DENVER, CO - Two years ago, Colorado made a quiet but consequential change to HOA law. Most homeowners still don't know it happened, and that gap is costing people their homes.

HB24-1337 took effect August 7, 2024, and it didn't make headlines. No billboards. No mailers. No push notifications to the roughly one million Colorado households living in common interest communities. The law became real, and the clock started ticking on rights that most homeowners have no idea they have.

What the Law Actually Does
Before HB24-1337, Colorado HOAs had broad tools to pursue delinquent homeowners. Attorney fees could stack up fast. Foreclosure could follow surprisingly small debts. And homeowners often had no formal way to pump the brakes before a lawsuit landed.

The law changed that in three meaningful ways. First, it caps the attorney fees an HOA can collect, even without starting a legal proceeding, at $5,000 or 50% of the underlying amount owed, whichever is less. Second, it prohibits foreclosure while a homeowner is in bankruptcy or actively complying with a payment plan. Third, and this is the piece most people miss entirely, it requires HOAs to offer mediation before filing a collection or foreclosure lawsuit.

That mediation requirement didn't happen by accident. The Mediation Association of Colorado and the Colorado Bar Association's ADR Section worked together to get that language into the bill. The idea was simple: before an HOA can drag a homeowner into court, it has to at least offer them a seat at the table.

Why Homeowners Keep Missing It

A homeowner gets a collection notice, panic sets in, and they either go silent or respond in ways that hurt them, said David Kirschner, founder of Center Field Mediation in Denver. They don't know they can request mediation. They don't know the HOA is legally required to offer it. And they don't know that entering a payment plan, rather than ignoring the debt, actually gives them legal protection from foreclosure under this law.

A few things compound the problem. HOA correspondence is often dense and legalistic. Management companies change. Homeowners assume the HOA holds all the cards. The reform happened during a noisy period and never got the public rollout it deserved.

The result: a protective right exists on paper but goes unused. That's not a legal problem. It's an awareness problem.

What Mediation Actually Looks Like

HOA mediation isn't a court proceeding. It's not about who's right. A neutral mediator sits with both sides and helps them reach something they can live with - a structured payment plan, a fee adjustment, a realistic timeline. Something that works for both parties without the cost and damage of litigation.

"Most HOA collection disputes aren't about bad faith," Kirschner said. "They're about miscommunication, hardship, or a process that got followed in the wrong order. Mediation creates space to untangle that."
For homeowners across the Denver metro and the Front Range, the Colorado Office of Dispute Resolution also offers mediation services as a neutral public resource worth knowing about. The cost to a homeowner is typically a fraction of what defending a lawsuit would run, and far less than the attorney fee exposure HB24-1337 was designed to limit in the first place.

What Homeowners Should Do Right Now

Kirschner, who provides HOA mediation services across Denver and the Front Range, offers the following guidance to homeowners who have received a collection notice or any indication their HOA account is delinquent:

Don't go silent. Silence doesn't protect you. A documented payment plan does.
Know the fee cap. Under HB24-1337, your HOA cannot recover attorney fees beyond $5,000 or 50% of the underlying debt, even before a lawsuit is filed.

Ask for mediation. Your HOA is required by Colorado law to offer it before suing. If they haven't, you can request it. That request alone often changes the dynamic.

Get a mediator involved early. The sooner mediation happens, the more options both sides have. Once a lawsuit is filed, the conversation gets more expensive and less flexible for everyone.

"HB24-1337 was designed to give homeowners a real off-ramp before foreclosure becomes the conversation," Kirschner said. "Two years in, the right is real. The question now is whether homeowners know how to use it."

About Center Field Mediation

Center Field Mediation is a Denver, Colorado-based mediation practice specializing in HOA, real estate, family, and business dispute resolution across Colorado. Founded by David Kirschner, the firm brings over 20 years of Colorado real estate experience and 10 years in HOA community management to help Coloradans resolve disputes efficiently, confidentially, and without the cost or stress of litigation.