Commerce City, CO Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

Commerce City Revised Municipal Code § 5-4401 amends Section 602.3 of the adopted 2021 International Property Maintenance Code, entitled Heat supply, to require that every owner and operator of any building who rents, leases or lets one or more dwelling units or sleeping units furnish heat to maintain a minimum temperature of 68°F (20°C) in all habitable rooms, bathrooms and toilet rooms during the heating season, which the section fixes as September 15 through May 15. The section is explicit that portable space heaters shall not be permitted to contribute to the minimum temperature, so a landlord cannot satisfy the standard by supplying a space heater in lieu of a working central or in-unit heating system.

The only relief valve is a cold-weather exception: when the outdoor temperature falls below 1°F, the landlord is not required to maintain the 68-degree minimum as long as the heating system is running at full design capacity, recognizing that some systems cannot keep pace with extreme cold. The companion Section 602.4 sets a lower, 65°F minimum for occupiable work spaces during the same September-to-May window, but that provision applies to workplaces rather than rented dwellings. Community Development enforces the property maintenance code citywide, and a tenant with a heat complaint can prompt an inspection under the same C3BC administrative and right-of-entry provisions, at Section 104.6 of the property maintenance amendments, that apply to the rest of the adopted International codes.