What Notice Must a Landlord Give a Tenant in Colorado?

In Colorado, the notice a landlord must give a tenant runs anywhere from 3 days to 91 days in writing, and the exact period depends on why the landlord wants you out. Since April 2024, the landlord also has to have a legally recognized reason — nonpayment, a lease violation, dangerous conduct, a qualifying no-fault ground, or the end of a periodic tenancy. “Just because” is no longer allowed.¹

Notice for Unpaid Rent

If you are behind on rent, your landlord must give you 10 days’ written notice before filing for eviction. The notice has to demand payment or require you to move out. Pay the full amount owed within those 10 days and the landlord cannot proceed with eviction based on that missed rent.²

Two situations use shorter periods. Landlords who own five or fewer single-family rental homes — “exempt residential agreements” under Colorado law — must give at least 5 days. Nonresidential and employer-provided housing agreements require only 3 days. A lease cannot shorten or waive the notice period that applies to your type of agreement.²

Notice for a Lease Violation

When the problem is something other than rent — an unauthorized pet, an extra occupant, damage, any material breach — the landlord must give 10 days’ written notice to either fix the problem or move out. This is often called a demand for compliance. Correct the issue within those 10 days and the tenancy continues.²

Repeat violations work differently. If you already received a demand for compliance for a specific lease term and you violate that same term again, the landlord can issue a 10-day notice to terminate with no right to cure. The second notice is a straight termination. The same shorter timelines apply here: 5 days for exempt residential agreements and 3 days for nonresidential or employer-provided housing.²

Notice for Dangerous or Criminal Conduct

The shortest notice in Colorado — 3 days, no cure — applies to what the statute calls a “substantial violation.” That term has a specific meaning. It covers conduct by the tenant or the tenant’s guest that:

Endangers a person, or willfully and substantially endangers the property of the landlord, another tenant, or someone living nearby, or
Amounts to a violent or drug-related felony committed on or near the premises.

If the tenant does not leave within 3 days, the landlord can file for eviction. There is no opportunity to fix the situation and stay.³

No-Fault Notice: 90 Days

A landlord can end a tenancy for reasons unrelated to the tenant’s behavior, but only with 90 days’ written notice and only for one of the grounds the statute lists:¹

Demolition of the building or conversion to a non-rental use.
Major renovations that require the tenant to move out. If the work is expected to take less than 180 days, the landlord must offer the tenant the option to return.
Owner move-in by the landlord or a family member.
Sale of the property, with the unit actually withdrawn from the rental market and listed.
The tenant declined to sign a new lease with reasonable terms after the previous lease expired.
A history of at least three instances during the tenancy of rent being more than 10 days late.

A landlord who skips the 90-day notice or who cannot show one of these grounds risks having the eviction case dismissed.

Ending a Month-to-Month or Other Periodic Tenancy

When there is no fixed-term lease, the notice period scales with how long the tenancy has run:⁴

One year or longer: 91 days
Six months to less than one year: 28 days
One month to less than six months: 21 days
One week to less than one month, or tenancy at will: 3 days
Less than one week: 1 day

These notices must be in writing and served before the end of the current tenancy period. A fixed-term lease generally does not require a separate termination notice — it ends on the date both sides agreed to. If you stay past that date and keep paying rent without signing a new lease, the arrangement usually converts to a periodic tenancy and the schedule above kicks in.⁴

One important point about this ladder: it now operates inside the just-cause framework. A landlord cannot hand you a 21-day notice to end a month-to-month tenancy without one of the recognized grounds for eviction.

How the Notice Must Reach You

Getting the time period right does not help the landlord if the delivery is wrong. Colorado law allows three methods of service:

Personal delivery of a copy to a known tenant at the premises.
Leaving the notice with a member of the tenant’s family who is at least 16, lives at the premises, or is in charge of it.
Posting in a conspicuous place on the property, but only after the landlord has attempted personal service at least once on two separate days without success.

Posting is the last resort. A landlord cannot go straight to taping a notice on the door.⁵

The notice itself has to describe the property, state the date the tenancy will end, and, for cause-based terminations, explain the grounds. It must be signed by the landlord, the landlord’s agent, or an attorney.³

What a Notice Is Not

A notice to quit is not an eviction. If you do not leave by the deadline, the landlord has to file a court case — a “forcible entry and detainer” action — and get an order from a judge before you can actually be removed. In the meantime, the landlord cannot change the locks, shut off utilities, remove your belongings, or send the sheriff on their own authority. Any of those steps is an illegal lockout under Colorado law and exposes the landlord to damages, attorney fees, and a court order putting you back in the unit.⁶

If the Notice Looks Like Payback

A landlord cannot use a notice to quit to retaliate against a tenant who exercised legal rights — making a good-faith health or safety complaint, joining or organizing a tenants’ association, or using remedies under the state’s habitability laws. Prohibited retaliatory actions include raising rent, cutting services, terminating the lease, filing or threatening an eviction case, and tacking on fees or penalties.⁷

You do not need to prove retaliation was the only reason. Showing it was a motivating factor is enough, and the protection applies even when the landlord technically has a separate valid ground. A tenant who wins a retaliation claim can recover up to three months’ rent or three times actual damages — whichever is greater — plus attorney fees, and can choose to terminate the lease outright.⁷

Separate Rules for Military and HUD-Assisted Tenants

Two groups of tenants have notice rules that layer on top of the state framework. Active-duty servicemembers who receive permanent change of station orders, deployment orders of 90 days or more, or separation or retirement orders can terminate a residential lease early under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by delivering written notice and a copy of the orders. For monthly leases, termination takes effect 30 days after the next rent payment is due, and the landlord cannot charge early termination fees or claw back rent concessions.⁸

Tenants in public housing, Section 8 project-based rental assistance, and several other HUD-assisted programs are entitled to 30 days’ notice before an eviction for nonpayment of rent under a 2024 HUD rule. Paying the overdue rent during that window stops the eviction. The rule does not cover Housing Choice Vouchers or Project-Based Vouchers. HUD proposed revoking the rule in early 2026 but postponed the effective date of that proposal indefinitely, so the 30-day requirement remains in place for now.

Some Colorado cities and counties also impose their own landlord-tenant requirements. If you rent in a jurisdiction with local housing regulations, check with the local housing authority to confirm whether additional notice rules apply before relying on the state-law periods alone.

1
Colorado General Assembly. HB24-1098 Cause Required for Eviction of Residential Tenant
2
Justia. Colorado Code 13-40-104 – Unlawful Detention Defined
3
Justia. Colorado Code 13-40-107.5 – Termination of Tenancy for Substantial Violation
4
Justia. Colorado Code 13-40-107 – Notice to Quit
5
Justia. Colorado Code 13-40-108 – Service of Notice or Demand
6
Justia. Colorado Code 38-12-510 – Removal of Tenant From Dwelling Unit
7
Justia. Colorado Code 38-12-509 – Prohibition on Retaliation
8
Department of Justice. Financial and Housing Rights