2026-09-10 · Colorado · Legislation · Did not pass

Colorado associations pay large deposits to roofers, painters and concrete contractors out of reserves or a special assessment, and have no statewide registry to check and no criminal remedy when a deposit disappears. Two 2026 bills tried to change that. Both failed.¹

The context is that Colorado has no general residential contractor licensing at the state level — it is handled, unevenly, by municipalities. An association hiring after a hail event has no state licence to verify and no state disciplinary record to search.

HB26-1245: theft by contractor, lost on the floor

The bill would have made it theft when a person “knowingly us[es] an advance payment for construction for an unrelated purpose resulting in project delay, abandonment, or nonperformance.” It would also have required a contractor, before accepting an advance payment, to give written disclosure identifying the intended use of the funds, the timing of expenses, and the project start date.

It lost on House third reading on April 21, 2026, by 27 ayes to 37 noes with one other. That is unusual and worth noting: most bills in this area die quietly in committee. This one put every House member on the record.

Its sponsors were bipartisan — Representatives Rebecca Keltie and Regina English with Senator Rod Pelton — and it still lost by ten votes. No published statement of reasons has been located; a ten-vote margin against a bipartisan bill suggests an overbreadth objection rather than a partisan one.

HB26-1415: a voluntary certification, killed unanimously

The second bill would have created a residential construction contractor certification enterprise inside the Colorado Department of Law — the Attorney General's office — operating as a government-owned business.

Voluntary certification rather than licensure. Funded by contractor fees capped at $100 per year. Governed by a thirteen-member board appointed by the Attorney General. Its stated goal was to “prevent or reduce damage to homeowners caused by contractors who abandon work” and to encourage compliance with construction agreements, with annual reporting to legislative committees.

It was postponed indefinitely by the House Committee on Business Affairs & Labor on May 6, 2026, on a 13–0 vote. Nobody on the committee defended it. It had a single sponsor, Representative Naquetta Ricks, no Senate sponsor and no co-sponsors, and was introduced on April 9 — roughly a month before a session that adjourned May 13.

1. HB26-1245, "Theft by Contractor" — bill page and the April 21, 2026 third-reading vote, Colorado General Assembly ↩
2. HB26-1415, "Optional Residential Construction Contractor Certification" — bill page, status and the 13-0 committee vote, Colorado General Assembly ↩
3. SB26-155 final act text — the resilient-roof grant conditions, including the contractor attestation and deductible-waiver prohibition ↩
4. "Hail is the Number One Cost Driver of Insurance in Colorado," Colorado Division of Insurance ↩
5. "HOA residents face mechanic's liens amid insurance dispute in Colorado Springs," KOAA News 5, July 7, 2026 ↩