny the Boot. When a tenant set up a display of Easter Bunny Peeps on her interior door, no one bothered [...]
Blogs - American Apartment Owners Association says:

March 29, 2010 at 8:46 am

[...] A woman who claims she was evicted last spring over an Easter decoration will get her day in court. The case is scheduled to go before a jury tomorrow — just in time for this Easter holiday. The Boulder, Colorado woman refused to pay rent after her property manager removed a “Peeps” decoration displayed in the hallway outside of the woman’s apartment. The manager has stated she was concerned the sugar might attract pests. The landlord filed for eviction over the unpaid rent, and the tenant counter-sued, claiming she was driven from the property. The case quickly made national news, and rose to celebrity status when the tenant was invited to speak to Comedy Central’s fake newsman Stephen Colbert, who satirically portrayed the events as an attack on Easter. At stake is about $2,000 in unpaid rent – and more than $10,000 in landlord’s attorneys fees. The jury will decide, possibly on Good Friday, whether the tenant was justified in withholding her rent payment in protest over her decorations. If the jury doesn’t agree, the court then will determine whether the landlord was justified in incurring such a hefty legal bill to resolve this case. We’ll bring you the verdict as the case goes forward. For more see Landlord Gives Easter Bunny the Boot. [...]