How to Evict Someone in Colorado: Notice, Hearing, and Writ

To evict someone in Colorado, you need a legally recognized reason, a properly drafted written notice served the right way, a forcible entry and detainer case filed in county court, a judgment for possession, and a writ of restitution executed by the sheriff. The whole process typically runs several weeks, and skipping any step — changing locks, shutting off utilities, or hauling belongings to the curb on your own — exposes you to statutory damages of three times the monthly rent or $5,000, whichever is higher, plus the tenant’s actual damages and attorney fees.¹

Start With a Legally Recognized Reason

Since April 19, 2024, Colorado requires “just cause” to end most residential tenancies or refuse to renew a lease.² You can no longer end a month-to-month tenancy for no reason. Every eviction has to fit one of two buckets.

Fault-Based Grounds

These involve something the tenant did or failed to do:

Nonpayment of rent after a written demand.
Violation of a material lease term, such as unauthorized pets, property damage, or exceeding occupancy limits.
A repeat of a lease violation the tenant previously received notice for and corrected.
Nuisance behavior or disturbing other residents.
Three or more late rent payments during the lease term.

Colorado also recognizes “substantial violations,” which carry a much faster timeline. If the tenant or a guest endangers people or property on or near the premises, commits a violent or drug-related felony, or commits a criminal act carrying a potential sentence of 180 days or more that has been declared a public nuisance, you can terminate with three days’ notice and no right to cure.³

No-Fault Grounds

Even when the tenant has done nothing wrong, certain situations qualify:

Demolishing the unit or converting it to a non-residential use.
Substantial repairs or renovations that cannot be completed with the tenant living there. If the work will take less than six months, the tenant gets a right of first refusal to re-rent.
The landlord or a family member intends to move in.
Withdrawing a single-family home, duplex, or triplex from the rental market to sell.
Expiration of a time-limited housing program run by a mission-driven organization.
The tenant refused to sign a new lease with reasonable terms.

No-fault evictions come with extra obligations. You must give 90 days’ written notice and pay relocation assistance equal to two months’ rent. If any member of the household is under 18, is at least 60, has a disability, or has income at or below 80% of the area median income, you owe an additional month’s rent.⁴

Serve the Right Notice

You cannot file anything in court until the tenant has received a proper written notice. For fault-based evictions, the notice gives the tenant a chance to pay, correct the problem, or vacate. How many days they get depends on the type of agreement:

Standard residential agreement: 10 days.
Exempt residential agreement: 5 days. This applies if you own five or fewer single-family rental homes and the lease includes a notice about the exempt status.
Substantial violations, nonresidential tenancies, and employer-provided housing: 3 days.⁵

The Colorado Judicial Branch publishes a standard form, the Demand for Compliance or Right to Possession Notice (JDF 101), that most landlords use.⁶ Whatever form you use, the notice has to include the tenant’s name, the property address, the specific reason for the notice (the exact amount of rent owed or the precise lease term violated), the deadline for compliance or vacating, and your signature or that of your authorized agent.

Service matters as much as content. The notice must be handed directly to a known tenant living at the property, left with a household member who is at least 16, or — after at least two attempts on separate days with nobody home — posted somewhere visible like the front door.⁷ The clock starts the day after the tenant receives or the notice is posted.

File the Eviction Case in County Court

If the tenant does not comply or move out by the deadline, file a forcible entry and detainer (FED) lawsuit in the county court where the property is located. You need two forms:

Complaint in Forcible Entry and Detainer (JDF 99), with the notice and lease attached as exhibits.
Summons in Forcible Entry and Unlawful Detainer (CRCCP Form 1A).

Colorado currently charges no filing fee for eviction cases.⁸ If either side wants a jury trial, the demand must be filed with a $98 jury fee, and missing the deadline waives the right to a jury.⁹

Once the clerk issues the summons, both the summons and the complaint have to be formally served on the tenant. The summons will set a date no fewer than seven and no more than fourteen days from issuance.¹⁰ Service must be done before that date, and you cannot do it yourself. Use a process server, the sheriff, or another authorized person.

The Hearing and What to Bring

The date on the summons is the tenant’s deadline to file a written Answer, not the day of a full trial. If no answer is filed and the tenant does not appear, you can ask for a default judgment for possession. If the tenant files an answer, the court will set a trial within seven to ten days.

Bring the original lease, a copy of the eviction notice with proof of how and when you served it, and anything that supports your claim: rent ledgers, photos of damage, police reports, written complaints from other tenants. The judge hears both sides and issues a judgment on who has the right to possess the property.

Defenses That Can End Your Case

Expect at least one of these to come up:

Improper notice. A missing piece of required information, the wrong number of days, or faulty service can get the case dismissed before the judge ever looks at the merits. Most evictions that fall apart fall apart here.
Breach of the warranty of habitability. If conditions at the property materially interfere with the tenant’s health or safety and you failed to fix them after being notified, the court must dismiss the eviction.
Retaliation. Evicting a tenant for complaining about repairs, organizing with other tenants, or exercising other protected rights is illegal, and a successful retaliation defense ends the case.

Habitability and retaliation are affirmative defenses, meaning the tenant has to prove them. When proven, the court throws the case out entirely rather than reducing damages.

Get the Writ and Let the Sheriff Remove the Tenant

A judgment for possession does not let you retake the unit yourself. You need a Writ of Restitution, which is the court order authorizing physical removal. The court cannot issue the writ until at least 48 hours after judgment.¹¹

Deliver the writ to the county sheriff’s office. Only a sheriff or deputy can carry out the physical eviction. You cannot do it yourself, hire private security, or bring your own crew. On a residential tenancy, the sheriff cannot execute the writ until at least 10 days after judgment. For tenants who receive Supplemental Security Income, Social Security Disability Insurance, or cash assistance through the Colorado Works Program, the waiting period extends to at least 30 days unless the judgment was based on a substantial violation.¹¹

On the scheduled date, a deputy supervises the removal. The landlord is typically responsible for arranging movers and covering the cost of physically removing the tenant’s belongings within the window the deputy allows, often one to two hours. The writ can only be executed during daytime hours, between sunrise and sunset.

Dealing With Belongings Left Behind

After an eviction, tenants sometimes leave personal property behind. Under Colorado law, property is presumed abandoned if the tenant fails to contact the landlord for at least 30 days and the landlord has no reason to believe the tenant intends to reclaim it. Before selling or disposing of abandoned belongings, send at least 15 days’ written notice to the tenant’s last known address by certified mail. If the certified mail comes back unclaimed, publish the notice at least once in a newspaper in the county where the property is located. Discarding a tenant’s belongings without following these steps can produce a separate damages claim.

Special Cases That Change the Process

Active-Duty Military Tenants

Federal law adds requirements if your tenant is an active-duty servicemember. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, you cannot evict a servicemember or their dependents during military service without a court order when the monthly rent falls below the SCRA threshold, a base figure of $2,400 adjusted annually for housing cost inflation since 2003.¹²

When the servicemember requests protection and shows that military service has materially affected their ability to pay, the court must stay proceedings for at least 90 days, with discretion to shorten, extend, or adjust lease obligations. Knowingly evicting a protected servicemember without a court order is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.¹² If you seek a default judgment, you must also file an affidavit stating whether the tenant is in the military or that you could not determine their status, and the court cannot enter default against an active-duty servicemember without first appointing an attorney to represent them.¹³

Tenants Who File for Bankruptcy

A bankruptcy filing triggers an automatic stay that halts most collection actions. Whether it stops your eviction depends on timing. If the filing happens before you obtain a judgment for possession, the stay freezes the case; if the judgment is already in place, the stay generally does not affect the eviction. Most landlords in a frozen case file a motion to lift the stay, and bankruptcy judges nearly always grant these for residential evictions. In Chapter 7, the protection typically lasts for the duration of the case (roughly four months) but does not let the tenant cure back rent and stay. In Chapter 13, the tenant may get around 30 days to pay arrears and negotiate an agreement. If the tenant has filed for bankruptcy within the preceding year, the stay may not apply at all or may last for a much shorter period.

What Doesn’t Work: Lockouts and Shutoffs

It is unlawful to remove or exclude a tenant without going through the court process. That means no changing locks, no removing doors or windows, and no shutting off heat, water, electricity, gas, or other essential services to pressure a tenant into leaving. The only exceptions are when the tenant consents to leave, the unit has been genuinely abandoned, or the property requires cleanup of an illegal drug lab under state health regulations. A tenant can sue in county or district court and recover actual damages plus statutory damages equal to the higher of three times the monthly rent or $5,000, along with attorney fees, costs, and an order restoring possession.¹ The penalties exist precisely to make shortcuts more expensive than following the process.

1
FindLaw. Colorado Code 38-12-510 – Unlawful Removal or Exclusion
2
Colorado General Assembly. HB24-1098 – Cause Required for Eviction of Residential Tenant
3
Justia. Colorado Code 13-40-107.5 – Termination of Tenancy for Substantial Violation
4
Colorado General Assembly. HB23-1171 – Just Cause Requirement Eviction of Residential Tenant
5
Justia. Colorado Code 13-40-104 – Unlawful Acts
6
Judicial Legal Help Center. Demand for Compliance
7
FindLaw. Colorado Code 13-40-108 – Service of Notice or Demand
8
Colorado Judicial Branch. List of Fees
9
Justia. Colorado Code 13-71-144 – Jury Fees to Be Assessed in Civil Cases
10
Justia. Colorado Code 13-40-111 – Issuance of Summons
11
Justia. Colorado Code 13-40-122 – Writ of Restitution After Judgment
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3951 – Evictions and Distress
13
United States Courts. Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)