Colorado REALTOR Digital Magazine April 2011 : Page 6
2011 Legislative Mid-Session Update CAR has also played a critical role in defeating several bills that had potentially negative effects on Colorado home buyers and REALTORS®, as well as the housing market. Seventy-three days have passed in the 2011 Legislative Session and 47 remain. To-date, 430 bills have been introduced. CAR has tracked 36 of them and taken a position on 22. We have enjoyed much early success with the passage of bills that are beneficial to Colorado’s housing industry. CAR has also played a critical role in defeating several bills that had potentially negative effects on Colorado home buyers and REALTORS®, as well as the housing market. Some of those bills include: HB 1022 Seller Financing of Real Prop-erty – SUPPORT – by Rep. Rep. Ray Scott (R-Grand Junction) and Sen. John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) -was signed into law the first week of March. The new law, proposed by CAR, will now allow a seller up to three transactions in any twelve month period before they are required to be licensed as a mortgage loan originator. Click here for Talking Points. HB 1113 Impact Fees Transparency – SUPPORT – by Rep. Chris Holbert (R-Parker) and Sen. Joyce Foster (D-Denver) was signed into law on March 9th. This bill requires local governments to maintain transparency by publishing on their offi-cial web site certain information regarding the collection and disbursement of land development impact fees. HB 1132 On-bill Financing for Energy Efficiency Improvements – OPPOSE – by Rep. Pete Lee (D-Colorado Springs) was postponed indefinitely by the House Transportation Committee. This bill would have allowed a public utility to finance the up-front costs of making one or more energy efficiency improvements to real property and to have the property owner repay the financing over time through direct charges on the owner’s utility bills. The bill did not take into account a cus-tomer’s credit worthiness and created a lien on real property that automatically transferred upon conveyance. Click here for Talking Points. SB 68 Increase Consumer Protection Enforcement – OPPOSE – introduced by Sen. Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora) and Rep. Judy Solano (D-Brighton) died in the House Committee on State, Veterans, and Military Affairs. The bill stated that a person shall not engage in a deceptive or unfair trade practice. The bill would have also created a rebuttable presumption that a signifi-cant public impact has occurred when a plaintiff offers evidence that a defendant engaged in a deceptive trade practice. Judicial precedence has traditionally re-quired plaintiffs to establish that a defen-dant’s actions caused a significant public impact. Shifting the burden of proof on to defendants would have induced plaintiffs to bring unsupported claims. Are you receiving the weekly Capitol Connection? Sign up now to begin receiv-ing CAR updates on legislative activity af-fecting our industry. Please let CAR staff know if you have additional questions with regard to recent legislation. page 6 | www.ColoradoREALTORS.com
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