Single-Family Homes.
Is Your Colorado Single-Family Home Hiding a Construction Defect?
Your home is the single largest investment you will ever make. When the builder who constructed it cut corners on the foundation, the roof, the drainage, the framing, the financial and emotional consequences fall entirely on you. You are left with a defective home, a builder who isn't returning calls, and no clear path forward.
At Hearn & Fleener, we have spent over 40 years fighting for exactly that homeowner. We are Colorado's premier construction defect law firm, and while HOA communities make up much of our practice, we have a long and successful history of representing individual single-family homeowners who have been failed by their builder and left to deal with the consequences alone.
We understand that individual homeowners face a different set of challenges than large HOA communities. You don't have a board behind you, a reserve fund, or a property manager coordinating the response. You have yourself, your family, and a home that isn't what you paid for. Our job is to level that playing field and we do it at no upfront cost to you. We only get paid when you recover.
SINGLE-FAMILY DEFECT EXPERTS
Colorado’s Premier Attorneys for Single-Family Construction Defects.
We are dedicated to holding developers accountable and recovering the maximum funding required to address construction failures and ensure your community’s long-term stability.
Challenges.
Single-family construction defect cases require careful coordination across individual lots and structures. The financial and personal stakes for an individual homeowner are uniquely high, and we handle that complexity so you don't have to.
Infrastructure.
When shared infrastructure like roads, retaining walls, or drainage systems fails due to improper engineering, it threatens the structural integrity and property values of every home in the development. We pursue claims against every responsible party to ensure the full scope of damage is addressed.
HOAs.
Many single-family communities in Colorado are governed by an HOA. When a construction defect affects multiple homes in the same development, we are uniquely positioned to represent both the association and individual homeowners simultaneously, pursuing every avenue of recovery available to you.
Defects.
A construction flaw in one home within a development almost always signals a systemic problem affecting the entire neighborhood. Because builders use the same subcontractors, materials, and methods across every home in a filing, defects are rarely isolated. We investigate the full scope of the problem to build the strongest possible case.
Protecting the Rights of Colorado Single-Family Homeowners
Discovering a construction defect in your single-family home is a different experience than navigating a community-wide claim. You are not coordinating a board vote or managing dozens of residents. You are one family, dealing with a builder who did not deliver what they promised, and likely facing a large national homebuilder and its legal team without comparable resources behind you.
At Hearn & Fleener, we have represented individual Colorado single-family homeowners for over 40 years. We bring the same forensic resources, legal expertise, and litigation firepower to your individual claim that a large builder brings to defending it. We discover the true cause and full scope of the defects in your home, communicate our findings to you in plain honest language, and handle every aspect of the litigation on your behalf from start to finish.
You should not have to fight a builder alone. With Hearn & Fleener, you do not have to.
When It's Your Home, It's Personal. We Treat It That Way.
Your Free, Four-Phase Home Evaluation. No Cost. No Obligation.
We know that individual homeowners have no reserve fund to draw on and no board to share the burden. That is why every phase of our evaluation process, from our first visit to your home through the delivery of our written report, is provided at absolutely no cost and no obligation to you.
Research & Risk Analysis.
Our attorneys review your purchase contract, builder warranty, and all relevant sales materials. We research the financial standing and license history of your builder, identify the statute of limitations and statute of repose deadlines that apply to your home, and carefully review any arbitration clauses or warranty program provisions that may affect how your claim must be pursued.
Free On-Site Inspection.
Our team visits your home and conducts a thorough forensic inspection of the structure, foundation, exterior systems, and surrounding site conditions, paying particular attention to the foundation movement, drainage, roofing, exterior cladding, and deck deficiencies most common in Colorado single-family construction. Every defect is documented in detail at our expense.
Construction Records Research.
We pull the original building permits, approved plans, inspection reports, and code violation notices filed for your home. This research establishes the standard your home was supposed to be built to, identifies every subcontractor who worked on the property, and uncovers any inspection failures or plan deviations that occurred during construction.
Written Report & Presentation.
Unlike our community board presentations, our Phase 4 report for single-family homeowners is a personal one-on-one consultation built around your family's specific situation. We walk you through what we found, who is responsible, and what a realistic path to recovery looks like for your home, with no pressure and no obligation to move forward.
Common Defects.
Colorado's climate and geology create a uniquely demanding environment for residential construction. Heavy snow loads, dramatic freeze-thaw cycles, intense UV exposure, high winds, and some of the most expansive clay soils in the country all place enormous stress on homes that weren't built to code. When a single-family builder cuts corners in Colorado, the consequences compound quickly and it is almost always the homeowner who ends up paying for it.
If your home is experiencing any of the following, you may have a valid Colorado construction defect claim:
Single-Family Neighborhoods.
Defect Types.
1
Soil
2
Roofs
3
Drainage
4
Flashing
Foundations.
Colorado's expansive bentonite clay soils are the leading cause of single-family construction defect claims in the state. When a builder fails to properly engineer a foundation for these conditions, the results include cracked slabs, heaving basement floors, bowed walls, and structural instability throughout the home. Builders frequently misattribute this damage to normal settling to avoid accountability.
When a builder fails to direct water away from the foundation through proper grading and drainage infrastructure, water pools against and beneath the home. In Colorado's climate, that standing water accelerates soil movement, foundation cracking, and in the worst cases, basement flooding that causes widespread structural damage.
Drainage.
Siding.
Improperly installed siding, stucco, and stone veneer allow moisture to infiltrate and become trapped inside the wall assembly. Over time, that trapped moisture causes wood rot, mold growth, and structural framing deterioration that remains completely invisible from the outside until the damage is extensive.
Flashing.
Flashing around windows, doors, and roof penetrations is one of the most frequently defective components in Colorado residential construction. When flashing is missing or incorrectly installed, it creates a direct pathway for water to enter the wall assembly or roof structure, often causing significant hidden damage long before the homeowner notices anything wrong.
Defective roofing materials and inadequate attic ventilation are a destructive combination in Colorado's climate. Without proper ventilation, heat and moisture accumulate in the attic, accelerating shingle deterioration and creating the conditions for destructive ice dams in winter that force meltwater back under the shingles and into the home.
Ventilation
Decks & Patios.
Decks and patios built with reverse-sloping surfaces, inadequate waterproofing, substandard fasteners, or insufficient lateral bracing deteriorate quickly and pose genuine structural collapse risks. We treat deck and balcony defects with particular urgency because of the serious life-safety implications they present for Colorado homeowners and their families.
Successful Case Results.
The following are real results Hearn & Fleener has achieved for Colorado single-family homeowners and communities. Each case involved different defects, different builders, and different communities but the same outcome: full financial recovery for homeowners who had been failed by the people who built their homes. In every case, our clients paid nothing out of pocket, and the funds recovered were used entirely for permanent repairs.
The Hearn & Fleener Advantage: Proven Results for our Clients
Front Range Golf Course Community.
A large single-family HOA community situated along a Front Range golf course was experiencing widespread soils movement and building envelope failures across more than 120 homes. Hearn & Fleener worked with local civil engineers and forensic architectural experts to map the full scope of the damage and identify every root cause of the building failures. After 22 months of investigation and litigation, we successfully recovered approximately $16 million on behalf of the association, one of the largest single-family community recoveries in Colorado history.
Jefferson County.
A 72-home single-family community in Jefferson County contacted Hearn & Fleener after residents began reporting heaving basement slabs, water intrusion through roofing systems, and failures in exterior deck structures throughout the development. Our forensic team identified the cause of each defect category and developed a comprehensive repair scope. The case resolved in the homeowners' favor during trial, while plaintiffs were still presenting their case in chief, resulting in a recovery of more than $2 million for the association.
Northern Colorado Community.
A 99-home single-family community in Northern Colorado came to Hearn & Fleener with widespread stucco system failures affecting homes across the entire development. Our team documented the full scope of the cladding defects, identified the responsible parties, and negotiated a significant confidential settlement that fully funded the community's exterior repairs.
Fort Collins.
A single-family community in Fort Collins was built on large deposits of bentonite clay without adequate foundation engineering to account for those conditions. Homeowners experienced severe structural damage from soil movement, compounded by water intrusion through defective roofing and window systems. Hearn & Fleener pursued the case through years of litigation that ultimately reached the Colorado Supreme Court, recovering over $3 million for the homeowners association. Just as importantly, the case produced new Colorado case law that strengthened homeowner rights under state construction defect statutes, a legal precedent that continues to benefit Colorado homeowners to this day.
Patio Home Community North of Denver.
A patio home community north of Denver was built on some of the most severe bentonite clay deposits in Colorado. Soil movement had caused homes to shift several inches from their original positions, damaging interior finishes, plumbing, ductwork, basement slabs, and balconies throughout the community. Hearn & Fleener engaged specialized expansive soils experts, built a comprehensive forensic case against the developer, and negotiated one of the largest soils related repair settlements ever secured in Colorado history. The recovery fully funded the structural stabilization work needed to permanently address the soil movement beneath the community.
Cherry Creek.
A community of 66 single-family lock-and-leave homes in the Cherry Creek area began experiencing grading and drainage failures, asphalt deterioration, and building envelope deficiencies shortly after construction was completed. Hearn & Fleener documented the full scope of the defects, identified every responsible party, and negotiated a confidential settlement that fully funded the community's repairs, giving homeowners the lasting peace of mind that comes from knowing their homes were finally built to the standard they were promised.
You Shouldn't Have to Fight Your Builder Alone. We're Here to Help.
Colorado's construction defect filing deadlines are strict and once they pass, your right to recover is gone permanently. If your home has signs of construction defects, the most important step you can take right now is to contact Hearn & Fleener for a free, confidential evaluation.
We will inspect your property, research your builder's construction records, and give you an honest assessment of your legal options — at no cost and with no obligation.
You only pay us if and when you recover. Don't face this alone.