Evicting Tenants Would Be Nearly Impossible

The Colorado Apartment Association issued a one-page summary report on Senate Bill 21-173 that I wrote about last week. Their attorneys have reviewed this bill and here is an update—

·        This bill will encourage all tenants to pay their rent 14 days late as the penalty is only a max of 2.5% of rent or $25 per $1000 of rent.

·        It requires landlords to accept partial payments and will force property owners to possibly file multiple lawsuits to recover their lost money. This could easily stretch evictions out to a minimum of 3 months. Thus, further encouraging tenants to not pay their rent on time.

·        Next, to evict a tenant will require jury trials that can last as long as 3 days. This will greatly harm property owners and clog the court systems in our state. The only winners are attorneys.

·        If a homeowner wants to keep owning investment real estate in Colorado they will need to dramatically increase their security deposits from 1 month to a minimum of 3 months in my opinion. I would also increase my monthly rent charge to offset my extra costs and risk. Both will make housing more unaffordable and cause more homelessness. Is this what the Democrat Legislature really wants?

·        The property owner may be forced to pay a tenant a $5000 fee for any mistakes made; whereas the penalty for the tenant not paying the rent is only $50 on monthly rent of $2,000.

These 2 bills scare the shit out of me and should scare everyone reading my newsletter. I encourage you to take action and call your State House Member and State Senator immediately.