Please reach out to all House Representatives and raise our issues with HB25-1235 Jury Trials for Tenant Proceedings
PROPOSED MESSAGE TO LEGISLATORS:
Hello, I am a housing provider here in Colorado, asking for your help in stopping HB25-1235, Jury Trials for Tenant Proceedings. This bill is bad for Colorado, bad for housing providers, and bad for tenants. This bill will extend the current timeline for evictions from around 3 months to 6 months or more. Most eviction filings in Colorado are for unpaid rent, and asking the property owner to bear that burden for longer than absolutely necessary is asking them to risk and face foreclosure. Many housing providers in Colorado are small landlords, who own fewer than 4 properties, and many rely on their rental income to pay their bills. For many, their rental properties are their retirement income. This bill has the potential to cripple their finances, and remove any security net offered by rental income.
A jury trial is a lengthy, costly process. A tenant, if they request a jury trial and are granted one, must navigate a complex legal process to even select a jury, not to mention representing themselves during the court process. An average jury trial takes multiple hours, hours that you are asking Colorado citizens to sit and listen to petty disputes on contracts. We are not entitled to jury trials in Colorado unless there is jail time at stake. Why should landlord-tenant contract law be the one exception to that rule?
This bill also places a large burden on our local courts. Eviction filings are on the rise each year, with a record 8,000 in El Paso County alone last year. If we look at 2% jury trials, that’s an additional 160 jury trials that the county court has to manage in a year. For a more populated county, these numbers will only grow. This is an extreme burden to place on the court system already overworked and understaffed.
Jury trials cost thousands of dollars. If a tenant requests a jury trial and then loses, the tenant is responsible to pay all of those fees. For a rent-burdened tenant who can’t make their monthly rent, these additional fees are ruinsome. Additionally, for a small landlord who doesn’t have the cash flow to pay these costs up-front, a jury trial is ruinsome.
Please stand for Colorado and vote no on this bill.
House Rep Emails to Copy:
ryan.armagost.house@coleg.gov; jennifer.bacon.house@coleg.gov; carlos.barron.house@coleg.gov; shannon.bird.house@coleg.gov; andrew.boesenecker.house@coleg.gov; scott.bottoms.house@coleg.gov; mary.bradfield.house@coleg.gov; brandi.bradley.house@coleg.gov; max.brooks.house@coleg.gov; kyle.brown.house@coleg.gov; jarvis.caldwell.house@coleg.gov; sean.camacho.house@coleg.gov; michael.carter.house@coleg.gov; chad.clifford.house@coleg.gov; ken.degraaf.house@coleg.gov; monica.duran.house@coleg.gov; regina.english.house@coleg.gov; cecelia.espenoza.house@coleg.gov; lisa.feret.house@coleg.gov; meg.froelich.house@coleg.gov; lorena.garcia.house@coleg.gov; lori.garciasander.house@coleg.gov; lindsay.gilchrist.house@coleg.gov; ryan.gonzalez.house@coleg.gov; eliza.hamrick.house@coleg.gov; anthony.hartsook.house@coleg.gov; jamie.jackson.house@coleg.gov; dustyforcolorado@gmai.com; junie.joseph.house@coleg.gov; rebecca.keltie.house@coleg.gov; sheila.lieder.house@coleg.gov; mandy.lindsay.house@coleg.gov; william.lindstedt.house@coleg.gov; stephanie.luck.house@coleg.gov; meghan.lukens.house@coleg.gov; javier.mabrey.house@coleg.gov; bob.marshall.house@coleg.gov; matthew.martinez.house@coleg.gov; tisha.mauro.house@coleg.gov; julie.mccluskie.house@coleg.gov; karen.mccormick.house@coleg.gov; amy.paschal.house@coleg.gov; jacque.phillips.house@coleg.gov; rose.pugliese.house@coleg.gov; chris.richardson.house@coleg.gov; naquetta.ricks.house@coleg.gov; manny.rutinel.house@coleg.gov; gretchen.rydin.house@coleg.gov; lesley.smith.house@coleg.gov; matthew.soper.house@coleg.gov; katie.stewart.house@coleg.gov; rebekah.stewart.house@coleg.gov; tammy.story.house@coleg.gov; larry.suckla.house@coleg.gov; rick.taggart.house@coleg.gov; brianna.titone.house@coleg.gov; alex.valdez.house@coleg.gov; elizabeth.velasco.house@coleg.gov,; ron.weinberg.house@coleg.gov; jenny.willford.house@coleg.gov; ty.winter.house@coleg.gov; steven.woodrow.house@coleg.gov; dan.woog.house@coleg.gov; yara.zokaie.house@coleg.gov
