Colorado landlord-tenant rules

Late fees: No late fee unless rent is at least seven calendar days late; fee may not exceed the greater of $50 or 5% of the past-due rent; must be disclosed in the rental agreement; may not be charged more than once per late payment (unless total stays within the cap); no interest on late fees; no eviction or lease termination for unpaid late fees; fee must be noticed within 180 days of the due date. Noncompliant clause void; $50 penalty per violation to tenant; 7-day cure window before civil action. (C.R.S. § 38-12-105(1)(a)–(b), (2)–(4), confirmed 2026-10). Application fees: No flat dollar cap; the fee may not exceed the landlord's actual (or average per-applicant) cost of processing the application, must be the same for all applicants for the unit, cannot be charged when the applicant supplies a portable tenant screening report, and requires a cost disclosure/itemization and receipt. Violation: treble the fee plus costs and attorney fees (§ 38-12-905(1)). (C.R.S. § 38-12-903(1)–(3), confirmed 2026-10).

Nonpayment notice: Ten days' written notice demanding rent or possession for residential tenancies; three days for nonresidential or employer-provided housing; five days for an 'exempt residential agreement' (single-family home leased by a landlord owning five or fewer single-family rental homes whose lease discloses that the 10-day period does not apply). Lease may not waive the notice. (C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d), (5)(b), confirmed 2026-10). Rent increases: Residential tenancy with no written agreement: at least 60 days' written notice of a rent increase; landlord may not terminate such a tenancy primarily to raise rent inconsistently with this rule. All residential tenancies: rent may be increased no more than once in any 12-month period of consecutive occupancy (§ 38-12-702). No statewide rent cap. (C.R.S. § 38-12-701(2); § 38-12-702(1), confirmed 2026-10). Ending a month-to-month tenancy: Conditional, stated as one rule: a landlord may end a month-to-month tenancy with no-cause written notice served at least 21 days before the end of the period (tenancy of one month or longer but less than six months, § 13-40-107(2)(c); 28 days for 6–<12 months; 91 days for a year or longer) ONLY for premises/tenants exempt from the 2024 for-cause law — short-term rentals, owner- or master-tenant-occupied single-family/duplex/triplex (not 4+ units), employer-provided housing, tenants of fewer than 12 months, and tenants unknown to the landlord (§ 38-12-1302(1)(a),(b),(d),(e),(f)); for every other residential tenant (12+ months in a non-exempt premises) cause is required (§ 38-12-1303(1)-(2)) and the only no-fault grounds (demolition/conversion, substantial repairs, owner/family move-in, sale of a single-family/townhome/duplex/triplex/condo, refusal to sign a new lease with reasonable terms, more than two late payments) require at least 90 days' written notice stating the legal and factual basis (45 days for an active-duty-military owner move-in) (§ 38-12-1303(3), (5)). (C.R.S. § 13-40-107(1)-(2); §§ 38-12-1302(1), 38-12-1303(1)-(3), (5) (HB 24-1098), confirmed 2026-10). Entry: Conditional: no general statutory minimum notice for landlord entry in Colorado (lease controls); but when entry is needed to commence or maintain remedial action on a habitability condition, the landlord must give at least 24 hours' written notice stating date, time and estimated duration (no notice required for imminent threats to life/health/safety or imminent substantial property damage); the tenant may reasonably deny the proposed time and the parties must agree a reasonable alternative; the tenant may consent to shorter notice. (C.R.S. § 38-12-503(6)(a)(III), (6)(b), confirmed 2026-10).

Colorado has no statewide rent regulation on file, so any cap on increases would come from a local ordinance. Source-of-income protection is on file statewide, so voucher and benefit income must be treated like any other lawful income in screening and advertising. Card surcharges on rent: allowed within card-network limits. Managing property for others for compensation generally requires a state license: State real estate broker license required for property management for others — confirm with state commission.

What Colorado allows a landlord to collect up front, how it must be held, and the deadline and paperwork for returning it.

The fees a Colorado lease can charge, the statutory ceilings that override the lease, and whether rent increases are regulated statewide.

How much written notice Colorado requires before a rent increase, before ending a month-to-month tenancy, and before filing for nonpayment.

When a Colorado landlord may enter an occupied unit and how much notice the tenant must receive.

Operational rules that sit outside the landlord-tenant act but decide how rent can be collected, who can be screened out, and who may manage for others.

Compliance posture values are reference data compiled from public statutes and are not source-confirmed line by line. Confirm with the state agency before relying on them.

Own units on both sides of a state line? These are the reference values for every bordering jurisdiction. Open a state to see which values carry a citation.

Federal and state disclosures Aptoria's lease workflow surfaces for Colorado. This is a working checklist from public sources, not a complete legal inventory for a specific property.

Primary sources a Colorado landlord should bookmark. Each link was fetched and read during the October 2026 review; the binding text is always the current official version.

Every rule is shown in one of two states. “Source-confirmed” means an editor opened the official statute page named next to the rule on the date shown, read the controlling text, and recorded the excerpt you see; the excerpt is quoted verbatim so you can check it. “Reference value” means Aptoria's compliance engine applies a conservative number for this rule, but nobody has yet tied it to a specific statute section on this page, so it must be checked before you rely on it.

This page meets Aptoria's evidence floor for publication (10 source-confirmed rules and 4 fetched official sources). Statutes change; local ordinances can be stricter; the facts of a tenancy change the result.