{"id":70465,"date":"2017-03-30T20:06:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T02:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tort-reform-for-construction-defects-unraveling-in-denver\/"},"modified":"2017-03-31T02:06:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T02:06:12","slug":"tort-reform-for-construction-defects-unraveling-in-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tort-reform-for-construction-defects-unraveling-in-denver\/","title":{"rendered":"Tort reform for construction defects unraveling in Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Attempts
Attempts to reach a resolution to the construction defects battle and to rejuvenate the condo market in Colorado took a step backward in Denver on Wednesday when the Homeownership Opportunity Alliance, pulled its support on two bipartisan measures aimed at easing the problem.<\/span>SHAUN STANLEY\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Attempts to reach a resolution to the construction defects battle and to rejuvenate the condo market in Colorado just hit a major stumbling block.<\/p>\n

The Homeownership Opportunity Alliance<\/a>, which is a group of community leaders backing efforts to reform construction defects litigation, has pulled its support on two bipartisan measures aimed at easing the problem.<\/p>\n

Assistant House Minority Leader Alec Garnett, D-Denver<\/a>, said the alliance voted Tuesday night to pull its support from House Bill 1279, which would require a homeowners association gather a simple majority of votes from unit owners in order to pursue litigation for defects.<\/p>\n

A dispute concerning the period of time available for HOAs to gather votes and how it would affect the time frame when litigation could be brought forward by homeowners caused the alliance to pull its support.<\/p>\n

The bill had been scheduled for committee hearing Wednesday, but it was postponed after the alliance\u2019s decision. The measure would pause legal maneuvers for 120 day while votes for moving forward with litigation were gathered from homeowners.<\/p>\n

This would extend the period when contractors would be liable for defects by an additional four months, Garnett said. \u201cYou\u2019re willing to say: \u2018We don\u2019t want anything; this is worse than having significant reform moving forward because of 120 days.\u2019 That makes me suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alliance\u2019s withdrawal of support comes after months of negotiations with various stakeholders, and it has dire implications for individuals looking for an affordable house, Garnett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may not be a solution for Coloradans who desperately want to see for-purchase condos being built in their communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaker of the House Crisanta Duran, D-Denver<\/a>, said throughout negotiations the alliance had continually increased what it was asking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we have seen through this process is the goal posts continue to change over and over again,\u201d Duran said.<\/p>\n

The continual movement, she said, has led House Democratic leadership to question what the end goal of the organization is and where the negotiation goes next.<\/p>\n

But this doesn\u2019t mean the construction defects legislation is going away, and leadership in the House intends to continue to support the bills that lost the alliance\u2019s support, which includes HB 1279 and Senate Bill 45. Both bills would change the sequence litigation goes through to allow contractors not involved in the defects to reduce their financial obligation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis process isn\u2019t over; the committee hearing is next week. I guess I\u2019m just frustrated,\u201d Garnett said.<\/p>\n

The Homeowners Opportunity Alliance did not immediately return request for comment.<\/p>\n

lperkins@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

stakeholder pulls its support for bipartisan measures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14,15,13,453],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-70465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-state-house-of-representatives","tag-colorado-state-senate","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-housing-and-urban-planning"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70465"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=70465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}