A Colorado Senate committee voted last late night to forward SB 15-177 to the full Senate with four approved minor amendments.
After hearing over eight hours of testimony from over forty witnesses representing both proponents and opponents of the bill, the Senate Business, Labor and Technology committee voted 6-2 to approve the bill. SB 15-177 will now proceed to the full Senate, where it is expected to be approved sometime next week. The fate of the bill in the House is less certain. The Democratic party retains a slim majority in the House, and it is anticipated the House will not approve the bill.
During the committee hearing, proponents testified that the bill will make affordable condominium housing options more readily available because builders will be less fearful of construction defect litigation. Opponents testified the bill does not encourage affordable housing, and will not ease the economic and demographic forces which limited such projects over the past several years. Opponents also testified that the bill imposes unfair burdens on condominium owners by denying them equal access to justice or adequate protections under the law.
Bill Short of Altitude Community Law testified in opposition to the bill. We link you to a copy of his written testimony which was provided to the Committee as part of this presentation. The written testimony details some of the serious flaws with the legislation.
The bill’s sponsors successfully made four amendments to the bill. We link you to a summary of those amendments. The summary also describes problems with those amendments as identified by opponents to the bill. Highlights of the four amendments are as follows:
- One amendment allows an association’s attorney to prepare the notice to owners.
- A second amendment allows condominium owners to vote by proxy concerning potential construction defect litigation.
- A third amendment allows the association and the builders to agree upon a mediator or arbitrator, as distinguished from a mediator or arbitrator selected solely by the developer-builder. Nevertheless, that amendment still requires a preference for the developer-builder’s chosen mediator/arbitrator.
- The final amendment slightly modifies the contents of the notice to be sent to owners.
Altitude Community Law P.C. will continue to update you on the path of SB 15-177 through the General Assembly. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions at 303.432.9999.
If the bill is passed, someone will need to bring a case to have this determined by the Courts. It might pass the Colorado Supreme Court, but I don’t think it would pass the US Supreme Court, and it does have a federal question and amount in controversy to make it ripe.