New Bills Introduced – Manager Licensing and Landlord/Tenant Issues

Two bills have been introduced since I last blogged about the Colorado Legislative Session: one concerning community associations, and more specifically, manager licensing (HB 1175) and the second regarding landlord/tenant issues (SB 120).

First, the Colorado General Assembly sets specific dates that a particular agency, board, or function of government will terminate unless the legislature passes new legislation to continue.  An analysis is performed to determine if the program is necessary and should be continued, modified, or cease operations.  The Community Association Manager Program and the Division of Real Estate’s administration of same are under sunset review this year.

Last week, the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee reviewed and held public comment on the Sunset Report prepared by DORA (Department of Regulatory Agencies) in order to determine whether to approve the introduction of a bill which would continue the licensure program for another five years.  The Committee did approve the introduction of HB 1175 (introduced on February 2, 2018) which, if passed, will implement the recommendations contained in the sunset report.

The recommendations included in the bill are as follows:

  • Continuing the licensing of community association managers and management companies, subject to regulation y the director of DORA, for an additional five years (until September 1, 2023).
  • Allowing certain ministerial functions to be delegated to unlicensed persons while maintaining the license requirement for higher-level management functions such as the conduct of board meetings, handling of money, and negotiation of maintenance contracts.
  • Scaling back the amount of, and circumstances in which, direct supervision of an apprentice is required and specifying that a supervising manager is accountable for the actions of an apprentice.
  • Giving the director of DORA the authority to adopt rules governing supervision of apprentices.
  • Removing the automatic acceptance of certain private credentials as qualifications for licensure and substituting a requirement that the director specify the acceptable credentials by rule.
  • Adding due process protections and specific procedural requirements to the director’s authority to issue cease and desist orders.
    • The director also has the option to issue an order to show cause and to hold a hearing before, rather than after, ordering a respondent to cease and desist from suspected unauthorized practices.

It is expected that this bill will ultimately pass and the provisions of the Community Association Manager Program will continue for another five years.

The other bill introduced this past week relates to landlord/tenant issues.  SB 120 was introduced on January 29, 2018, and would allow landlords to initiate an eviction proceeding after providing three days’ notice but requires landlords to accept payment of all outstanding amounts due before the date by which a tenant is required to appear in court in an eviction proceeding.   For a second or subsequent violation of the same agreement within six months of a violation, a landlord may require payment within three days.

This bill, if passed, would provide tenants a longer period of time to cure a default in the payment of rent.  Current law requires a landlord to provide a tenant three days to cure a violation of unpaid rent before the landlord can initiate eviction proceedings based on that unpaid rent.  However, current law does not require a landlord to accept payment of rent once eviction proceedings have commenced.  This law would change that and make the law friendlier towards tenants in regard to payment of late rent and evictions.

Keep following the blog or keep track of bills at the 2018 Legislation page on the website!

 



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