Breaking Ground on CO's Housing

In our economics class, we all learned that a very effective way to address the cost of something is to increase its supply. To that end, we got some great news last week for condo-seekers in the metro area: The Colorado Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Colorado Court of Appeals last Monday that homeowner’s associations must receive the consent of a developer to remove provisions for arbitration from a contract in the event of a construction-defect claim.

What’s this mean for us? Developers now have a much more efficient way to resolve issues than only through costly litigation. This provision delivers the second of two critical components we have been seeking in our efforts to reform the construction defects litigation environment. We submitted an amicus brief in the case of Vallagio at Inverness Residential Condominium Association v. Metro Homes Inc. because we agree that the questions around these provisions needed to be addressed.

As I said, this was the second component; the first was passed by the legislature thanks to key leaders including House Reps. Alec Garnett, Lori Saine and Cole Wist, along with Speaker Crisanta Duran and Sens. Lucia Guzman and Jack Tate. House Bill 1279 requires notification and approval from a majority of home owners before an association can enter into litigation surrounding a construction-defect claim.

And our goal in getting both of these provisions adopted for the past four years was simple: help create a market that protects homebuyers while allowing developers to get back in the business of building condos. We know that increasing the supply of condos from the mere 3 percent we currently see being built back to 20 percent of the housing options being built will provide a broader range of housing choices and deliver more affordable housing options for our workforce.

“With the combination of the bill at the Legislature and the Supreme Court’s ruling, we have a way forward,” I told the Denver Business Journal last week.