CAHB Colorado Close Up 2/25/2025
Construction-Litigation Reform Bill Introduced, CAHB GAC takes Position on 9 Bills
Construction-Litigation Reform Bill Introduced
Last week, Rep. Shannon Bird (D-Westminster), along with Senate President James Coleman (D-Denver), introduced House Bill 25-1272. The proposal, titled Construction Defects and Middle Market Housing, will likely be the bill that our industry and the stakeholders that have worked tirelessly to address Colorado’s defects law will try to improve upon this session. Rep. Bird and Sen. Coleman held a press conference alongside Governor Polis, who has already highlighted the importance of addressing this issue during his 2025 State of the State speech. Gov. Polis, recognizing the importance of adding condos back into Colorado’s housing mix, noted that this legislation “will help to build more housing that can be sold, build that nest egg, and build wealth over time."
The Colorado Association of Home Builders Government Affairs Committee on Friday took an amend position on HB25-1272. The CAHB and several of its members have identified significant concerns with the bill and are working with Rep. Bird to identify key amendments. The first hearing on HB25-1272 in the Transportation, Housing & Local Government Committee is scheduled for March 11. The CAHB will likely be working with the previous coalition—renamed to Housing Options Now—to help bring diverse voices to the capitol to testify on the bill.
Also last week, Rep. Jennifer Bacon (D-Denver) and Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez (D-Denver) introduced House Bill 25-1261, titled Consumers Construction Defect Action. The CAHB is opposed to HB25-1261. This is the trial lawyer response bill, similar to last year’s HB24-1230, that is counterproductive to our shared efforts to re-ignite condo development and promote the construction of all types of homes to meet Colorado’s housing needs. HB25-1261 will make the construction of all homes—not just condos—more expensive by allowing class-action lawsuits and pre-judgement interest, tools used by trial lawyers to drive up costs and force massive settlements, benefitting lawyers over homeowners. The bill also seeks to reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s Vallagio decision that has helped limit frivolous lawsuits.
Please stay tuned as this year’s construction-litigation reform efforts unfold. There appears to be even more political momentum to address these issues, and we remain hopeful that we can make real strides on reform this year.
Government Affairs Committee Update
The GAC met last Friday and received updates on several introduced and proposed bills. The GAC took positions on 9 different bills. To review a complete list of the CAHB's legislative positions--including bills that the GAC supported, opposed and monitored, please visit https://fastdemocracy.com/shared-bills/?sharing-bill-list-id=3FY3wRWxzRtZ.
HB25-1205—Amend—This bill would clarify that the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan— a program designed to provide property coverage for homeowners and businesses when insurance coverage is unavailable through traditional means—is not a government-operated entity or an insurance company. Additionally, it grants immunity to the association’s members, board of directors, and other individuals for any action taken in the performance of their duties. Policyholders may, however, file action against the association for breach of contract or breach of the common law covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
HB25-1211—Support—This proposal would place additional limitations on tap fees charged by the board of a sanitation district, water and sanitation district, or water district. In determining the amount of the fee, the bill would require that a board ensure the amount of the tap fee is reasonably related to the cost of providing water service, including the cost to obtain water rights; and consider expected long-term use, square footage of the unit, the presence of low water use appliances, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the presence of graywater treatment works as supporting a reduced or proportional tap fee.
HB25-1219—Amend—This bill would require that metropolitan districts that are required to have a publicly accessible website must establish a system or a process for residents to contact someone associated with the metropolitan district at times when district personnel is otherwise unavailable or unreachable to address any questions or concerns regarding services of the metropolitan district. The bill would also increase the requirements of what information is contained on a metro district web site, as well as require specific information to be on the district’s home page.
HB25-1239—Amend—This proposal would modify the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by consolidating and expanding remedies for individuals facing discrimination, particularly those with disabilities. The bill specifically seeks to extend the deadline for filing a discrimination complaint related to public accommodations or discriminatory advertising from 60 days to 1 year; permit individuals to seek attorney’s fees and costs, actual monetary damages, noneconomic damages of up to $50,000, and fines of $5,000 per violation; reduce noneconomic damages that a small business is liable for by 50 percent if they correct the violation within 30 days; and conform adjudication standards with the federal American Disabilities Act. The CAHB lobby team will work to amend this bill and coordinate with other business organizations to provide more clarity on the provisions of the bill pertaining to fines.
HB25-1261—Oppose—This bill would modify disclosure requirements, claim timelines, court awards, contract provisions, and reporting for construction defect claims, including requiring construction professionals to provide claimants with construction and insurance information after receiving a notice of a claim. The bill would extend the time that a claim for relief arises to both the discovery of the property improvement’s physical defect and its cause. The bill would direct courts to award 8 percent prejudgment interest to prevailing claimants on damages for construction defect claims, compounded annually to the date of the first notice, and it would seek to void any contract to sell real estate that limits a property owner’s right—including for single family, townhome and condo owners—to bring or join an action against a construction professional. The CAHB’s Government Affairs Committee on Friday took an Opposed position on HB-1261.
HB25-1269—Amend—This proposal would update the energy use benchmarking and performance standard requirements for owners of covered buildings to include a requirement to meet 2040 performance standards, as adopted by the Air Quality Control Commission; authorize an alternative compliance mechanism for covered building owners to comply with certain performance standards; and align civil penalties owed for a violation of the benchmarking and performance standard requirements with civil penalties owed for other air quality violations. The bill would create a building decarbonization enterprise to provide financial assistance, technical assistance, and other programmatic assistance to covered building owners by imposing and collecting an annual building decarbonization fee from covered building owners to cover the enterprise's costs. Finally, the bill would exempt local governments that adopt building codes from the requirement to adopt an energy code if the local government has adopted an approved wildfire resiliency code.
HB25-1272—Amend—This bill seeks to address multiple issues within Colorado’s construction-litigation law that prevent the development of affordable and attainable condos, including establishing a claimant's duty to mitigate an alleged construction defect and specifies how a claimant may satisfy this duty and the consequences to a claimant that fails to satisfy this duty; requiring that a construction professional must send or deliver to the claimant an offer to settle the claim or a written response that identifies the standards that apply to the claim and explains why the defect does not require repair; and requiring a construction professional who is the defendant in a construction defects action to submit specified information to the claimant. The CAHB lobby team will be working to address several concerns in this bill and is working with the sponsors on amendments.
HB25-1273—Support—This proposal would require the governing body of a subject jurisdiction to adopt a building code, or amend an existing building code, to allow up to 5 stories of a multifamily residential building that satisfies certain conditions to be served by a single exit. This requirement would only apply to the area within a subject jurisdiction that is served by a single, accredited fire protection district or fire department. The bill would define a subject jurisdiction as a municipality with a population of 100,000 or more that is served by an accredited fire protection district or fire department. The proposal seeks to clarify that the adoption or amendment of a building code to satisfy the requirements of the bill does not qualify as adopting or enforcing a building code for the purpose of determining whether the governing body of a municipality is required to adopt an energy code.