Governor Jared Polis reinstated a state eviction moratorium today which further strengthened the national eviction moratorium previously issued by the CDC in September 2020. The CDC action prevented most evictions from moving forward, but provided landlords an opportunity to proceed with evictions in certain cases. The new Colorado restrictions prevent evictions against anyone experiencing “financial hardship due to COVID-19” which is accomplished by merely signing an affidavit under oath to that effect. Last week, Polis also issued an executive order which bans the collection of late fees against Colorado renters through the end of the year.
What effect, if any, will this have on community associations? If your association is more than 10% tenant occupied, there is cause for concern. While there are no official statistics on the issue, there appears to be an increase in delinquencies especially with non-owner occupied properties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new restrictions certainly do not help and will effectively place a stop to most eviction proceedings until 2021. If your community has a fair amount of rentals, it is a good idea to stay on top of delinquencies as many landlords may be unable to meet their financial obligations, including the payment of association assessment fees, for the remainder of this calendar year if their tenant(s) stop paying rent. Now is also a good time to review your Collections Policy to ensure that there are no bottlenecks to collecting delinquent assessments quickly. Expediting the process will help notify the landlords of any delinquencies on their account and provide them with an opportunity to enter into a payment plan while their balances are still fairly small and manageable.