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

A Colorado bill that would have let associations demand proof of need before sending notices in an owner's preferred language, and would have ended the requirement to send them in English as well, was killed in its first committee. HB26-1201 was postponed indefinitely by the House Committee on Transportation, Housing & Local Government on February 25, 2026, two weeks after introduction. The bill page records its status as Lost.¹

The existing dual-language duty in C.R.S. 38-33.3-209.5 therefore stands unchanged. Colorado associations still must send fine notices, cure notices, post-cure notices and delinquency notices in English and in a language the owner has indicated a preference for, and still may not require the owner to prove they need it.

A correction worth making at the outset: several summaries circulating online state that HB26-1201 passed and took effect August 12, 2026. That is wrong. The legislature's own record shows two actions only — introduction on February 11, 2026 and indefinite postponement on February 25 — and the bill never reached the House floor.

What it would have required

The bill would have added a new subsection (1.7)(a.5) to C.R.S. 38-33.3-209.5. In the introduced text: “before an association complies with a unit owner's notice indicating that the unit owner prefers that correspondence and notices from the association be made in a language other than English … the association may require the unit owner to demonstrate the unit owner's need for correspondence and notices to be provided in the preferred language.”²

Four proofs would have been acceptable: submitting the request itself in the preferred language; documentation of proficiency, which “may include government-issued documents listing the preferred language as the unit owner's primary language; school, immigration, or community program documents indicating literacy in the preferred language; or a letter or other document from an interpreter or community organization”; a brief statement from an interpreter; or documents showing a history of communications in that language.

Separately, the bill struck the dual-language requirement from four paragraphs, replacing the duty to send in English and the preferred language with a duty to send in the preferred language, or in English where no preference was indicated.

1. HB26-1201, "Homeowners' Preferred Language Notice to Homeowners' Association" — bill page, status and committee votes, Colorado General Assembly ↩
2. HB26-1201 introduced bill text (source of the quoted proposed statutory language) ↩
3. 2026 Legislative Wrap-Up, Part 2 (June 5, 2026), Colorado Center on Law & Policy — the opponent's own account of its testimony ↩
4. HB26-1331, "Modify 2026 Interim Committees" — bill page, Colorado General Assembly ↩