Dive Brief:
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An effort in Colorado to make it harder for homeowners to sue builders for construction defects is dead in the water.
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The speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives has assigned a proposed construction defects reform bill to the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, which is known in legislative circles as the “kill committee.”
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The state’s Republican-controlled Senate passed its version of the bill earlier this month. Its certain defeat in the House will mark the third year in a row that the proposal has failed in the Legislature.
Dive Insight:
Builders have complained that the state’s construction defects law makes it too easy for homeowners to sue them over property defects—often without giving them the chance to make repairs before landing in court. As a result, fewer builders have been willing to start new condominium projects in cities with a shortage of multifamily and affordable housing.
Officials in Lakewood, CO, however, were successful in tempering that city’s defects legislation, giving hope to state legislators who have said they will continue to propose the measure until it passes.