Colorado Statewide Rule
Colorado Eviction Notice: 10-Day Demand for Nonpayment or Lease Violation
Key Facts
- Nonpayment notice
- 10 days to pay or quit (standard residential)
- Exempt small landlord
- 5-day notice option
- Nonresidential / employer housing
- 3 days
- Lease violation cure
- 10 days (most residential)
- Statutes
- Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 13-40-104, -107.5
Summary
Before filing an eviction for nonpayment of rent, a Colorado landlord must serve a standard residential tenant with 10 days' written notice to pay or quit under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-40-104. The same 10-day cure period applies to most lease violations; certain small landlords may use a 5-day exempt notice.
(d) When such tenant or lessee holds over without permission of the tenant's or lessee's landlord after any default in the payment of rent pursuant to the agreement under which the tenant or lessee holds, and, ten days' notice in writing has been duly served upon the tenant or lessee holding over, requiring in the alternative the payment of the rent or the possession of the premises; except that, for a nonresidential agreement or an employer-provided housing agreement, three days' notice is required pursuant to this section, and for an exempt residential Colorado Revised Statutes 2024 Page 459 of 694 Uncertified Printout agreement, five days' notice is required pursuant to this section. No such agreement shall contain a waiver by the tenant of the notice requirement of this subsection (1)(d). It is not necessary, in order to work a forfeiture of such agreement for nonpayment of rent, to make a demand for such rent on the day on which the same becomes due; but a failure to pay such rent upon demand, when made, works a forfeiture.
Full Breakdown
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-40-104 makes a tenant guilty of unlawful detention when, after "ten days' notice in writing has been duly served upon the tenant" requiring "the payment of the rent or the possession of the premises," the tenant fails to comply. The 10-day demand applies to standard residential agreements; nonresidential and employer-provided housing require 3 days, and an "exempt residential agreement" (a single-family home where the landlord owns five or fewer rental homes and says so in the lease) allows a 5-day notice. Most curable lease violations also use a 10-day notice to quit for residential tenancies, while substantial violations follow § 13-40-107.5. A tenant may not waive these notice requirements. After the cure period expires, the landlord may file a forcible entry and detainer action.
Violations & Penalties
Filing an eviction without first serving the proper statutory notice, or with a defective cure period, is grounds for dismissal of the FED action. Lease provisions waiving the § 13-40-104 notice are void. The remedy for a tenant facing an improper eviction is to raise the notice defect as a defense; there is no fixed statutory fine against the landlord for the notice defect itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days' notice for nonpayment eviction in Colorado?
When can a Colorado landlord use a 5-day notice instead of 10?
Can a Colorado lease waive the eviction notice requirement?
Sources
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