Colorado landlord-tenant law

An application fee must be spent entirely on your cost of processing the application, based either on actual cost or on your average cost per applicant. Charge every applicant for the same unit, or for any unit you offer at the same time, the same fee. Give each applicant a receipt and either a list of the expenses the fee will cover or an itemization of the actual expenses, and make a good-faith effort to refund any unused part within 20 calendar days after processing.

C.R.S. § 38-12-903

Colorado bars refusing to rent, setting different terms, asking about or advertising a preference based on disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, familial status, veteran or military status, religion, national origin or ancestry. It also bars refusing to rent or setting different terms because of a person's source of income, including housing assistance.

C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1)

Before the lease is signed, give the tenant a signed radon disclosure. The written lease must name the landlord or authorized agent with an address, carry the source of income statement unless you are exempt, and, since January 1, 2025, include two statements in at least 12-point bold type: that tenants are entitled to safe and healthy housing and may not be retaliated against for reporting unsafe conditions or requesting repairs, and, in English and Spanish, where tenants can mail or deliver and email or submit notice of an uninhabitable condition.

C.R.S. § 38-12-803(2) C.R.S. § 38-12-801(2), (2.5) C.R.S. § 38-12-505(3)(c), (d)

No section of Colorado's landlord and tenant article requires a flood disclosure. Other Colorado law was not checked for one.

C.R.S. § 38-12-101 to 38-12-1502

A written lease must state the name and address of the landlord or the landlord's authorized agent. When the landlord or agent changes, the new one must, within one business day, notify each tenant in writing or electronically, or post the new identity in a conspicuous place on the property.

C.R.S. § 38-12-801(2)

A landlord may not require a security deposit larger than two monthly rent payments under the rental agreement. A security deposit is any advance or deposit of money, whatever it is called, whose main purpose is to secure the tenant's performance of the rental agreement.

C.R.S. § 38-12-102.5(1) C.R.S. § 38-12-102(6)

Return the full deposit within 30 days after the lease ends or the tenant surrenders the home, whichever happens last. The lease may set a longer period, but no more than 60 days. If you keep any part, give the tenant a written statement listing the exact reasons, together with the balance and any documentation the law requires. You may keep reasonable amounts only for unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, other lawful charges listed in the lease, and repairs of damage beyond normal wear and tear that did not exist before the tenancy.

C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1)

Colorado's general security deposit law does not require a separate account for deposits or interest on them. Its rules cover the amount, the return and the transfer of deposits when a property changes hands.

C.R.S. § 38-12-101 to 38-12-106

No section of Colorado's landlord and tenant article requires a move-in inspection or checklist. The home must be fit to live in before you lease it, and you cannot later deduct from the deposit for damage that existed before the tenancy, so a dated record of the condition at move-in protects you.

C.R.S. § 38-12-101 to 38-12-1502

You may charge a late fee only if the rental agreement discloses it and the rent is at least seven calendar days late. The fee may not exceed the greater of $50 or 5 percent of the past-due rent payment. You may not evict or end a tenancy because a tenant has not paid late fees.

C.R.S. § 38-12-105(1)

When a check or similar order used to pay you is not paid on presentment, you may recover its face amount plus, at your option, either your actual damages or a reasonable posted or contractual charge of no more than $20. If you give written notice of the nonpayment and the tenant does not pay the full amount due within 15 days, a court may award three times the face amount, at least $100.

C.R.S. § 13-21-109(1)

Rent increases

You may raise the rent no more than once in any twelve-month period of the tenant's consecutive occupancy, whatever the length or type of tenancy and whether or not there is a written agreement. Where there is no written agreement, a rent increase needs at least 60 days' written notice.

C.R.S. § 38-12-702(1) C.R.S. § 38-12-701(2)(a)

No section of Colorado's landlord and tenant article sets a general notice period for entering an occupied home, so put entry terms in the lease. Two situations have their own rules: entry for habitability repairs and entry for bed bugs.

C.R.S. § 38-12-101 to 38-12-1502

Every rental agreement carries a warranty that the home is fit to live in at move-in and will be kept that way. Once you have written notice of a condition that makes the home uninhabitable or materially interferes with the tenant's life, health or safety, you must start fixing it within 24 hours for a life, health or safety condition and within 72 hours for other conditions, keep working until it is fixed, and pay for the repair.

C.R.S. § 38-12-503(1), (2)

If you breach the warranty of habitability, the tenant may end the lease with 10 to 60 days' written notice, deduct the cost of a professional repair from rent after written notice, sue for damages and court orders, or raise the breach as a defense to an eviction.

C.R.S. § 38-12-507(1)

Keep locks on all exterior doors, and locks or security devices on windows designed to open, in good working order. A home that substantially lacks them is uninhabitable, and missing working locks are presumed to threaten life, health or safety, which starts the 24-hour repair clock.

C.R.S. § 38-12-505(1)(b)(XI), (4)(g)

Under Colorado's carbon monoxide alarm law, a rental home with fuel-fired appliances or an attached garage needs an operational alarm within 15 feet of the entrance to each room used for sleeping, or where a state or local building code specifies. The rule reaches an existing rental once a new tenant moves in on or after July 1, 2009, and a rental where permitted work was done on or after that date. Smoke alarm rules were not found in the parts of the statutes read for this page.

C.R.S. § 38-45-104(1), (2) C.R.S. § 38-45-102(2) C.R.S. § 38-45-103(2)

You may not retaliate against a tenant for a good faith complaint about habitability to you, a nonprofit or a government agency, for organizing or joining a tenants' association, or for using habitability remedies. Retaliation includes raising rent, cutting services, ending or not renewing the tenancy, threatening or filing an eviction, harassment, and charging fees.

C.R.S. § 38-12-509(1)

You may not remove or exclude a tenant without going to court, except with the tenant's consent, under the rules for cleaning up an illegal drug laboratory, or when the tenant has clearly abandoned the home. Willfully shutting off utilities or removing doors, windows or locks, other than for repairs, counts as an unlawful exclusion.

C.R.S. § 38-12-510(1)

Written notice to end a periodic tenancy at the end of a period, or not to renew a fixed term, depends on the length of the tenancy: at least 91 days for one year or longer, 28 days for six months to under a year, 21 days for one month to under six months, three days for one week to under a month, and one day for less than a week. A tenant may use these notices for any home, but a landlord may end a covered residential tenancy only with a cause the for-cause eviction law allows.

C.R.S. § 13-40-107(1), (2) C.R.S. § 38-12-1303(1)

Colorado gives tenants several specific rights to end a lease early: as a victim-survivor of domestic violence, domestic abuse, stalking or unlawful sexual behavior; after a tenant's death; for an unfixed habitability breach; and in some cases for a missing radon disclosure.

C.R.S. § 38-12-402(2) C.R.S. § 38-12-801(3.5)

Before filing an eviction for unpaid rent, serve a written demand giving the tenant ten days to pay the rent or give up possession. The lease cannot waive this notice.

C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d)

For a breach of a material lease term, serve written notice giving the tenant ten days to comply or give up possession (five days under an exempt residential agreement, three for employer-provided housing).

C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(e)

Eviction process

For most residential tenancies an eviction needs a cause the law recognizes, a proper written notice, and a court judgment. Eviction cases are filed in county or district court on the court's standard complaint form, and a tenant is removed only under a writ of restitution after judgment.

C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1) C.R.S. § 38-12-1303(1) C.R.S. § 38-12-510(1)

Colorado's statutes read for this page address property left behind in a few settings only. After an eviction, you have no duty to store belongings removed when the writ is carried out; if you choose to store them, you may charge reasonable storage costs and either release them once those are paid or dispose of them under your landlord's lien.

C.R.S. § 13-40-122(3), (4)

Small claims court hears civil claims up to $7,500, not counting interest and costs. It cannot hear evictions, class actions or most requests for court orders.

C.R.S. § 13-6-403(1), (2)

Planning for property taxes

Partly read

Budget from the county’s parcel statement, not a statewide average. Colorado property tax calculations use the property’s actual value, the applicable assessment rate and each taxing district’s mill levy. The assessment year and the year you pay the bill are different.

Boulder County: property tax calculation

Preparing your first Colorado rental

Partly read

Plan the rental as a sequence: check the property and local requirements, build a realistic budget, prepare the application and lease, then arrange move-in and ongoing management. Use the detailed topics in this guide for the rules behind each step.

C.R.S. § 38-12-803(2) C.R.S. § 38-12-801(2), (2.5) C.R.S. § 38-12-505(3)(c), (d)

Unauthorized occupancy and title claims

Partly read

A disputed tenancy, unauthorized entry and an ownership claim require different legal assessments. Colorado’s special unauthorized-person process is limited and is not a substitute for an ordinary eviction. Check the person’s permission, agreements and claim before choosing a route.

Colorado Courts: remove unauthorized people

No county or city may adopt an ordinance that controls rent on private residential property. Voluntary agreements with a property owner or permit applicant to limit rent, and deed restrictions placed under such an agreement, are allowed.

C.R.S. § 38-12-301(1), (2)