On November 16, 2015, the Denver City Council unanimously approved the first reading of Mayor Hancock’s construction defect ordinance that we wrote about last month. Continue Reading Mayor Hancock’s Construction Defect Ordinance Passes Important Hurdle

Only a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision upholding disparate impact as basis for liability under the Fair Housing Act (the Act; for further discussion of the case, see our blog posts here and here), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) promulgated a new rule implementing the Act. Continue Reading Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing: HUD Promulgates Final Rule

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Recent growth in the short-term rental market has caused some cities to consider new regulations.

One of the biggest players in what’s been dubbed the “sharing economy” is Airbnb, a peer-to-peer lodging platform that makes it easy for homeowners or renters to open up their homes to strangers in the form of short-term lodging. For many of the families renting their homes or rooms in their homes on Airbnb and other sites, the income from a short-term rental can provide a financial cushion, and may be enough to make ends meet. One study commissioned by Airbnb found that a typical single-property host makes an average of $7,530 for renting an average of 66 days per year. Continue Reading Is Renting Your Home on Airbnb Illegal? Maybe.

Last month, I got a call from a title insurance company closer. Our client and the other parties to a real estate transaction had just instructed the title company to go ahead with the recording of documents and disbursement of funds in accordance with the settlement statement. We had sent an email to the closer with wire instructions for the funds—and the closer was calling to ask me to confirm those wire instructions, including the ABA routing number and the account number, over the phone. Continue Reading Real Estate Transactions Are Vulnerable To Wire Scams

The Denver Business Journal is reporting that, on Monday, Commerce City became the third city in the Denver metro-area to enact an ordinance addressing construction defects in condominium and other common interest community construction. Continue Reading More Local Action on Construction Defects