Problems continue at Boulder apartment complex after students were forced out

BOULDER, Colo. -- A Boulder apartment complex illegally divided up rooms, and now some residents say they aren’t getting what the paid for or were promised.

Some parents are flying in from out of town as students are stressed about where they’re going to live just days before the new school year starts.

Emma Becker is scrambling to find a proper apartment after the Sterling University Peaks was deemed uninhabitable Wednesday night.

The apartment has since made improvements to meet city code, but Becker’s mother had to fly in all the way from St. Louis, Mo., to figure the mess out.

“Now we’re just here for the next few days trying to figure out if I have to live here or if I can go to another place. We’re just really short on time,” said Becker.

Becker and the other 300 other people who live at Sterling University Peaks were forced out of their apartments because the city said the units weren’t up to code since all bedrooms didn’t have windows.  

Nestor Montejo had to go all the way to Longmont to get a hotel room since all the hotels were full in Boulder. That required money many of these college students weren't expecting to spend just before school starts.

“I personally don’t carry that much money right now, so when we went to Longmont we had someone else pay with their credit card. And we weren’t sure how long we were going to be staying there either,” said Montejo.

The building is back up to code after the apartment complex nailed swinging bookshelves into the wall.

That means Montejo and his neighbors can move back in, but before, those bookshelves created four individual bedrooms and now they’re only two-bedroom units.

“They told us in the pictures and everything you could fit a desk and your bed and everything and have a wardrobe or a closet. And you cannot fit all that and now you don’t even get a private space. They’re opening it all up. So we don’t get anything we were promised,” said Becker.

The apartment’s attorney sent Denver7 an email saying they will pay for Wednesday night’s hotel rooms, transportation to and from the hotels, and give residents $500 for the mix up.