New Home Buyers in Lone Tree – Beware

On February 17, 2015, the Lone Tree City Council passed by a unanimous vote, an ordinance aimed at encouraging construction of condominium housing within the city limits.  The ordinance essentially strips the ability of any association to seek redress from a building for defective construction, thus placing the burden on implementing repairs within a condominium community on the owners within the community.

In support of these types of ordinances, cities are claiming that no condominium units are being built because of large scale defect lawsuits and that the only way to encourage building of condominium units is to protect the builder from this liability.   These ordinances ignore the fact that in all construction defect cases, there are substantial claimed defects created by the builder.

This ordinance:

•  Removes the right of an association to amend its declaration to remove arbitration provisions, thus precluding an association’s ability to access the courts to resolve these disputes;

• Requires extensive notice to the owners regarding the defect and impact on property values;

• Requires a majority of all owners’ approval prior to investigating and pursuing any alleged construction defects; and

• Provides the builder a right to implement a repair of the claimed defect.

With the passage of this ordinance, Lone Tree has given renewed emphasis to the maxim Caveat Emptor as buyers must examine, judge, and test the Unit themselves when purchasing a new home in Lone Tree, as their rights to redress are severely limited.