Colorado’s rental late fee laws cap the charge at $50 or 5% of the overdue rent, whichever is greater, and no late fee can be assessed until at least seven calendar days after rent was due. The rules live in C.R.S. 38-12-105, which also bars landlords from evicting you over an unpaid late fee, charging interest on it, or pulling it out of your next rent payment.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners Break any of those rules and the landlord owes the tenant $50 per violation, with bigger exposure if a court finds the conduct unfair or deceptive.
The Cap: $50 or 5%, Whichever Is Greater
A single late fee cannot exceed the greater of $50 or 5% of the past-due rent payment.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners The $50 floor controls on cheaper apartments: if rent is $900, 5% is $45, so the ceiling is $50. On a $1,800 rent, 5% comes to $90, and that becomes the cap. A lease that says anything higher is unenforceable to the extent it exceeds the statutory limit.
The cap applies to every residential rental agreement in Colorado, written or verbal, and reaches both standard tenants and mobile home owners paying lot rent in a park.
The Seven-Day Grace Period
No late fee can be charged until at least seven calendar days have passed after rent was due.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners Weekends and holidays count. Rent due on the first means the earliest lawful late fee is on the eighth. Pay in full within that window and no fee should ever appear.
A lease cannot shrink the grace period. If your rental agreement claims late fees begin on day two or day five, the statute overrides it. Landlords enforcing a shorter deadline are breaking state law.
What Your Lease Must Say, and When the Landlord Must Notify You
Two conditions have to be met before any late fee is collectible.
First, the rental agreement itself has to disclose the late fee.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners If your lease is silent on late fees, the landlord cannot invent one later. That rule applies to verbal agreements too, so a handshake month-to-month arrangement carries no late fee unless both sides actually agreed to one.
Second, the landlord must give you written notice of the late fee within 180 days after the rent payment was due.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners Let six months slip by without written notice and the right to collect that fee is gone. The statute specifies “written,” so an offhand verbal reminder or an undocumented text probably doesn’t count. A paper notice or an email (if your lease allows electronic communications) is the safer form.
Things Your Landlord Cannot Do
Several specific tactics are off the table under the statute.
- Evict you over an unpaid late fee. Late fees and rent are separate obligations. If rent is paid and you refuse to pay a late fee you believe was improper, the landlord’s only option is a civil claim for the fee itself. The same protection covers mobile home owners renting lot space.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners
- Stack multiple late fees on a single late payment. One late payment, one fee, and that fee still cannot exceed the $50-or-5% cap no matter how late the rent gets.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners
- Charge interest on an unpaid late fee.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners
- Take a late fee out of a rent payment. When you pay rent, the landlord has to apply it to rent, not divert part of it to an older late fee that would then leave you short and expose you to further charges.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners
What You’re Owed When a Landlord Breaks the Rules
A landlord who violates any of the late fee restrictions owes the tenant $50 per violation.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners Each distinct misstep is its own violation. Charging during the grace period, exceeding the cap, failing to disclose the fee in the lease, and clawing a fee out of rent would each carry their own $50 penalty.
Before the penalty hardens, the landlord gets a seven-day cure period that starts when they receive written or electronic notice from the tenant identifying the violation.1Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners Fix the charge within those seven days and the penalty does not apply. Ignore the notice and the $50 sticks.
Put your objection in writing. Something as simple as “You charged me a late fee on the fourth day, which violates the seven-day grace period under C.R.S. 38-12-105, and I’m requesting you remove it” starts the cure clock and builds a paper trail.
The statute also treats a late fee violation as an unfair or deceptive trade practice, which plugs it into Colorado’s Consumer Protection Act. Under C.R.S. 6-1-113, a tenant who proves a violation is entitled to at least $500 in actual damages. If the landlord acted in bad faith, the court must award treble damages, and attorney fees and costs are recoverable on top. For a landlord who repeatedly overcharges or ignores cure notices, that exposure runs well past the fee itself.
How to Push Back on an Improper Late Fee
Start with the written notice described above. Most disputes end there, because landlords who know the statute also know what noncompliance costs them.
If the landlord won’t correct the charge, Colorado small claims court handles disputes up to $7,500 and uses modest filing fees.2Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 13-6-403 – Jurisdiction of Small Claims Court – Limitations3Colorado Judicial Branch. Small Claims Cases Filing Fees Bring the lease, bank statements showing when rent cleared, the landlord’s notice (or evidence there wasn’t one), and any emails or texts about the charge.
You’re protected from retaliation while you do this. Colorado’s anti-retaliation statute bars a landlord from raising rent, terminating the lease, threatening eviction, or harassing you because you disputed a charge in good faith, and retaliation can be raised as a defense in any eviction case the landlord files.4Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-509 – Prohibition on Retaliation
One misconception worth clearing up: the Colorado Division of Housing does not mediate general landlord-tenant disputes or enforce late fee rules for most renters. Its oversight is limited to mobile home parks.5Colorado Division of Housing. Disputes with Landlords For apartment and house rentals, the real remedies are small claims court or, for larger consumer protection claims, county or district court.
Bounced Checks Are a Different Charge
A returned-check fee is not a late fee and comes from a different statute. Under C.R.S. 13-21-109, a payee can collect up to $20 for a dishonored check, plus the face value and any actual bank charges incurred.6Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 13-21-109 – Recovery of Damages for Bad Checks A landlord can stack a returned-check fee and a late fee if the bounced payment pushes rent past the seven-day mark, but the late fee itself still can’t exceed $50 or 5% of the overdue amount.