Star Tribune
Struggle with unlicensed north Minneapolis rental house highlights challenges for renters with limited options
Nicholas Zobel, a recovering drug addict, had a hard time finding a place to live after graduating from his sober house at the end of 2022. His treatment program offered him a list of second-chance landlords. He called every number. One landlord called him back, offering a small single-family house in north Minneapolis.
The house, located at 5049 Vincent Av. N. was in bad shape, with a recent city inspection documenting windows that don’t lock, missing electrical fixtures with exposed wires, no faceplates on the outlets and water-damaged walls. Lacking other options, Zobel signed a lease.
But months after moving in, he discovered an even bigger problem: the rental was unlicensed, meaning it can’t legally be leased for money. Zobel, feeling scammed, decided to take the property owner to housing court to get his rent back.
“All I know is I’ve been taken advantage of and I’m trying to get over this as soon as possible,” he said. “In my opinion, my unfortunate situation is a result of a bigger community problem. So many other people have been in this situation before me. How many actually have taken the time and investment to challenge these landlords?”
It turns out a complicated ownership dispute is tangling up the licensing process for 5049 Vincent Ave. N., which hasn’t had a rental license for nearly a year.
Tenant advocates say Zobel’s story isn’t unheard of among renters who don’t have a wealth of options. Recent ordinances prohibiting discrimination against tenants based on long-past criminal records or whether they would be using public assistance to pay the rent, aim to help solve the problem, but remain difficult to enforce.
“We hear stories, unfortunately, fairly often about folks who are struggling to find safe — let alone affordable — housing when they have less-than-pristine background checks,” said Rachael Sterling, a housing attorney with the renters’ advocacy group HOME Line. “There are landlords out there who have substandard housing, who just refuse to make repairs because they know that their tenants are stuck.”
A Problem House
Neighbors said they saw virtually no upkeep on the house at 5049 Vincent Av. N. and a high turnover of tenants with limited options.
Nikki McComb, who has lived next door since 2017, said she’s seen a stream of tenants coming out of treatment and shelters, some who kept to themselves, others who got into loud fights and appeared to be dealing drugs. The landlord started blocking her calls after all the complaints she had made about the dilapidation of the property she described as “unlivable.”
“I’ve had to report the property multiple times. I’ve also had to report the tenants. I have not had to report Nick [Zobel] because he’s been a different type of tenant,” said McComb.
City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw who represents the area, said she was aware of those complaints and would consult city inspectors about the regulatory tools at the city’s disposal.
“It was my understanding that [the landlord] may have some more properties all over north, like some transitional housing, because I think he rents to … people with backgrounds who traditionally can’t find somewhere to live,” she said.
Ownership confusion
According to Hennepin County property records, Daniel Yesnes of Comking Real Estate Ventures is the owner of 5049 Vincent Av. N.
But Yesnes disputes that, and denies being responsible for the house’s maintenance because he sold it last January in a contract-for-deed transaction to a man named Opeyemi Christopher Olawuyi. Yesnes had a rental license for the property that expired in March 2023, but the city won’t renew the license under Olawuyi’s name until the county records him as the new owner, Yesnes said.
He blamed a “glitch” for why the county hasn’t updated its records.
A contract for deed is a type of transaction in which the buyer borrows from the seller instead of a bank, often because the buyer doesn’t qualify for a regular mortgage.
“The buyer is able to occupy the home after the closing of the sale, but the seller still retains legal title to the property,” the state’s Department of Commerce website says. “Actual ownership passes to the buyer only after the final payment is made.”
The Hennepin County Recorder’s office says the same: A contract-for-deed sale only changes the ownership after the contract has been fulfilled.
Yesnes maintained that is “completely wrong” and insisted that Olawuyi is the current owner of 5049 Vincent Av. N., not him.
“I can sell you real property on contract for deed, you are now the owner,” he said. “I’ve had a real estate license since 1977, so I have a general clue how things work.”
Olawuyi owns More Properties, which specializes in buying blighted houses. After Zobel filed an action in housing court to get his rent back, Olawuyi and Yesnes sent Zobel an eviction notice — another issue pending in the housing court case.
“If Nick is claiming that the house is in bad condition, I give him options,” Olawuyi said. “I said, ‘You know what? Two months of rent, I give you 30 days to leave this house. I’m willing to negotiate with you because I don’t want you to be in a place that is not comfortable.'”
Zobel refused, still wanting all the rent back that he had paid while the house went unlicensed—$1,429 a month for nearly a year — plus damages for the breathing problems he said he started to experience only after it rained and mold flared up a bedroom wall. Olawuyi said even if he wanted to, he didn’t have “that kind of money.”
Code violations
Olawuyi vowed to fix the code violations that the city inspector found, but emphatically denied there was any mold to repair because the word “mold” doesn’t appear in the repair order.
Zobel paid out of pocket for testing to verify that the black specks carpeting the walls and windows are mold.
But Pat Hilden, the city’s interim director of inspections, said rental housing inspectors need only to identify mold by odor and sight. “And then we tell people, as we did in this case, to remove any of the moisture or the building material that has got the appearance of mold, remove all that, fix wherever the moisture is coming from and then repair it properly. And that was in the order that we submitted.”
The mold ordinance, cited in the inspection report, was updated last year to clarify that it is not enough for landlords to simply paint over the mold, which inevitably reappears.
Hilden said when a landlord illegally collects rent through an unlicensed property, the tenant can go to housing court, as Zobel did, and try to get reimbursed. A second option is to make use of the city’s relocation assistance, which offers up to three months of rent back, charged to the owner.
Zobel and Olawuyi are scheduled for trial in housing court Feb. 9.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
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