Colorado Eviction Notice: 10-Day Demand for Nonpayment or Lease Violation

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.

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.