Two pieces of legislation that became law Wednesday will help protect the rights of Colorado renters and mobile home residents.

Hundreds of other laws take effect on the 90th day since the end of the legislative session.

Senate Bill 245 requires landlords to give 21 days’ notice before raising the rent, instead of seven under the old law. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Kevin Priola, R-Henderson, and Rep. Dan Pabon.

“In this overheated housing market, more and more people are facing rent increases and having to find short-term accommodations,” Pabon said in a statement. “This new law will relieve some of the pressure on renters when faced with these situations, and give them more time to find an alternative if needed.”

House Bill 1354 gives county treasurer’s discretion in collecting unpaid taxes on mobile homes and in preventing tax liens to help keep residents from losing their homes.

The bill was sponsored by House Majority Leader KC Becker of Boulder along with Priola and Sen. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins.

“This new law helps prevent situations where a family loses their mobile home because of a very small unpaid tax bill – sometimes as little as $80 – that they may not have even known they owed,” Becker said in a statement. “This will give treasurers more tools to help families get these bills paid, rather than having to automatically turn them over to collectors.”

The old law required the county treasurer to enforce delinquent tax collection by filing a lawsuit and seizing and selling the property, period. The new law gives treasurers more flexibility to arrange partial payments to eventually collect the debt and slow the process of selling people’s homes out from under them during tough times.

Legislative analysts noted:

State law considers mobile homes as personal property, rather than real property. Therefore, mobile home owners have a shorter time period in which to rectify a tax debt.  In some cases, mobile home owners have been evicted from their homes or have had to repurchase them at an increased rate if the tax lien cannot be repaid within a year and the lien is sold to a private investor.

County treasurers across the state have reported an increase in the purchase of mobile home tax liens to acquire properties.

The bill passed both chambers unanimously.