News and Press Releases

Denver, October 4, 2011 -- Today, Benson & Associates received the final portion of a construction defect arbitration award totaling over $6.8 Million against Pulte Homes for one of its community association clients.  During a three-week arbitration hearing that took place earlier this year, the Association brought construction defect claims involving grading and drainage, asphalt and concrete, building envelope, roofs, and firewalls.

"We are pleased with the result we we able to obtain for our client, and most importantly, we are glad that the Association will be able to begin making significant repairs that will benefit the entire community," said Jeff Kerrane, partner at Benson & Associates. 

Benson & Associates attorney Alex Nelson has been named to the Colorado Super Lawyers Rising Stars list as one of the top attorneys in Colorado for 2011.  No more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected to the list.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.  The annual selections are made using a rigorous multi-­phased process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates, and peer reviews by practice area.

The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines and in leading city and regional magazines across the country.  For more information about Super Lawyers, go to superlawyers.com.

The first Super Lawyers list was published in 1991 and by 2009 the rating service had expanded nationwide.  In February 2010 Super Lawyers was acquired by Thomson Reuters the world’s leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals.

Denver, September 23, 2011--Benson & Associates, Orten Cavanagh Richmond & Holmes, & Mutual of Omaha Bank's 2011 Oktoberfest party was the most successful ever, raising more than $56,000 to support Joshua Station. 

Joshua Station is a transformational housing program designed to help families make the transformation from unstable housing situations to permanent housing and self-sufficiency. Families participate in a life-building program through phases that help individuals develop and reach their goals.

For more information, go to www.joshuastation.com.

November 9, 2011--The construction defect law firm of Benson & Associates PC announced today that it has offset its carbon emissions for 2011 with Carbonfund.org, the country's leading carbon solutions organization. Benson & Associates is pleased to reduce its impact on the environment by offsetting the carbon footprint that is created by its office activities, including electric usage and business car travel. As one of the leading Colorado law firms representing homeowners and community associations with construction defect claims, Benson & Associates has taken this practical step to highlight its commitment to be a leader in the legal community.

Benson & Associates' partners and employees are concerned about the effects of global warming on our environment. By supporting carbon-reducing projects such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects, Benson & Associates is helping to reduce our country's dependency on fossil fuels while at the same time helping to reverse the degradation of our environment.

"We are excited to continue our partnership with Carbonfund.org for another year. We hope that our commitment to offset our carbon footprint will serve as an example to other law firms, community associations and their vendors" said Doug Benson, managing partner of Benson & Associates. "With more than 60 million residents living in community associations and thousands of vendors serving those communities, there is an enormous potential for this segment to make an impact on carbon reduction in our environment."

Carbonfund.org is a non-profit organization whose goal is to make carbon offsets and climate protection easy, affordable and a normal way of life for every individual and business. Carbon offsets enable individuals and businesses to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to offset the emissions they are responsible for in their normal activities, like home, office, driving or air travel emissions. For instance, a clean, zero CO2 wind farm can offset the carbon dioxide produced by a coal-fired power plant. By supporting renewable energy, energy efficiency, and reforestation projects Carbonfund.org will retire an equivalent amount of carbon offsets. The financial support from these offsets will then help to continue the development of clean, renewable domestic sources of energy.

About Benson & Associates

Benson & Associates is one of the leading construction defect litigation law firms in Colorado, representing homeowners and community associations with construction defect claims against builders, subcontractors, and their insurance companies. Benson & Associates attorneys have recovered more than $200 million in verdicts and settlements for their clients.

About Carbonfund.org

Carbonfund.org is the leading nonprofit carbon reduction and climate solutions organization, making it easy and affordable for individuals, businesses and organizations to reduce their climate impact by supporting third-party validated renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects. Carbonfund.org has over 600,000 individual supporters and over 1,800 business and nonprofit partners including Discovery, Motorola, Amtrak, Dell, JetBlue, Virgin America and Staples. http://www.carbonfund.org.

Benson & Associates attorney Jeff Kerrane was appointed to Community Associations Institute's (CAI) Legislative Action Committee for its 2011-2012 term. 

The Colorado Legislative Action Committee (CLAC) is a statewide committee appointed by CAI National. It exists to represent the interests of, and to provide regular communications to, CAI members and the two Colorado chapters about state legislative, regulatory and amicus curiae activities of relevance to the creation and operation of community associations.

Legislative Action Committee delegates are on the front line of CAI's efforts to promote vibrant, responsive, and competent community associations.

DENVER (CBS4)- A CBS4 Investigation found more than a dozen townhouse communities built in Colorado by D.R. Horton have sued over building defects.

D.R. Horton calls itself “America’s Builder.” The company has payed out tens of millions of dollars in settlements to those lawsuits.

Read the full artice and see the video here.

July 21, 2011 — Citing a reduced volume of transactions and a smaller pool of builders eligible to be evaluated, J.D. Power decided to forgo publishing a  builder customer satisfaction survey for 2011. J.D. Power started measuring customer satisfaction in home building in 1997. Although at its peak, it studied customer satisfaction in 34 markets, last year its study was limited to 17 markets, including Denver. 

J.D. Power's 2010 study rated home builders for workmanship/materials, builder’s warranty/customer service staff, price/value, builder’s sales staff, construction manager, home readiness, recreational facilities, builder’s design center, and location. 

Classic Homes ranked the highest in overall customer satisfaction in the Denver area. Builders who did not perform as well in the survey included D.R. Horton and Journey (CO). 

Overall customer satisfaction improved in 2010 for a third consecutive year to the highest level since the inception of the study in 1997.  New-home quality also increased to a record high. Overall, the most-commonly reported quality problems include issues with landscaping; kitchen cabinet quality and finish; and heating and air conditioning. 

The study also found that 61% of new-home buyers perceive their home as environmentally-friendly (up from 31% in 2009 and 28% in 2008) and the proportion of new-home owners who indicate that their builder did not identify the home as green has declined to 48% percent in 2010 (down from 65% in 2009 and 75% in 2008).

A statement from J.D. Power states:  "J.D. Power and Associates values the relationship it has with the residential construction industry. We will continue to monitor industry conditions to assess the appropriate timing and approach for re-introducing our New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study."  Read the full statement here.

View the 2010 J.D. Power New Home Building Satisfaction Ratings.