Minneapolis landlord accused of inventing tenants for unoccupied apartments to dodge lawsuit

The apartments had furniture inside. There were names on the mailboxes, even children’s shoes by the door.

But the scene, laid out in court documents filed by attorneys representing tenants suing landlord Stephen Frenz, was allegedly a ruse.

Lawsuits brought by a neighborhood group on behalf of tenants must be backed by a majority of a building’s tenants. By staging three empty apartments as if they were occupied, the tenants’ lawyers argue, Frenz was falsifying numbers, trying to get the case dismissed.

http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-landlord-accused-of-inventing-tenants-for-unoccupied-apartments-to-dodge-lawsuit/375640571/