First-time home buyers and others shut out of Colorado’s ever-less-affordable housing market can thank state lawmakers — and the lawyers’ lobby that pulls their strings.

Last week, the Legislature once again punted on reforming liability laws that have stymied construction of affordable, entry-level condominium housing in our state for years. Which means, yet again, many would-be homeowners of modest means will have to put off the proverbial American dream of homeownership. Unless, that is, they are willing to leave Colorado, as many have, for more affordable housing markets in other states.

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A sponsor of promising if modest legislation to implement long-needed reforms asked a committee in the state House of Representatives on Friday to scuttle her own bill. It was a mercy killing; state Rep. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, knew her Senate Bill 24-106 didn’t have a prayer of passing the House with only days to go before the Legislature adjourns.

It seems too many of her fellow Democrats, who enjoy a lopsided majority in the lower chamber, are in thrall to the plaintiffs’ bar.

Trial lawyers, a close ally and funder of Democratic candidates and causes, long have opposed any meaningful fixes to state laws that make it all too easy to file massive lawsuits against home builders over often-minor construction defects in new housing, particularly condos.

Home builders, for just as long, have sought statutory changes that would address many new homeowners’ concerns simply by making it easier for builders to fix most defects rather than go to court.

SB24-106 would have taken meaningful steps toward that end by fostering resolution without resort to litigation. Among other things, the bill would have required the support and written consent of at least 60% of the members in a development’s homeowners association before a lawsuit over defects could proceed. And it would have required the finding of a verifiable danger to the occupants or an actual failure of a building component to sustain a claim.

But such sensible reforms would deprive the trial lawyers of a big payday. After all, they make their living by litigating problems, not by solving them. So, the trial lawyers converged on the Capitol to call in markers among ruling Democrats. The lawmakers caved despite Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ call on his own party’s members to enact curbs on construction liability.

Entry-level condos used to offer a more affordable path to homeownership for a range of Colorado’s consumers, from first-time buyers to seniors on a fixed income. But years of runaway litigation over routine flaws in newly built condos caused builders’ liability insurance premiums to skyrocket. That put the chill on condo construction as builders turned to pricier single-family homes that offered a less risky investment.

Condos are targeted by plaintiffs’ attorneys because one lawsuit involving multiple units — even if only a few of them had flaws — yields bigger damages awards and out-of-court settlements than for single-family dwellings.

A report last September by the Common Sense Institute found condo construction statewide had declined sharply over the last 15 years. Condo development between 2018 and 2022, across 11 Front Range counties, was 76% lower than between 2002 and 2008. At fault, the study concluded, was the state’s lenient construction-liability laws.

And yet, it’s condos that offer one key to kick-starting the creation of more affordable housing in our state. Now, condos remain an endangered species in our state.

Kudos to Bird as well as to SB24-106’s Senate sponsors, Democratic Sens. Rachel Zenzinger of Arvada, and James Coleman of Denver, for trying to put the interests of consumers ahead of trial lawyers.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board