Gardner tenants were forced out, asked to waive rights weeks before condemnation

David Sinclair and Sarah Rogers lived at Aspen Place Apartments with their now 1-year-old daughter for over a year.

Born and raised in Gardner, the two wanted to find a place to be close to their parents that was budget-friendly.

They had issues with the water there long before the city stepped in eventually to condemn the buildings and force all the tenants to find somewhere else to go.

“It had gotten to a point where I was buying gallons of water to flush the toilet,” Rogers said. “We were just leaving our daughter’s bath stuff over at the grandparents’ house, our own shower equipment at the grandparents’ house because we couldn’t shower at our own place that we were paying for.”

Water issues plagued their unit from November until April. Pipes froze and burst during the winter months, and they had frequent water shut-offs leading up to the day they had to leave.

On April 7, the City of Gardner taped a notice on their door condemning their unit — almost a month before the city condemned the entire 200-unit complex and gave residents 48 hours to leave.

Only in their case, they had 24 hours.

Sinclair and Rogers were two of at least a handful of former Aspen Place tenants who received a condemned notice from the city last month alongside a request from the rental company to sign a form that would prevent the tenants from taking any future action against the company.

Daneeka Marshall-Oquendo, Gardner’s communications director, said in a written statement that the city declared a portion of the property an “unfit structure” after receiving a complaint that the building had been without water for three to four days.

Code compliance officers found there was little to no water pressure on the second floor, a noticeable gas odor and brown-colored water output, which signaled significant health and safety concerns.

“We were out by April 8 in the morning, we returned the keys. They asked us to sign a release of liability,” Rogers said.

The document said that KDR Realty, the property management company, wasn’t responsible for the situation and that tenants would waive their rights to take future legal action or speak out against the company.

“We refused to sign and they told us that we couldn’t get our money back and we still haven’t seen our money,” Rogers said.

Jeffrey Zimmerman, an attorney with Zimmerman and Doering P.A. who represents KDR, told The Star in an email that pro-rated rent for May has been refunded to all tenants and that KDR is “working diligently to refund security deposits in full, regardless of the units’ conditions.

How did it get so bad?

Gloria and her son moved into Aspen Place Apartments in order for her to leave a bad relationship and start fresh.

“I literally took all the money I had, that’s everything I had, to move in there,” she said.

Gloria —who asked to use only her first name in fear that her experiences might impact ongoing legal proceedings with her previous partner — moved into the Gardner apartment complex on March 20.

Two weeks later, the main water line broke. There wasn’t enough water pressure in her unit to take baths or showers, do laundry or flush the toilet, she said. She had to go to a friend’s house to shower and wash her clothes.

“It’s definitely been rough, but I feel like I count myself lucky compared to those that are now in this situation where they have nowhere to go,” she said. “The housing market is not easy. Everyone wants three times the rent and KDR has all of my money.”

“I’m working four jobs just to try to recoup some money.”

Now that the entire complex has been condemned, she said Gardner and KDR have pointed fingers at each other for who’s at fault.

“What’s baffling to me is this has been ongoing for years,” she said. “The city’s known about the conditions. They’ve had multiple reports on it, which I think the mayor did admit that he had.”

Gardner Mayor Todd Winters said in a post on a public community Facebook group that the city had been on site multiple times and issued citations, but they hadn’t been addressed — leaving the city “no choice but to condemn the properties until such time as the issues can be resolved.”

Hindered emergency response

Fellow Aspen Place tenant Sinclair said he didn’t understand why the issues in the apartments went on for an additional month, despite the city issuing multiple citations and condemning a handful of units in April.

“They really started taking measures when the fire truck a couple days ago fell through the road,” he said. “I understand that leads to safety issues with safety vehicles being able to get through and whatnot, but I feel like Gardner really didn’t stand up and do something about it until that happened.”

Marshall-Oquendo, the city’s communications manager, said in her written statement that any complaints regarding specific units were investigated by Gardner’s code enforcement officer and that “appropriate action would have been taken in response to any violations found.”

Zimmerman, the real estate company’s lawyer, said the city’s timeline to vacate the property after the fire truck got stuck was “unrealistic.”

“We had a contractor there ready to repair the line that was broken by the City’s fire truck the next day which would have restored water and perhaps provided additional time for the tenants to vacate, but the City would not permit any work at this time,” he said.

He said that the company was “near ready” to submit a $1 million plan to “completely overhaul the system” and still intends to meet with the city later this month.

“We are hoping to coordinate with the city and community groups that are assisting the tenants to assist the displaced tenants as much as we can,” he said in the statement.

According to a statement from the City of Gardner, deteriorating water infrastructure became increasingly unreliable in the apartments, and pipe ruptures became more frequent, which forced the city to ultimately take action to shut down the property.

State Sen. Doug Shane said that Gardner is in a “no-win situation.”

“We need this to end, we can’t have people live here any longer. Now all of the sudden these people have a couple of days to find a new place to live and uproot their life,” Shane said. “It’s an incredibly tough situation when trying to navigate which need is greater than the other.”

Shane, a Republican who represents Edgerton and parts of Gardner and Olathe, said that now it’s important to get people into housing.

“In my view, we had folks that had just been taken advantage of and treated improperly for so long, that’s just as tragic if not more tragic that they were put in the horrible situation of having to find new places to live,” he said.

Signing waivers, releasing responsibility

When Gloria returned her keys after she left her apartment, someone from KDR Realty LLC asked her to sign a liability waiver to prevent her from suing the company or making any statements that would criticize KDR.

The waiver added that the tenants requested to terminate and vacate their unit and states that KDR agreed to let them vacate early.

Gloria refused to sign the document and said she’s still waiting to get her rent and security deposit back from the company.

“The liability waiver is generally good business practice when someone wishes to terminate a contract before its term expires,” Zimmerman said. “I do not believe any action has been taken or will be taken against any tenant wanted out of the lease.”

Shane said that he’s still trying to understand the liability waivers tenants received. He added that it’s illegal in Kansas to coerce someone into signing a contract.

“Basically, (saying) if you don’t sign this contract you won’t get this deposit back — trying to override existing documents where they are owed their deposits back. Now you want to make it contingent on signing this other contract, that would be illegal,” he said.

“If that’s happening I would want to know that and the Attorney General’s office would want to know that.”

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach released a statement earlier this week saying that his office is “closely monitoring the condemnation” in order to ensure the protection of tenants’ rights.

“We expect the property owner to follow through on its stated commitment to refund rent and security deposits to the displaced tenants,” Kobach said in the statement. “Furthermore, tenants may not be coerced to sign any additional agreements in order to receive their rent and security deposits.”

Lack of state protections

But the whole issue presents a challenge for action at the state level, Shane said.

“If this were a fire, flood, tornado, the path is a lot clearer on how the state can come in,” he said. “It’s such a difficult situation and there’s nothing in law that captures this situation and how do we provide support.”

There’s nothing on the books in Kansas to protect renters, including case law claiming that landlord-tenant exchanges don’t fall under the Consumer Protection Act — a state law that protects consumers from deceptive and unfair trade practices.

Shane said he’d like to get a statute that will ensure tenants rights while not “create unnecessary or overburdensome” laws that would make it difficult for a landlord.

“How do we ensure that consumers that are tenants have the same basic protections in place? I’d say it’s evident we ought to do something — a situation like this shouldn’t happen in Kansas and I don’t want to see it ever happen again,” Shane said. “Our laws should reflect our state’s moral position that we respect and honor people’s human dignity.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2025 at 6:00 AM.

Taylor O’Connor

The Kansas City Star

Taylor is The Star’s Johnson County watchdog reporter. Before coming to Kansas City, she reported on north Santa Barbara County, California, covering local governments, school districts and issues ranging from the housing crisis to water conservation. She grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.