Tenant Rights in Colorado
Unsafe Housing Conditions
Warranty of Habitability
The warranty of habitability is a Colorado law that requires that nearly every rental unit in the state meet minimum safety and health standards. In most cases, if you rent your home, you are legally guaranteed a safe and healthy place to live. This is true whether you have a written lease or not. Your landlord cannot try to get around these requirements by trying to get you to waive them or agree to something different.
What are the basic requirements under the Warrant of Habitability?
Landlord Duties
Landlords are required by law to make sure that their properties don’t endanger your life, health or safety.
Additionally, before your landlord rents out a house or apartment, it must have:
- Running water and working plumbing at all times (except temporary disruptions
to perform necessary repairs) - Reasonably clean common areas (no piled-up garbage)
- No mice, rat, or insect infestations (please note that we have a separate
handout with information about bedbugs) - Adequate outdoor trashcans and/or dumpsters with regular trash
pick-up - Properly-maintained doors, stairways, elevators, and railings
- Compliance with local building, fire, health, and housing codes
- Water-tight roof, exterior walls, doors, and windows
- Door locks on all exterior doors and windows that can open
- Indoor heat that’s properly maintained and functional from October to April
- Electricity and proper wiring, including lights that are working properly and that complied with building codes that were in effect when they were installed
- Accessible fire exits and points of egress (ways out of the building in an emergency)
- Proper ventilation
- A working elevator (only required if you have a disability and can’t use stairs)
- No mold that could threaten your health or safety, or ongoing dampness that might lead to mold
- Failure to provide anything in the above list can cause a property to be uninhabitable, and therefore violates the warranty of habitability
Tenant Duties
Keep in mind that you also have some responsibilities in keeping your housing safe and sanitary. If you’re an irresponsible tenant, your landlord might try to use your actions as grounds to evict you, or try to make you pay for any damage you cause.
You’re required to:
- Tell your landlord if there is a problem. Let your landlord know about any habitability issues right away, preferably in writing. A sample notice is included with this packet.
- Cooperate with your landlord whenever they’re trying to make necessary repairs.
- Comply with your duties under local housing, health and building codes.
- Keep your home clean, safe, and sanitary.
- Properly dispose of garbage, ashes, and other waste.
- Use your utilities responsibly (including plumbing, heating, AC, restrooms, elevators, or other appliances).
- Don’t disturb the peace. Don’t disrupt your neighbors’ peaceful enjoyment of their homes.
- Don’t damage or destroy the property. You’re responsible for the actions of your family and guests too. This includes damage done on purpose or on accident.
Example: If there’s mold in your bathroom, you’re obligated run the bathroom exhaust fan when you take a shower or bath, wipe down the shower regularly, and stop using any humidifiers. If that doesn’t fix it, contact your landlord in writing as soon as possible.
Exceptions to the Warranty of Habitability
Housing Arrangements That Aren’t Covered
- Residence at a medical, educational, religious or similar institution
- Owners of a mobile home where the issue is with the mobile home park
- Hotel stays of less than 30 days
- Hunting cabins, fishing shanties, tents
- Housing used by the tenant for the purposes of farming or keeping livestock
- Fraternities, sororities, and other social organizations
- Condo owners
- Housing for employees or independent contractors provided in exchange for performing work
- Single family home where the tenant agrees, in writing and signed by both parties, to be responsible for doing some (but not all) of the work required to maintain the property
Where the Tenant Caused the Problem
- Your landlord isn’t responsible for problems that you, your family, or guests caused. (But keep in mind that they’ll need to be able to prove that you did it.)
- One important exception is where the damage or problem was the result of domestic violence, domestic abuse, stalking, or unlawful sexual behavior (such as sexual assault, human trafficking, or child enticement). In any of these circumstances, the damage won’t be considered your fault.
Unsafe Housing Conditions FAQs
What should I do if my landlord is failing to maintain or repair my residence?
Your landlord isn’t legally required to make repairs until someone tells them about the problem in writing. This means someone has to give them written notice (including text, email, letter, or any other written message) before they have to start fixing the problem.
A variety of people can tell the landlord about the problem, including:
- You
- A government entity, such as a building inspector
- Another tenant, if the problem affects their residence too
- The landlord’s employee, representative, or maintenance staff
- Anyone else as permitted by your lease or property rules
All leases signed after January 1, 2025 are required to tell you how you should contact your landlord about habitability problems.
Be sure to keep a copy of whatever you write so that you have proof of the communication. A sample notice letter is available here.
Your lease might tell you how you are supposed to deliver notices. This might include:
- sending a letter to a specific mailing address
- sending an email to a specific email address
- sending a text message to a specific phone number, or
- using an online portal of some kind.
If your lease does not tell you how to deliver a notice, you can do so by mail or by whatever written method you have used to communicate with your landlord in the past.
No matter which way you deliver the notice, it is essential that you keep records that the notice was delivered. If you send a letter, you should send it registered or certified mail and keep copies of the delivery. If you use a web portal you can take screenshots of what you fill out and keep a record that the complaint was submitted. If you submit the complaint through a web portal, it is often a good idea to send another notice by mail just to make
sure you are fulfilling your duties under the law.
Keep a copy of all notices, communication with your landlord, estimates and proof that notices were sent and received.
How soon does my landlord need to respond?
After you give your landlord notice, they have to start addressing the needed repairs within a specific amount of time:
- If the problem significantly interferes with your life, health, or safety, your landlord must start taking action within 24 hours of getting the notice
- For other, less urgent issues, the landlord must start taking action within 96 hours (4 days)
Important: Do not stop paying rent while you are waiting for the landlord to make repairs. If you do, your landlord can evict you.
What if my landlord fails to fix the repair issues?
1. End your lease and move out
By this point, you should already have contacted your landlord in writing to tell them about the
problem. If the landlord hasn’t responded by the time they were required to (either 24 or 72 hours), or they haven’t fixed the problem within the required timeframe (either 7 or 14 days), contact the landlord again in writing. Your text/email/letter should include the following:
- Your name and address
- What the condition is that still hasn’t been fixed (even if you think they already know)
- That you intend to end your lease on a specific date (any date between 10 and 60 days from the date of the notice) if the repair is not made within 10 days from the day the landlord got the notice.
If the landlord does make the repair within 10 days, you can’t end your lease due to the repair issue.
If they do not fix the problem, you can move out on the date given in your notice.
Once you say you are going to end your lease and move out, you are stuck with that decision unless you and your landlord agree in writing to staying instead. If you do not move out as you said and the landlord does not agree to you continuing to stay, the landlord can evict you.
You also have the option to end the lease if there’s an issue that your landlord addressed once, but which came back a second time within 6 months after it was initially resolved (aka a recurring condition). In that case, you can contact your landlord in writing and let them know the problem has come back, and that you plan on moving out unless they fix it. You must contact them within 30 days of the issue returning. You must also give the landlord at least 10 days to make the repair. If
you’re satisfied with the repair, you and your landlord can agree to rescind the decision to move out—but if the landlord doesn’t agree to let you stay, they can evict you.
Note: This can be very risky. If your landlord sues you later for breaking your lease, you could be found to owe them rent if you missed a step or did this incorrectly.
2. Contact the Health Department and/or your local government agency that enforces building codes.
If the repair issue makes your rented space dangerous to your health or the health of your family, you can call your local health department. If the issue involves problems with heating, plumbing or electrical wiring, you may call your local government agency that enforces building codes. Tell them what your problem is and ask them to inspect the building. They will send an inspector to inspect the building. If conditions violate the health or building codes, they will notify the landlord to make the needed repairs. The landlord will have to make the repairs or pay a fine. However, if the conditions are very bad, the inspector may condemn the property. In that case, you would have to move.
3. Sue your landlord.
You can file a lawsuit in County or District Court asking for (a) money damages, and (b) an order for your landlord to make repairs (this is also called injunctive relief).
If you only want to sue for money, you can sue the landlord in Small Claims Court for the damages they caused you by not making these repairs. For example, if your property was damaged or you had to go to a doctor, you could sue for those expenses. It is very important to have proof showing you were harmed, and that it was caused by the landlord’s failure to make repairs when going to court seeking money.
4. You can deduct rent for repairs
The law provides a very specific way for tenants to deduct the cost of repairs from their rent and
paying to have that done by a professional. You cannot deduct the rent and make the repairs
yourself. The process for doing this can be difficult and there are significant penalties for doing it incorrectly. If you want to try this, we recommend speaking with an attorney first.
5. Use the landlord’s failure to repair as a defense in an eviction case brought against you by the landlord
If your landlord tries to evict you because of the damage or lack of repair issues, or because you did not pay rent while there were habitability problems, you can defend against the eviction by raising the Warranty of Habitability issues as a defense.
What if my landlord retaliates?
Retaliation is when your landlord punishes you for doing something that’s protected by the law, such as complaining about something in your apartment that needs to be fixed.
To be illegal, retaliation requires two things: first, that you engage in a protected activity, and second, that your landlord react in a way that violates your rights.
Protected Activities (things you do to try to get the problem fixed) include:
- Complaining about the conditions in your unit or repairs that are needed:
- To the landlord
- To a nonprofit or other organization (such as a homeless shelter or tenant’s advocacy group)
- To a government agency (such as a Housing Authority or the Department of Regulatory
Agencies (DORA))
- Joining, participating, or organizing with a tenants’ association or group
- Suing your landlord for not making repairs; moving out if your landlord fails to fix the problem; or hiring someone to fix the problem if your landlord fails to take action within a reasonable time and
you warned them you’ll fix it yourself if they don’t.
Prohibited Retaliatory Action (actions a landlord might take that are illegal if you did something on the above list) includes:
- Raising your rent
- Charging you new or made-up fees or penalties
- Deciding not to renew your lease without a good reason
- Threatening to evict you when they don’t have a legitimate reason to
- Trying to kick you out without taking you to court first (known as a “self-help eviction”)
- Changing the way things like trash pickup, mail delivery, snow plowing, or payment of rent are done;
- Suddenly trying to enforce a rule they’ve never enforced in the past, and
- Threatening, intimidating, or harassing you or your family