Can I Sue My Landlord in Colorado?
Yes — in many situations. These are the main claims Colorado tenants bring, what the law lets you recover, and where to file. Each rule links to the statute or official source. Most claims under the small claims limit can be filed without a lawyer.
Before you sue
- Write down what happened, with dates, and keep photos, texts, emails and receipts.
- Send your landlord a written demand (templates below) and give a reasonable deadline.
- Check the deadline to sue and the court's dollar limit (below).
- If the amount is over the small claims limit, or you are facing eviction, talk to a lawyer or legal aid first.
Your security deposit wasn't returned
| Penalty for withholding | Treble (three times) the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs. The tenant must first send a demand and notice of intent to sue at least 7 days before filing, and may sue only if the landlord does not return the money within those 7 days. Keeping 125% or more of actual damages is presumed bad faith, and the landlord bears the burden of proof. Before HB 25-1249, treble damages required 'willful' retention. The standard is now 'wrongful' retention, effective January 1, 2026. |
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| Deposit return deadline | Within 30 days after the lease ends or the premises are surrendered, whichever is later. The lease may set a longer period, up to 60 days. HB 25-1249 (signed June 3, 2025; effective January 1, 2026) changed 'one month' to 'thirty days'. The statement and refund may be sent to the tenant's last-known address or a known email address. With the tenant's consent, payment may be made by secured electronic transfer. If a refund is returned undelivered, the landlord must hold it at least one year and pay it within 15 days of the tenant's request. If a gas-appliance hazard is not repaired within 72 hours and the tenant vacates, the deposit is due within 72 hours (§ 38-12-104). |
Free Colorado security deposit demand letter
You were locked out or your utilities were cut off
| Lockouts & utility shutoffs | Unlawful for a landlord to remove or exclude a tenant without court process, including by willfully cutting utilities or removing doors, windows, or locks. Exceptions are abandonment, mutual consent, and meth-lab cleanup rules. The tenant is awarded statutory damages equal to actual damages plus the higher of three times monthly rent or $5,000, plus attorney fees and costs, and the court may restore possession. The damages amount was increased by SB 24-094, effective for actions filed on or after May 3, 2024. Source: C.R.S. § 38-12-510 |
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Your landlord retaliated after you complained
| Landlord retaliation | A landlord may not retaliate (raise rent, cut services, end or not renew the lease, bring or threaten eviction, harass, or charge fees) because the tenant made a good-faith complaint about a habitability condition to the landlord, a nonprofit, or a government agency; joined or organized a tenants' association; or used habitability remedies. The tenant need only show that the protected activity was a motivating factor. Remedies: the greater of three months' rent or three times actual damages, plus attorney fees. The tenant may also terminate the lease and raise retaliation as a defense to eviction. The statute sets no presumption period. Last amended by HB 24-1098 and SB 24-094 (2024). A separate rule bars retaliatory rent increases against tenants covered by Part 13 (§ 38-12-1307). Source: C.R.S. § 38-12-509 |
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Your landlord won't make repairs
| Repair and deduct | Allowed for breaches of the warranty of habitability. The tenant gives at least 10 days' written notice (48 hours if the condition materially threatens life, health, or safety) of intent to hire a licensed or qualified professional who is not a relative. If the landlord does not fix the problem or provide a comparable unit or hotel room, the tenant may hire the professional at a reasonable price and deduct the cost from rent, then provide receipts. A broken appliance may be replaced with a comparable one and deducted after 3 days' notice. Bad-faith deductions expose the tenant to double damages. Other remedies include terminating the lease on 10 to 60 days' notice if the problem is not fixed (§ 38-12-507(1)(a)-(b)). Source: C.R.S. § 38-12-507(1)(c) |
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| Withholding rent | No general right to withhold rent. Statutory remedies for a habitability breach are lease termination, repair-and-deduct, and a claim or counterclaim for actual damages, including reduced fair rental value. Only § 38-12-507(1)(a)-(d) was reviewed, so any further remedies in later subsections are not covered here. Source: C.R.S. § 38-12-507(1)(a)-(d) |
| Mold | Yes. A rental is legally uninhabitable if there is mold associated with dampness, or any other damp condition, that would materially interfere with the tenant's health or safety if not fixed. Minor mold on surfaces that collect moisture through normal use is excluded. The landlord must make sure the unit is habitable before leasing it and must fix such conditions under the warranty of habitability; the tenant may use the remedies in § 38-12-507. Since January 1, 2025, every lease must include a bold statement of the tenant's right to safe and healthy housing and where to send written notice of an uninhabitable condition (§ 38-12-505(3)(c)-(d)). Colorado has no separate mold disclosure statute. |
| Pests & bed bugs | The landlord must provide appropriate extermination for rodent, vermin, pest or insect infestations throughout the premises. Under the bed-bug law, the tenant must promptly notify the landlord in writing or electronically; within 96 hours the landlord must get the unit inspected by a qualified inspector, and inspect contiguous units if bed bugs are found. The landlord must give written results within two business days and start treatment within five business days. The landlord pays for inspection and treatment, and may not rent a unit it knows or suspects has bed bugs; on request it must disclose bed bugs in the past eight months and the last clean inspection date. Bed-bug part added by HB 19-1328, effective January 1, 2020. Entry for inspection or treatment requires at least 48 hours' written or electronic notice unless the lease sets a different time, and the tenant may not unreasonably deny access (§ 38-12-1004). |
| Heat | Yes. A unit that substantially lacks functioning heating facilities that met code when installed and are kept in good working order is uninhabitable. Lack of functioning heating from October through April is presumed to materially interfere with the tenant's life, health or safety. State law sets no minimum indoor temperature. Local housing codes may set minimum temperatures. |
Free Colorado repair request letter to landlord
Your landlord entered without notice or invaded your privacy
| Landlord entry notice | No general statute on landlord entry or advance notice. For habitability repairs, the landlord must give at least 24 hours' written notice of entry, stating the date, time, and expected duration, unless the condition imminently threatens life, health, or safety or threatens substantial property damage. The tenant may reasonably deny a requested time, and the parties then agree on an alternative. Source: C.R.S. § 38-12-503(6) |
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| Cameras & privacy | No landlord-specific statute. Knowingly observing or photographing (including video or live feed) another person's intimate parts without consent where they reasonably expect privacy is criminal invasion of privacy (class 2 misdemeanor). Overhearing or recording a conversation without the consent of at least one party is eavesdropping (class 2 misdemeanor). Colorado's landlord-tenant statutes set no general notice-of-entry rule except for bed-bug inspections; leases usually govern entry. Source: C.R.S. §§ 18-7-801, 18-9-304 |
You were refused or treated differently because of Section 8 or other income
| Statewide ban on refusing Section 8 / source of income | Yes. Colorado's fair housing law bars refusing to rent, setting different terms, using discriminatory ads, or falsely saying a unit is unavailable because of a person's source of income. Source of income means any lawful, verifiable source of money, including wages and any government or private assistance, grant, or loan program such as housing vouchers. Landlords may still check credit if they check every applicant. Exemptions: landlords with three or fewer rental units are exempt from the source-of-income provisions. A landlord with five or fewer single-family rental homes (and no more than five total units) need not accept federal housing choice vouchers for those homes. Applying the income-screening limits in § 38-12-904(1)(c)-(d) is also a source-of-income violation. Since May 29, 2025, it is also an unfair housing practice for a landlord to fail to make reasonable efforts to respond on time to requests for information and documents needed for a tenant's rental-assistance application, or to fail to cooperate in good faith with a tenant applying for rental assistance. If a court finds discrimination based on a tenant's use of a housing subsidy, it must award at least $5,000 in damages, and actual damages must account for a subsidy the tenant lost because of the discrimination. Added by HB 20-1332. Complaints go to the Colorado Civil Rights Division (Title 24, Article 34, Parts 3 and 5). Text is from the CRS 2024 printout. Rental-assistance cooperation duty and $5,000 minimum award: HB 25-1240 (2025 Sess. Laws ch. 291, effective May 29, 2025), https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/84209/download. |
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Other claims tenants bring in Colorado
| Constructive eviction (conditions forced you out) | No Colorado statute uses the term "constructive eviction," but the warranty-of-habitability law gives a move-out right. If an uninhabitable condition stays unrepaired, the tenant may end the lease with no liability or penalty by giving 10 to 60 days' written notice stating the condition, the intent to move out, and a move-out date at least 10 days away. A tenant may also end the lease on at least 10 days' notice if a repaired condition comes back within six months. If the landlord unlawfully locks the tenant out or willfully cuts off heat, water, electricity, gas or other essential services, the tenant can sue for actual damages plus the greater of three months' rent or $5,000, and the court may restore possession. Text verified in the 2024 Colorado Revised Statutes; check for later amendments. The landlord and tenant may agree in writing to cancel the move-out if the landlord starts or finishes the repair before the termination date. |
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| Covenant of quiet enjoyment | Yes. Colorado law treats the covenant of quiet enjoyment as implied in residential leases, and a written lease may not waive it. A lease may only say that the landlord is not responsible for a breach of quiet enjoyment committed by a third party acting beyond the landlord's reasonable control. Text verified in the 2024 Colorado Revised Statutes; check for later amendments. Source: C.R.S. § 38-12-801(3)(a)(III)(D) |
Where and when to sue
| Small claims limit | $7,500, exclusive of interest and costs (including civil penalties). The same limit applies to replevin, contract specific-performance or rescission, restrictive covenant and HOA assessment actions. A claim larger than $7,500 cannot be split; a plaintiff who sues for more can collect only $7,500. Small claims cannot hear forcible entry, forcible or unlawful detainer (eviction), libel or slander, class actions or most injunction cases (C.R.S. § 13-6-403(2)). |
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| Small claims filing fee | Claim: $31 (claims of $500 or less) or $55 (over $500). Response: $26 or $41. Response with counterclaim: $31 or $46. Fees may be waived (JDF 205/206), and people on certain public assistance may qualify automatically (JDF 209). |
| Deadline to sue on a written lease | 6 years for all actions for arrears of rent and for recovering a liquidated or determinable amount of money due. This applies to unpaid rent under a written or oral lease. Other contract claims, such as many damage claims, have 3 years unless the 6-year section applies. The 6-year rent provision does not distinguish written from oral leases. Whether a particular damage claim (for example, physical damage beyond the deposit) is 'liquidated or determinable' is a fact question. |
How small claims court works in Colorado →
Tenant lawyers and free legal aid in Colorado · Colorado tenant rights · Suing a landlord in other states
General legal information, not legal advice. Laws change and local rules can differ; check the linked official source or talk to a lawyer about your situation.