Locate Colorado Real Estate Lawyers

In Colorado, real estate law is a very broad area of law covering anything that has to do with the ownership of land and buildings.

Real estate law can apply to many numerous facets of a personal and professional life. It can apply to anything from the purchase of a vacant lot, to renting prime downtown office space.

Colorado real estate law can be very intricate, because it's really a collection of a lot of different areas of law. These areas of law include property rights, contracts, land use, and many others.

Having a good basic knowledge of Colorado real estate law can make a lot of transactions, such as buying a house or renting an apartment, much easier.

Common Real Estate Issues in Colorado

Financing: Most people in Colorado probably can't afford to buy a house or a piece of land up front. Consequently, most individuals and business use some form of financing to purchase real estate, typically a mortgage. A mortgage is a loan used to buy a piece of real estate, with the purchased real estate simultaneously securing the loan.

Disclosure: When selling a house, the seller is under a strict legal duty to tell the buyer about any physical defects which the buyer might not be able to discover on his or her own. Sometimes, it isn't entirely clear if a given defect has to be disclosed. In such cases, it's best to disclose it anyway. It simply isn't worth the risk to fail to disclose it, and hope that a court agrees that it was the type of defect that you didn't have to disclose.

Warranty of Habitability: All residential property which is being rented must be fit for human habitation. This is typically not a difficult standard for a reasonably well-maintained unit to meet (or one would think), but violations of this rule still occur. When renting an apartment, the landlord is implicitly promising that the unit will be habitable, whether or not such a promise is actually written in the lease, or even if the lease disclaims it. There are many requirements for a dwelling to be habitable, and most of them are fairly obvious- they include heating, running water, electricity, and basic protection from the elements. There are many other requirements, however.

Zoning Laws: Before you begin any construction project, you need to make sure that it will not violate any zoning laws in Colorado. This is because zoning laws control what can and can't be done on a given piece of property. They can be pretty complex, but, in general, they are designed to ensure that people who use land in different ways can co-exist as harmoniously as possible. To that end, they work to keep industrial and residential uses separate, among other things.

Do I Need a Colorado Real Estate Lawyer?

Because of the potential complexity of the above-discussed issues, along with the many others that might come up in the real estate context, it would be smart to speak with a Colorado real estate lawyer before engaging in any influential real estate deal.

Interesting Facts About Colorado

Colorado is named after the multi-colored banks of the Colorado River. Its nickname is "The Centennial State", since it achieved statehood on the centennial year of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1876). Former President Gerald Ford was from Colorado, as was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White.

Colorado lawyers usually assist clients at the trial court level in either the County Court system or the District Court system. Appeals are heard at Colorado's Court of Appeals or at the Colorado Supreme Court. Colorado also has a unique system of 7 different Water Courts, which preside over cases involving water rights and water usage. The Colorado Supreme Court has tried many infamous cases such as Kobe Bryant's 2003 assault case in Eagle County.

Colorado is also known for its immensely complex body of tax laws. This is due to the fact that Colorado operates over 3,000 different districts, each with individual taxing authority. Such districts include regulation over education, water, transportation, and other services. In Colorado, the sales tax rates may be different even from street to street.

Lawyers in Colorado have experience in dealing with the state's network of laws. Colorado lawyers work to provide clients with outstanding services and legal advice. You may contact an attorney in Colorado if you need help filing a lawsuit or if you need answers to legal questions.