Two bills that would have negatively impacted HOAs in Colorado are dead for the session. Here is what you need to know:
House Bill 1165
House Bill 14-1165 (“HB 1165”) was taken up last week by the House Business, Labor, Economic & Workforce Development Committee and was defeated by a vote of 1 Representative in favor of the bill to 9 against.
HB 1165 would have capped the retainage permitted in construction contracts to 5% and rendered unenforceable provisions in these contracts with higher a retainage. This bill would have impacted construction contracts for all HOAs with more than 4 units. In other words, almost every HOA in Colorado could have been affected by this bill.
Senate Bill 140
Senate Bill 14-140 (“SB 140”), which was introduced by Senator Owen Hill (R-El Paso), was postponed indefinitely at the request of Senator Hill by the Senate Committee on State, Veterans & Military Affairs. This means that SB 140 is dead for the 2014 legislative session and cannot be reintroduced this year. Senator Hill told the Committee that the bill needed more work before potentially being reintroduced next year.
SB 140 which would have impacted the lien rights of those HOAs which fall within the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”) exception for small new cooperatives and small and limited expense planned communities. In order to be permitted to record liens for past due assessments, to foreclose upon those liens and to collect related fees and charges permitted under the declarations for these associations, this bill would have required these HOAs to amend their declarations to adopt all provisions of CCIOA. Obviously, this would have been a major overreaction to the foreclosure situation the Senator was trying to fix.
As always, stay tuned for more updates on important HOA legislation.
Molly Foley-Healy is Chair of CAI’s Legislative Action Committee