Cohousing-L Mailing List: Condo construction-defects bill is close to making its debut

[Thomas Lofft (tlofft]

Are CO cohousing condos ready for this? For better or worse, is your state 
ready for a similar effort? Condo construction-defects bill is close to making 
its debut in Colorado LegislatureEd Sealover Sen. Jessie Ulibarri said Monday 
that he is close to introducing a bill to address the lack of condominiums 
being built in the Denver area.
Metro-area mayors and business groups have worked for more than a year to 
change that law in a way that would make it harder to file class-action 
lawsuits for construction defects, saying that the current ease of legal action 
is largely responsible for just 2 percent of new residences being brought onto 
the market being multi-family dwellings for sale. 
That lack of condominiums has cut the stock of affordable housing locally, and 
it’s dampening plans of city leaders who want to see such dwellings built by 
the developing FasTracks rail line.
Both the Downtown Denver Partnership and the Home Builders Association of Metro 
Denver have sent out alerts to members in the past week, asking them to push 
legislative leaders to support what they are calling Ulibarri’s “Homeownership 
Opportunity Act of 2014.” 
Both House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, and Senate President Morgan 
Carroll, D-Aurora, have expressed concerns about changing the current law, and 
advocates had begun to fear that no bill would come forward during the final 
days of the legislative session, which ends on May 7.
But Ulibarri, D-Commerce City, confirmed on Monday that he believes he will be 
able to introduce two bills soon to deal with the shortage of condos. 
One would create some sort of incentive fund for developers to defray some of 
the high insurance costs around those types of buildings. And the other would 
involve mandating that condo owners submit to arbitration before filing 
class-action lawsuits.
The mandatory-arbitration provision has been the trickiest, and Ulibarri said 
he has meetings scheduled throughout this week with stakeholders to see if he 
can reach some consensus between feuding sides. Any mandate would come with 
consumer protections, such as allowing the homeowners to study the background 
of potential arbitrators and to reject them.
“We are trying to thread the needle, and I think we have come up with some good 
language that hasn’t yet seen the light of day with all stakeholders,” Ulibarri 
said. “These meetings are happening around that idea.”
Ed Sealover covers government, health care, tourism, airlines and hospitality 
for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Capitol Business" blog. 
Phone: 303-803-9229.