What do recent Colorado HOA law changes require of volunteer boards?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 26, 2026

Colorado HOA law changes 2022-2026 for boards: CCIOA fine caps, delinquency contact rules, foreclosure limits, plug-in solar, assistance animals, handover.

Part of the HOA board handbook: new state laws for boards.

What changed and when

Colorado has amended the Common Interest Ownership Act, C.R.S. 38-33.3, almost every year since 2022, and the changes stack. HB22-1137 (effective August 10, 2022) rewrote collections and fines. HB24-1233 and HB24-1337 (both effective August 7, 2024) changed how you contact delinquent owners and put new limits on attorney fees and foreclosure. HB25-1043 (effective October 1, 2025, for enforcement actions started on or after that date) added more notice steps and reporting. On the use side, SB23-178 (effective August 7, 2023) opened up water-wise landscaping, HB24-1091 (effective March 12, 2024) protects fire-hardened building materials, HB24-1152 (effective May 13, 2024) limits HOA restrictions on accessory dwelling units in covered jurisdictions, and SB24-134 (effective August 7, 2024) protects home-based businesses. Three 2026 bills took effect August 12, 2026: HB26-1099 on reserve studies at turnover and what a departing management company must hand over, HB26-1007 on plug-in solar panels, and HB26-1045 on assistance animals. CCIOA covers both HOAs and condominiums, so these apply to both unless noted.

Fines and violations

Under HB22-1137, an association may not charge daily fines or late fees on fines. For a violation that threatens health or safety, the owner gets written notice and 72 hours to cure, after which fines may be charged every other day. For any other violation, notice goes by certified mail and the owner has 30 days to cure. Fines for that violation are capped at $500 in total, not per day or per notice. The owner gets two consecutive 30-day cure periods before the association can take legal action, and the association must inspect within seven days after a cure period ends. The fine policy must state the notice and cure steps and how often fines accrue. A common misreading is to apply the $500 cap to health and safety violations. The cap applies only to the non-safety category.

Collections and foreclosure

HB22-1137 requires the association to contact a delinquent owner and log the method, date, and time before acting on the debt. The owner may name a designated contact and a preferred language. An account can go to a collector or attorney only after a majority board vote that is recorded, though the discussion may be in executive session. Owners with a balance get a monthly itemized statement at no charge, interest is capped at 8 percent, and payments apply to assessments first. Before foreclosing, the association must offer an 18-month payment plan in which the owner picks the monthly amount, with a $25 minimum. It cannot foreclose on fines alone. HB24-1233 changed the contact rule: posting a notice on the unit is gone, and contact is now by certified mail plus two of these three methods: a phone call, a text, or an email. The association may charge only the actual cost of certified mail. HB24-1337 capped attorney fees at the lesser of $5,000 or 50 percent of the amount owed, adjusted for inflation each August 1. For individually owned principal residences, it generally requires a personal judgment before foreclosure, a 30-day notice of the right to mediation before filing, no foreclosure while the owner is current on a payment plan, and a 180-day right of redemption. HB25-1043 made strict compliance with these rules a condition of foreclosing. It requires associations to ask owners periodically for phone, cell, and email contacts. The delinquency notice must now tell the owner they can get a ledger within seven business days, warn about loss of equity, and link to the state HOA Information and Resource Center. Notice of intent to foreclose must go out at least 30 days before filing, by certified mail plus two of phone, text, email, or regular mail. The association's annual registration with the Division of Real Estate must now report owners six or more months delinquent, judgments, payment plans, and foreclosures filed.

Landscaping, ADUs, and other use rules

SB23-178 applies to detached single-family homes, not condos or townhomes. The association cannot ban artificial turf in backyards, cannot ban vegetable gardens, cannot unreasonably require hardscape on more than 20 percent of the landscaped area, and must allow an option of at least 80 percent drought-tolerant plants. It must also adopt at least three preapproved water-wise front-yard designs and post them on its website if it has one. HB24-1152 voids HOA provisions that restrict an accessory dwelling unit on a detached single-unit lot beyond what C.R.S. 29-35-103 allows, in jurisdictions covered by that law. Reasonable restrictions remain allowed. SB24-134 bars bans on home-based businesses, though reasonable rules on parking, noise, and architecture still apply. HB24-1091 bars bans on fire-hardened building materials.

Plug-in solar and assistance animals in 2026

HB26-1007 created C.R.S. 40-2-140 for what the bill calls a portable-scale solar generation device: one photovoltaic system per address, listed by a national testing lab, that sends no more than 1,920 watts to the grid and shuts off during a power outage. Owners plug these into a wall outlet, often on a balcony or patio. The association-facing part starts January 1, 2027, not on the August effective date. From then on, a covenant that unreasonably prohibits or restricts one of these devices is void, and the device counts as an energy efficiency measure under 38-33.3-106.7. The bill also lets an owner put the device on a limited common element, overriding the usual carve-out in 106.7(3)(d). The association keeps real tools: it may require prior notice, set rules on location and on preventing fire, electrical overload and injury, require the owner to secure the device to the unit or to a patio, deck or balcony that serves only that unit, and make the owner responsible for the costs and indemnify the association. HB26-1045 amended the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act at 24-34-502 and 24-34-502.2. Allowing an assistance animal, a term that includes emotional support animals, is now presumed to be a reasonable accommodation once the board has had a chance to use the interactive process with the owner. A complete ban on assistance animals is presumed discriminatory. The board may ask for reasonable documentation of the disability or the disability-related need only when that need is not obvious. The mere presence of the animal is not a direct threat or presumed damage, but the board may weigh documented, specific conduct by that animal that threatened someone's safety or caused substantial property damage. Our guide on how to handle a reasonable accommodation request walks through the process step by step.

The board's to-do list

Rewrite the fine schedule: remove daily fines and late fees on fines, split violations into health and safety versus everything else, cap the second category at $500 per violation, and write the 72-hour and 30-day cure steps into the policy. Build the delinquency workflow around certified mail plus two electronic or phone contacts, and keep a log of each attempt. Add a standing agenda item for the recorded board vote needed to refer an account to collections. Update your delinquency notice with the ledger, equity, and resource center language from HB25-1043, and send owners a yearly request for current phone and email. Before any foreclosure discussion, offer the 18-month plan in writing, check whether the home is a principal residence, and confirm that attorney fees fit under the cap. Update the architectural guidelines for turf, gardens, drought-tolerant plants, and fire-hardened materials, and adopt and post three water-wise front-yard designs. When you file your annual registration, pull the delinquency numbers it now asks for. Before January 1, 2027, draft a plug-in solar rule that covers notice, placement, securing the device and cost responsibility, and remove any flat ban from the architectural guidelines. Take 'no pets, no exceptions' language out of any rule that could be read to cover assistance animals, and write down how the board handles a request: who receives it, what documentation it asks for when the need is not obvious, and how it records any conduct problem. If you are changing managers, or dropping a manager to self-manage, HB26-1099 (C.R.S. 38-33.3-317(9)) requires the outgoing company to deliver all association money, records, account passwords, and keys within 45 days at no charge, with a $250 per business day penalty for delay unless you agreed otherwise in writing. Put the 45-day date on the calendar the day you send the termination notice.

What did not change and common misreadings

No enacted Colorado bill requires HOA board members to complete education, and none mandates electronic voting. SB24-005, the nonfunctional turf law, binds local governments on new and redeveloped common property landscaping starting in 2026. It does not order associations to tear out existing turf. HB24-1337's judgment-first rule covers individually owned principal residences, not every unit. The $5,000 attorney fee cap is the lesser of that figure or half the debt, so on a $2,000 balance the cap is $1,000. HB26-1099's reserve study requirement is aimed at developers before turnover, not at existing owner-controlled boards. Its 45-day turnover rule skips only an association that never retained a manager. If a court finds the former company's delay willful, it owes three times actual damages plus the association's attorney fees and court costs. Regular mail is only one of the optional methods for the notice of intent to foreclose, and it does not replace certified mail. HB26-1007 does not cover rooftop solar, which 38-33.3-106.7 already addressed, and its limit on association rules does not start until January 1, 2027. HB26-1045 does not stop a board from asking for documentation. It stops the board from demanding it when the disability or need is obvious. The inflation-adjusted attorney fee cap changes each August 1, and we did not find an official published figure, so ask your collections attorney for the current number.

Where to read the law

Each bill has a page on the Colorado General Assembly site with the signed act, the fiscal note, and the dates it was signed and took effect. The key CCIOA sections are 38-33.3-209.5 for policies, 38-33.3-316 and 38-33.3-316.3 for liens and collections, and 38-33.3-106.5 for landscaping, ADUs, and other use protections. The Division of Real Estate's HOA Information and Resource Center publishes summaries of each year's bills and runs the annual registration. Your declaration can be stricter than the statute on process, but it cannot authorize what the statute now forbids. Check with an attorney licensed in Colorado before relying on this for a collection, foreclosure, or fine.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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