How to become a landlord in Colorado

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)).

• Compare genuinely similar rentals by location, size, condition and included utilities. Separate advertised asking rents from confirmed lease income. Build a property budget for taxes, insurance, utilities you pay, maintenance, turnover and vacancy; keep a reserve for repairs and time without rent. Record your assumptions and update them when you receive actual bills (Boulder County: property tax calculation).See Planning for property taxes on the Colorado page
• Before offering the home, check the city or county’s rental licensing, inspection and safety requirements for that address. Complete habitability work and arrange a dependable repair contact. Take dated condition photos and keep invoices and safety-device records so move-in condition and later repairs are documented (C.R.S. § 38-12-101 to 38-12-1502; C.R.S. § 38-12-503(1), (2)).See Move-in condition on the Colorado page
• Prepare consistent lawful screening criteria, the portable-report disclosure and fee records before collecting applications. Read the application rules for report restrictions, subsidy protections and denial notices. Assemble the lease, required radon information and other disclosures, and confirm rent, deposits, utilities, dates and notice contacts before signing. Give the required signed copy and retain delivery records (C.R.S. § 38-12-903; 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)).See Application and screening fees on the Colorado page
• At move-in, give clear instructions for rent payments, repair requests and urgent problems. Keep a ledger and store signed documents, receipts, communications and maintenance records together with appropriate access limits. Calendar lease dates and required notices. A management tool can organize these tasks; it does not replace checking the facts or meeting a legal deadline (C.R.S. § 38-12-503(1), (2); 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)).See Repairs and habitability on the Colorado page

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)).

• The radon disclosure includes the statutory warning in bold type, any radon test results, records, mitigation and mitigation system information you know of, and the state health department's current radon brochure; the tenant signs to acknowledge it (C.R.S. § 38-12-803(2)).
• The source of income statement says that C.R.S. 24-34-502(1) prohibits source of income discrimination and requires a non-exempt landlord to accept any lawful, verifiable source of money. Landlords with five or fewer single-family rentals and no more than five units in total are exempt (C.R.S. § 38-12-801(2.5)).
• If you offer an online tenant portal, post the English and Spanish notice-address statement there too (C.R.S. § 38-12-505(3)(e)).
• Give the tenant a copy of the signed lease no later than the seventh day after the tenant signs, electronically unless the tenant asks for paper (C.R.S. § 38-12-801(1)).
• Disclose any late fee in the rental agreement, and the method of allocating utilities if you bill by ratio (C.R.S. § 38-12-105(1)(c); C.R.S. § 6-1-737(4.5)(a)(IV)).
• Advertised and offered prices must show the total price as a single number, and you must not misrepresent whether a charge is refundable, what it is for or who receives it (C.R.S. § 6-1-737(2), (3)).
• A written lease may not include a one-way attorney fee clause, a waiver of a jury trial (except for the possession hearing), class claims, good faith and fair dealing, quiet enjoyment or mandatory mediation, a penalty for an eviction notice, or markups on third-party services beyond 2 percent or $10 a month (C.R.S. § 38-12-801(3)).
• Some of these limits do not apply to an owner-occupied duplex, triplex or accessory dwelling unit, or to mobile home lots (C.R.S. § 38-12-801(4), (8)).
• Do not offer a home for rent if you know or reasonably suspect it has bed bugs. On a prospective tenant's request, disclose any known bed bugs in the home during the previous eight months. On a tenant's or prospective tenant's request, also disclose the last date the home was inspected and found free of bed bugs. The eight-month lookback is for bed bugs, not radon (C.R.S. § 38-12-1005).
• For Denver property, the city directs owners and operators to provide its Tenant Rights and Resources document when the written lease is executed and whenever a rent demand is made. Use the document currently linked by the city and keep proof of delivery. This is a local notice requirement; the full city code and linked notice contents were not reviewed here (Denver residential rental property guidance: tenant notice).

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)).

• The lease must also state, in English and Spanish, where the tenant can send written notice of an uninhabitable condition (C.R.S. § 38-12-505(3)(d)).See Required disclosures and lease language on the Colorado page

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).

• Flood damage is an environmental public health event: repairs must meet the cleanup standards, and once officials say it is safe, the tenant must be allowed in to retrieve belongings (C.R.S. § 38-12-503(8); C.R.S. § 38-12-502(4.5)).

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)).

• Before each new tenancy, replace any carbon monoxide alarm that is missing or not working, and provide the batteries needed to make it work when the tenant moves in (C.R.S. § 38-45-104(3)(a)).
• During the tenancy, replace a stolen, missing or broken alarm, or fix a deficiency, when the tenant notifies you in writing; otherwise routine maintenance and batteries are the tenant's job (C.R.S. § 38-45-104(3), (4)).
• In a multifamily building with a centralized alarm system that someone can always hear, an alarm may instead be within 25 feet of any fuel-fired heater or appliance, fireplace or garage (C.R.S. § 38-45-104(5)).
• No one may remove the batteries or disable an alarm except to inspect, maintain, repair or replace it (C.R.S. § 38-45-104(6)).

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)).

• A victim-survivor who has given the required notice and documentation may change the locks, including electronic locks, and add window bars or cameras; you may not stop it, charge for it or treat it as a violation, and a lease term forbidding it is void. The tenant gives you a key or code within fourteen days (C.R.S. § 38-12-402(7)).
• Willfully removing locks, doors or windows, except for repair, is an unlawful exclusion (C.R.S. § 38-12-510(1)).See Lockouts and utility shutoffs on the Colorado page
• No section of Colorado's landlord and tenant article requires rekeying between tenants (C.R.S. § 38-12-101 to 38-12-1502).

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)).

• From January 1, 2027, the two-month cap does not apply to a post-closing occupancy agreement under a purchase contract in which the landlord bought the home from the tenant (C.R.S. § 38-12-102.5(2)).
• A separate security deposit for a pet may not be more than $300, and it must be refundable (C.R.S. § 38-12-106(1)).
• A lease term that waives or changes any part of the deposit law that protects the tenant is void (C.R.S. § 38-12-103(7)(a)).

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).

• When your interest in the property ends by sale or otherwise, the deposit goes to your successor within 60 days with notice to the tenant, or back to the tenant. Once that is done, the person who held it is released, and the successor takes on your duties for it (C.R.S. § 38-12-103(4); C.R.S. § 38-12-103(5); C.R.S. § 38-12-103(6)).
• Mobile home park lots follow a different rule: the deposit is capped at one month's rent, stays the home owner's property and goes into a separate trust account (C.R.S. § 38-12-207(1), (3)).
• A city can add deposit-interest requirements. Boulder requires landlords to return interest on tenants' security deposits and published a 2.08 percent rate for 2026, effective January 1. Check the city's applicable rates and calculation guidance for the tenancy before calculating the refund; this rate is not a statewide requirement (City of Boulder: 2026 security deposit interest).

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).

• Before leasing, make sure the home is habitable and free of the conditions that make a home uninhabitable; leasing it otherwise breaches the warranty of habitability (C.R.S. § 38-12-505(3)(a), (b)).
• Deductions may not cover normal wear and tear or any damage or defective condition that preexisted the tenancy (C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1)(a)).

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).

• You must accept a portable tenant screening report from an applicant unless you take only one application fee at a time for the unit and refund it within 20 calendar days after either side declines the lease. You may require that the report is no more than 30 days old, costs you nothing to use, and comes with the applicant's statement that nothing material has changed. If an applicant provides one, you may not charge an application fee or a fee to use the report (C.R.S. § 38-12-903(2)(b); C.R.S. § 38-12-904(1.5)).
• Before any screening you expect to charge for, tell applicants in substantially the statute's words about the portable report and the fees it rules out, for example in the listing or on the application in at least 12-point bold type (C.R.S. § 38-12-904(1.5)(d), (e)).
• Do not consider rental or credit history older than seven years, any arrest record, or a conviction more than five years old, except convictions for the offenses the statute lists (C.R.S. § 38-12-904(1)(a), (b)).
• You may ask about income only to confirm it is at least twice the annual rent the applicant will pay, and you may not require more. For an applicant using a housing subsidy, you may not consider a credit score, an adverse credit event or the lack of a credit score unless federal law requires it (C.R.S. § 38-12-904(1)(c), (d)).
• If you deny an application, make a good-faith effort to give written reasons within 20 calendar days, plus a copy of any consumer report you obtained and notice of the right to dispute it. Give a paper denial notice if the applicant requests one. If a proprietary system prevents directly citing the screening criteria, provide its report with only the proprietary information redacted; the system does not eliminate the notice duty (C.R.S. § 38-12-904(2)).
• From January 1, 2027, every rental application must tell applicants what screening information you will try to access, generally describe the factors you will evaluate, and state whether you use a third-party screening service, naming it if you do. The new disclosure rule does not require you to create or reveal fixed disqualifying criteria (C.R.S. § 38-12-904(1.7); HB26-1196, sections 3 and 4).
• A violation can cost $2,500 plus costs and attorney fees. The applicant must give seven calendar days' notice before suing, and curing within seven days limits the penalty to $50 (C.R.S. § 38-12-905).
• You may not ask about or collect information on an applicant's immigration or citizenship status, except as the law allows, such as asking every applicant for the same financial documents (C.R.S. § 38-12-1203(1); C.R.S. § 38-12-1204(1)(b)).
• Check the statutory report definition before applying the portable-report rules. It is a consumer report requested by the prospective tenant, containing reporting-agency information and its current-through date, identity and contact information, employment and income verification, last-known address, and the required compliant rental, credit and conviction checks for the reported prior-residence jurisdictions. A report for an applicant using a housing subsidy need not include credit history, a credit score or an adverse credit event. A self-written application is not automatically a portable screening report (C.R.S. 38-12-902(2.5)).
• Use the current delivery rules rather than an older checklist. Effective January 1, 2026, the Legislature repealed the subsection that allowed requiring a portable report to be made directly available by the reporting agency or through a third-party website. The current statute still allows the listed age, no-access-cost and material-change requirements. Confirm the report definition and applicable exception separately; a vendor's preferred ordering or delivery process does not establish compliance (C.R.S. 38-12-904(1.5)(b) and history).