New habitability-related statements required in residential rental agreements

In recent years, the Colorado state legislature has amended several sections of Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38 Article 12 that pertains to landlords and tenants. A new requirement from the passage of Senate Bill 2024-094 requires new habitability-related language to be included in residential rental agreements on and after Jan. 1, 2025.

Part 5 of Article 12, which addresses the obligation to maintain residential premises, prescribes in subpart 505 that “every rental agreement between a landlord and tenant must include a statement in at least 12-point, bold-faced type that states that every tenant is entitled to safe and healthy housing under Colorado’s Warranty of Habitability and that a landlord is prohibited by law from retaliating against a tenant in any manner for reporting unsafe conditions in the tenant’s residential premises, requesting repairs or seeking to enjoy the tenant’s right to safe and healthy housing.”

Furthermore, a statement must also be included “in English and Spanish, in at least 12-point, bold-face type, that states an address where a tenant can mail or personally deliver written notice of an uninhabitable condition and an e-mail address or accessible online tenant portal or platform where a tenant can deliver written notice of an uninhabitable condition.”

The intent of SB094 was to promote public health by ensuring rental housing is safe and healthy for tenants and to protect and provide remedies for tenants who experience uninhabitable conditions at their residential premises.

The purpose of SB094 was to close loopholes that were undermining the effectiveness of Colorado’s Warranty of Habitability statute that was established in 2008 and updated in 2019. Bill sponsors were committed to prescribing a lengthy list of specific procedures and other necessary amendments so chose the “repeal and replace” method to overhaul some sections of the law while amending other sections.

The 40-page bill was signed into law on May 3, 2024. As described in the 2024 Bill Digest’s summary, among other things, the Act clarifies what constitutes a landlord’s breach of the warrant of habitability; establishes more timelines for the remediation process including when written notices must be provided between the landlord and tenant; requires the landlord to maintain records relevant to a tenants claim and any remedial actions taken by the landlord; requires a landlord to provide a tenant with a comparable dwelling unit or hotel room for up to 60 days while the landlord addresses any uninhabitable condition that materially interferes with the tenant’s life, health or safety; describes steps to be taken if the premises cannot be restored to a habitable condition and modifies and clarifies a tenant’s option for remedies when bringing a claim against a landlord and modifying procedures for accessing those remedies.

The Act also establishes a rebuttable presumption that a landlord has failed the landlord’s duty to remedy or repair a condition if the condition continues to exist seven or 14 days after the landlord has a notice of the condition, depending on the condition at issue in the tenant’s claim.

Furthermore, the Act establishes legal standards for court proceedings related to claims for when a tenant asserts a breach of habitability, as well as for a landlord’s defense to a claim and limitations on a tenant’s claim.

The Act prohibits retaliation and specifies what actions are protected by the prohibition on retaliation and what actions constitute retaliation by the landlord.

The SB094 Act can be located at its homepage: https://www.leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-094.

To access the Article 12 landlord-tenant laws online, visit: https://leg.colorado.gov/agencies/office-legislative-legal-services/colorado-revised-statutes. Scroll to the Colorado Revised Statutes Online paragraph and select the “Go to C.R.S. Online” button. Acknowledge the notice about leaving the Colorado legislature website. On the new page, scroll down to Title 38 -Property-Real and Personal. Click on the plus sign to expand the Articles list. Click on the plus sign for Tenants and Landlords (Art. 12) to expand the Parts list. On the Parts list, click on any other plus sign for the various subparts to learn about the various aspects of managing rental property.

When exploring sections of the Colorado Revised Statutes, it is recommended to pay attention to definitions and any applicability sections to see who or what might be excluded from adherence to the statute or certain parts of it. It is also advisable to read the other C.R.S. sections of statutes that a section may cite as “pursuant to” in order to better understand how to interpret the law.