The Banker Landlord Under Fire: Wells Fargo’s Clay Wyatt Faces Suit Over Habitability, Retaliation, and Discrimination And Investigations By HUD, Colorado banking authorities and the city's housing division. He is also why Colorado might have the country's first landlord licensing laws - Wyatt's Law.

When Jakub Kostecki and his family rented a house at 4300 Whitney Place in Boulder, they expected a safe, functional home. What they found instead, he says, were rodents, broken gates, and rooms without legal rescue windows—conditions that he argues made the property unsafe and unfit for occupancy.
Now the home, and its owner Clay Wyatt, are at the center of a lawsuit alleging habitability violations, retaliatory eviction, and source-of-income discrimination.Wyatt isn’t a typical small-scale landlord. He works in real-estate lending for Wells Fargo, one of the country’s largest banks. His dual role—as both housing professional and property owner—has transformed what might have been a local tenancy dispute into a case with broader implications for professional ethics and consumer protection inside the mortgage industry.A Family, a Lease, and a Pattern of ProblemsCourt filings and tenant correspondence describe a cascade of problems inside the Whitney Place property: inoperable gates that failed to open, rodents nesting inside walls, doors and fixtures in disrepair, and no secondary egress from key rooms.
Under Colorado’s Warranty of Habitability statute (C.R.S. § 38-12-503), landlords must ensure that rental units are “fit for human habitation” and provide safe exits in case of fire. Missing rescue windows or blocked egress points are considered serious violations, often tied directly to fire-safety codes adopted in Boulder County.Kostecki’s complaint claims that repeated maintenance requests went unanswered, and that the landlord’s response came instead in the form of an eviction filing soon after complaints were raised.
“That’s textbook retaliation,” says one Boulder housing attorney familiar with the case. “Colorado law explicitly prohibits landlords from retaliating against tenants who assert their rights or report habitability issues.”Retaliatory Eviction and Source-of-Income DiscriminationIn addition to the habitability claims, Kostecki alleges that Wyatt’s actions violated Colorado’s Fair Housing Act, which since 2021 prohibits discrimination based on source of income. That protection extends to tenants who use disability benefits, housing assistance, or other lawful income streams to pay rent.“Source-of-income discrimination is one of the fastest-growing housing violations in the state,” says Danielle Duran, a fair-housing advocate with the Colorado Civil Rights Division. “It often appears not as an outright refusal but as pressure, eviction, or harassment after the landlord learns where the money comes from.”The lawsuit contends that Wyatt knew the family’s rent payments were supported in part by lawful income sources, yet pursued eviction and failed to maintain the property—conduct that Kostecki argues amounted to punitive and discriminatory treatment.The Banker Behind the PropertyWyatt’s day job as a Wells Fargo real-estate banker adds a complex layer. Employees of federally regulated banks operate under strict ethical and fiduciary guidelines, particularly concerning consumer fairness and conflicts of interest.
A lawsuit alleging housing discrimination and retaliation could, legal experts note, trigger internal review or reputational risk for his employer.“Banks are held to higher standards when their employees engage in real-estate activities,” explains Dr. Melissa Tanner, who teaches business ethics at the University of Colorado. “It’s not just about one bad lease—it’s about the appearance of fairness and trust in the broader system of housing finance.”According to tenant records, Wyatt also did not run a standard rental application or screening process before leasing the property to the Kostecki family—a procedural lapse that suggests informal or inexperienced management.
“He’s a banker who knows lending regulations but not landlord law,” Kostecki says. “It’s like he applied none of the professional standards from his job to the property he rents out.”Habitability and the Human CostFor the Kostecki family, the lawsuit is about more than code violations. It’s about safety, dignity, and the sense that financial power shields bad behavior.
Living with rodents, blocked gates, and inadequate fire exits took a toll—both physical and emotional. “We kept wondering what would happen if there was a fire or medical emergency,” Kostecki recalls. “We had kids sleeping in rooms with no escape routes.”Colorado’s housing market has become an incubator for these conflicts. As high-income professionals purchase rental homes, often without professional management experience, tenants face a growing risk of being caught between inflated rents and indifferent owners.
In Boulder, where city officials are tightening fire-safety rules ahead of new 2025 WUI (Wildland-Urban Interface) standards, cases like Wyatt’s stand out as warnings about what happens when basic compliance meets casual neglect.A Broader Question of AccountabilityThe lawsuit arrives at a time when Wells Fargo itself remains under federal scrutiny for consumer-protection lapses in its lending divisions. Although Wyatt’s property is a private matter, tenant advocates say that corporate accountability begins with individual behavior.“If a bank employee is accused of ignoring safety laws in his own rental business, that raises legitimate concerns,” says Patrick Mendez, a Boulder tenant-rights organizer. “It shows how disconnected the financial sector can be from the realities of housing on the ground.”The case could also illuminate how local courts interpret retaliatory eviction claims in the wake of pandemic-era reforms. Under C.R.S. § 38-12-509, landlords who file eviction actions within six months of a tenant complaint may face a presumption of retaliation—a clause added to protect renters who speak up.Looking AheadAs the case moves through Boulder County District Court, both sides will likely present competing narratives: one of a banker-landlord acting within his rights, and another of a family pushed out for demanding a habitable home.For Kostecki, the fight represents something larger. “This isn’t about one house—it’s about accountability,” he says. “If a Wells Fargo banker can rent out unsafe housing and retaliate when challenged, what chance does the average renter have?”The outcome could set a small but meaningful precedent for how courts treat ethically bound professionals who also act as landlords. And in Boulder’s tightening housing ecosystem—where affordability, fire safety, and landlord conduct collide—the Wyatt case may become a touchstone for the balance between power and responsibility in Colorado housing.