CALL FOR ACTION

Protect your rights to rent your private property, and contact your state legislators to OPPOSE HB23-1115 and AMEND HB23-1171 

Members, here is something you can use to alert your rental home owners about bills they should be concerned about

Colorado’s rental property owners need to know about the negative impacts of two pieces of legislation making their way through the Colorado Legislature right now: 

• HB23-1115, repealing the statewide prohibition on rent control (Oppose)
• HB23-1171, Just Cause Requirement Eviction of Residential Tenant (Amend)

Rental property owners are critical to providing housing to Colorado families. We urge you to contact your legislator and share your concerns about how these bills will impact you if they were to pass.  The rent earned on rental properties pays for the mortgages on these homes and helps support you and your families.

HB23-1115 would allow local municipalities to enact rent control ordinances. Right now, these ordinances are prohibited because of state law. If this passes, municipalities would adopt rent control while others will not, creating a patchwork of ordinances across the state and will limit the ability for rental property owners to decide on rental amounts and adjust them to meet the real costs of maintaining and owning rental properties. We know from experience in other states, rent control policies have halted new developments, resulting in greater housing shortages, all which Colorado cannot afford. 

The main driver of housing affordability challenges is a lack of supply. Rent control is a harmful policy that will create greater distress in our communities in multiple ways. Today’s tenants would gain all the advantages of controlled pricing, but other families looking for a place to call home will find themselves locked out of housing opportunities… Limiting rent helps a select few at the expense of future generations.

HB23-1171 will impact the ability of all rental property owners to end rental leases and force the renewal of those leases or require compensation to the tenant. While the title of the bill appears to only address evictions, the bill affects much more. If the bill were to pass, a rental property owner would only be able to end a rental contract or pursue an eviction (if necessary) for the following reasons:

• failure of rent payment after a notice from the housing provider, 
• tenant committing a substantial violation and doesn’t remedy it in 10 days; 
• the tenant refusing to allow the housing provider to enter the residential premises, 
• the tenant refusing to sign a new rental agreement that is identical to the tenant’s current agreement.

CAR strongly encourages you to ask for changes to HB 1171 to allow non-renewals or contracts with a natural end to be included as a just reason to end a rental lease.

Other reasons for ending a rental contract would be classified as “no-fault evictions”, even if they are not evictions at all. It would no longer be allowed to simply not renew a contract and new requirements would be put in place, including in some circumstances requiring rental property owners to provide tenants who are moving with two months of rental assistance or more, costing rental housing providers thousands of dollars.

Together, these bills will have a significant impact on you as a rental property owner. We encourage you to learn more about these bills and contact your state legislators today. Share with them how these bills will affect your ability to provide for much needed rental housing in Colorado as well as hurt you and your family. 

You can connect with  your legislator here: https://leg.colorado.gov/find-my-legislator 

Contact your state legislator and send them a pre-written message urging them to vote NO ON HB23-1115 (RENT CONTROL).