Developer Lobby Strikes Again

The Denver Post had another article about the supposedly desparate need for condo’s in Colorado.  This is the second year in a row this type of article has appeared.  And it appears as a news item, not on the Op/Ed page.  This type of article has been appearing in a number of states trying to get state legislatures to make it harder for condo associations to sue for construction defects.  The articles lay the entire blame for the lack of condo’s on on supposedly spurious lawsuits brought by ambulance-chasing lawyers and the cost of defending themselves.  (I didn’t link to the article because it’s behind a subscription paywall).

What these articles never mention, and never will, is any data to support their claim of spurious lawsuits.  State legislatures can easily find out by surveying area law firms, about claims brought by associations and outcomes of those claims.  I’m willing to bet they would find that most of the claims were settled or decided in favor of the association.  But the developer lobby doesn’t want that information provided.  If most of the cases had been settled or decided in their favor, that would be the first thing they would be pointing to.

In my 50 years working with associations, I’ve never seen an association choose to spend association funds jsut to see if they can get some money from a developer.  In every case, they tried to get repairs done first, then the lawsuit follows when they get no or minimal response from the developer to take care of things that should have been done right the first time.

The Community Associations Institute’s chapter in states where the developer lobby is trying to get this law passed need to get the data for the legislature.  They will know most or all of the attorneys working with associations and can survey them.

The developer lobby is basically just trying to let developers get away with building crap if they want to and that shouldn’t be allowed to happen.