New Laws to Take Effect January 1, 2011

Last week’s Capitol Close-Up, a weekly legislative update from the Colorado Association of Home Builders, included a great synopsis of two new laws, which will become effective January 1, 2011.  The update reads as follows:

Capitol Close-Up

Monday, December 20, 2010

Below is information on two pieces of legislation that will become effective January 1, 2011 that directly affect home builders in Colorado. Please review the information below and attached and contact your legal council with any questions you might have.

HB10-1278

HB10-1278 (attached) creates an HOA Information & Resource Center to be housed within the Colorado Division of Real Estate and overseen by the HOA Information Officer. The purpose of the Resource Center is to “provide information on the rights and duties of unit owners, developers and associations under the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act.”

The costs associated with the HOA Information & Resource Center and the HOA Information Officer will be paid for through a mandatory registration for HOAs. The effective date of the registration process is January 1, 2011; however because of delays in setting up the registration process, the Division of Real Estate adopted emergency rules on December 15, 2010 that grant a temporary registration to all HOAs that is valid until March 1, 2011. A copy of the emergency rules is attached to this email as is a memo from the newly appointed HOA Information Officer.

Every association (whether or not they are declarant controlled), except voluntary associations, will be required to register on a yearly basis; however, the following categories of associations will not be required to pay the registration fee:

• Associations with annual revenue of $5,000 or less; and

• Associations not authorized to levy assessments and do not have any revenue.

Associations that fail to register or keep a registration current are subject to the following steep penalties, including not being permitted to foreclose upon the association’s statutory liens or enforce existing covenants.

Please make sure that any HOAs that you control are ready to comply with this requirement by March 1, 2011. Please contact your legal council with any questions you have or for additional information.

HB10-1358

HB10-1358 (attached) requires that, effective January 1, 2011, every person that builds a new single-family detached residence for which a buyer is under contract shall offer the buyer the opportunity to select one or more Water Smart Home options for the residence. Please see the attached bill for a list of options that satisfy this requirement be sure that your contracts include this option by January 1, 2011. Please contact your legal council with any questions you have or for additional information.

If you would like any of the referenced attachments, please call me at (303) 987-9813 or send me an e-mail at mclain@hhmrlaw.com.  To learn more about the Colorado Association of Home Builders, you can visit its website here.