40 tenants asked to pay rent they insist they already paid, Aurora police involved

AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — Some 40-plus tenants at The Meadows at Dunkirk apartment complex in Aurora say they’re being asked to pay back rent for months they know they already paid.

“Dec. 13, actually, I got a demand letter stating that I’d owe $4,500 on back rent,” said one tenant, who asked FOX31 not to reveal her identity. She said the demand letter posted on her door said she had unpaid rent going back to June 2023.

“Next morning, I called and I called and I called, and I like to say that I called like a toxic girlfriend, because they weren’t answering,” the woman said of the Dunkirk leasing office. She would soon learn she was among at least 40 residents who received a similar notice.

Pedcor Management hasn’t responded to calls or emails from the Problem Solvers, but tenants told FOX31 they were told by the lead leasing agent that another leasing agent in the office, who no longer works for Pedcor, had been embezzling rent checks and money orders for months.

A Facebook group called Dunkirk Chronicles names the accused leasing agent and includes comments from multiple tenants, who are furious they are being asked to make up for the missing funds.

“Pedcor is trying to get over on everyone! are they going to evict 40+ people at the same time? They can’t do this!” one woman posted.

Fraud reported to Aurora police — the same day as tenant rent demands

An Aurora Police Department spokeswoman told the Problem Solvers that Dec. 13 — the day tenants received rent demand letters — is the same day the department received a fraud and theft report from Pedcor Management, which operates The Meadows at Dunkirk.

Tenants told FOX31 no one in management told them Pedcor had filed a police report alleging fraud and theft while, on the same day, it was asking residents to prove they had paid rent from months prior.

“How do you go a month in a regular apartment complex without paying rent and not getting a demand or an eviction notice? How? Let alone six months with 40-plus people not paying seems absurd,” said the anonymous tenant, who said Pedcor should have realized months earlier that rent checks were disappearing.

That tenant said asking tenants to pay for rent again because management failed to notice rent payments hadn’t been deposited for months was unfathomable.

“They’re psychotic. No one’s going to pay that back. And I mean, who has $5,000 sitting in their bank account?” the tenant said.

Employee fired after Problem Solvers interview

“As long as they cleared mine (rental account), I guess I’m supposed to just, like, shut up about it,” said Xavier Collins, who is both a tenant and former maintenance man at The Meadows at Dunkirk. “But I know a lot of these people personally, so I feel for them.”

Collins learned he was also accused of being months behind on rent but said a leasing agent told him what was really going on.

“This particular leasing agent did pull me and my work agent to the side and say that they had witnessed seeing these money orders being taken, cashed out” by another leasing agent, he said.

Collins said he thinks his account was cleared only because he works for Pedcor, although FOX31 learned he was fired after granting the Problem Solvers an interview.

“As of right now, they’re just giving everybody the runaround, and then you’re still telling the residents, ‘Show me something, prove it, prove it.’ Some people don’t keep up with those money orders. After six months to a year, you toss it away because they’re just keeping space in your drawer. But that’s not fair,” Collins said.

The tenant who spoke anonymously with the Problem Solvers said she provided past screenshots of money orders she had submitted — and had even taken cellphone videos of herself dropping off past rent payments — but said: “Two weeks ago, I got a notice on my door saying that whatever evidence residents have provided was not sufficient evidence.”

HUD responds after fraud claims at low-income apartments

When FOX31 visited the leasing office, the doors were locked and a sign said the office was now open by appointment only and that the complex was “no longer showing units at this time” for rent.

Tenants complain management hasn’t returned most phone calls or emails since Dec. 13.

Aurora police said it was still waiting on Pedcor Management to provide documents before it could begin an investigation, but it encouraged residents who think they’ve been caught up in possible fraud to contact Detective Gennifer Wolf at 303-739-6133.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development insures the mortgage on the low-income property but does not own The Meadows at Dunkirk or manage the property.

In a statement, a HUD spokesman told FOX31 it learned “that Pedcor was made aware on December 12th, 2023, that an employee had been taking residents money orders. Pedcor immediately terminated the employee and filed a police report with the Aurora police department. According to Pedcor, demands for non-payment of rent for the month December had already been posted, so many tenants that were affected did receive demand notices. Pedcor reports that affected tenants have been contacting management to notify Pedcor that rent had already been paid. When Pedcor receives this notification, they are working with the tenant to correct the accounts.”

What remains unexplained is why Pedcor Management ever scared residents into thinking they might be forced to pay rent twice. Again, Pedcor told HUD it fired an employee for stealing residents’ money orders on Dec. 12 but still posted demand letters to residents on Dec. 13, the same day it reported the theft to Aurora police.

Some residents said they were told they owed months of back rent, not just December, which appears to contradict what Pedcor told HUD.

A HUD spokesman added that Pedcor confirmed: “They are aware they cannot double charge tenants for rent and will not evict any tenants that did pay their rent. While Pedcor representatives believe they have an accurate listing of those residents who were affected by this situation, they urge all affected tenants to reach out to Pedcor about any demand notice they received to ensure their ledgers are reviewed and corrected.”

Residents told FOX31 they’ve been trying to contact Pedcor for nearly two months to have their ledgers corrected but haven’t been able to reach a representative.