New Insurance Laws

The Colorado General Assembly passed legislation affecting insurers and their insureds in its recent 2026 legislative session. This article discusses HB26-1017 enacted to address insurance company victim restitution payments and SB26-155 which creates a new government-owned enterprise to collect fees from insurance companies to, among other things, help address the costs of wind and hail and damage claims.

• Criminal Restitution Prohibited for Insurers. Existing law allowed insurers of a victim of a crime to receive restitution payments in criminal cases. This happened when an insurer incurred a loss arising from a contractual relationship with a victim, such as paying out an insurance claim to a victim of a crime. HB26-1017 clarifies the circumstances under which insurers may receive restitution payments in criminal cases. To that end, the new law prohibits insurers (other than workers’ compensation insurers) from receiving victim restitution payments. Insurers may only receive restitution payments in criminal cases when the insurer itself is a victim of fraud or their property is damaged or stolen through a criminal act. However, insurers are not prohibited from pursuing a civil action against offenders for losses. HB26-1017 also provides that a court may award a victim restitution for a deductible amount.

• Increase Access Homeowner’s Insurance Enterprise. SB26-155 creates a government-owned enterprise called the Strengthen Colorado Homes Enterprise (Enterprise) for the primary purpose of imposing fees on insurance companies that offer multiperil homeowners’ insurance policies in Colorado and that are subject to certain filing requirements with the state. The fees are to be used to provide business services to insurers that pay the fee to do a variety of things listed in the law, including reducing insurer losses and administrative expenses due to hail damage claims by providing grants to Colorado homeowners to retrofit residential property with resilient roof systems and setting standards for resilient roof systems and award workforce training grants for installing and certifying resilient roof systems. The new law sets the fee structure used to determine the amount of the fee and prohibits insurers from passing the cost of the fee to their policyholders as a surcharge. SB26-155 also creates a grant program to provide grants to Colorado homeowners to retrofit residential property with resilient roof systems to reduce insurer losses due to things like hail and windstorms and sets forth the rules for administering the program. The Enterprise Board will award grants to eligible homeowner applicants who meet specific criteria to be eligible for the grant.

If you have questions about these new laws, contact BHGR’s Insurance Group today. 

This article is informational only. The presentation or use of this information does not in any manner constitute an attorney-client relationship between BHGR and the website user. While the information on this site concerns legal issues, it is not intended as legal advice and is not a substitute for particularized advice from your own legal counsel.