Members of the Brentwood Tenants Union will be awarded more than $49,500 in court fines from Quadrel Realty after the landlord allegedly failed to appear in court proceedings concerning housing conditions. While the ruling marks one of the largest wins for a tenant union in Hennepin County, Brentwood tenants are still fighting to receive the original settlement agreed upon.
After a January 2025 ruling allowed renters to organize to improve living conditions, tenants at Brentwood Apartments formed their own union to seek emergency relief following extended heating outages during the 2024-25 winter season.
“That winter, a number of tenants in the building had severe heat outages,” said Legal Aid Attorney Julia Zwak. “The boilers connected to the three buildings went out, so there was heat loss for basically everyone in the building. It sounded terrible. There were some families that even had young children and had to bundle them up.”
A settlement was reached in fall 2025 requiring Quadrel Realty to fix the heating issues and any other pending repairs, and to issue a 50% rent abatement for the two months tenants went without heat. However, according to Zwak, Quadrel Realty continued to ignore tenants and their counsel in subsequent court proceedings, and many tenants affected by the heat loss had still not received the promised payments.
“Quadrel and its lawyer largely lost touch with our office and our clients,” Zwak said. “We took them to court in December to enforce our agreement. They showed up an hour late. In January, when they again failed to meet the terms of the agreement, we filed an affidavit of noncompliance. At our request, the court imposed fines. To our knowledge, this is the largest fine ever awarded to a tenants union in Hennepin County Housing Court.”
Quadrel Realty owns properties in Minneapolis and other major cities including Miami and Chicago. Tenant complaints appear to be a recurring issue across locations, with Yelp reviews from renters in both cities citing poor living conditions. Complaints range from employees allegedly verbally assaulting tenants to mold found on walls.
As of April 2025, only seven tenants have received the amount agreed upon in the settlement, according to union President Emery Bush. “There are around 18 tenants who deserve a credit and have not received it. This is based on data we have collected through door knocking and connecting with tenants who have provided us their contact information,” Bush said. “Quadrel has our membership list, and they know exactly who was living here during the winter of 2024-25. They could very easily give us a list of who has and has not received a credit, but has failed to do so.”
Tenants continue to report safety and sanitary issues at the Brentwood. During the most recent winter, sporadic heating outages persisted, though they were resolved more quickly than before. Tenants also report unhoused individuals frequently taking shelter in the building’s stairwells due to a lack of security.
“Neighbors are experiencing intermittent heating issues across all three buildings. The joint mail room, which serves all three buildings, has had a persistent and serious leak since October 2025,” Bush said. “They only began construction on it recently. The first day construction started, the ceiling was torn out and wires were left hanging into the room. It was left in that state for about a month, with mail still being delivered and the leak still ongoing.”
Bush also noted there are only three working washers and dryers for all three buildings, which together house 102 units.
“The biggest issue here is lack of communication,” Bush said. “All of these maintenance concerns, as well as previous ones, have been clearly communicated to management, and yet it takes weeks or months to make any progress. Oftentimes, tenants never hear back, or have maintenance requests cancelled.”
“It does seem like the landlord is trying to do as little as possible to get by,” Zwak said. “There was a point in time, before we were involved, where the court ordered them to take some steps and they expressed to the court that they thought the order was optional. Their understanding of how the legal system works and their obligations just seems very skewed.”
In March, a court ordered Quadrel Realty to pay $49,500 in fines by March 20, payable to the Brentwood Tenants Union. Per the court order, additional fines of $750 per day will continue to accrue until the landlord fulfills its obligations.
Izzy Canizares is a freelance journalist and contributing journalist for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder