Colorado residents who live in leased housing now have basic legal rights for safe, habitable living conditions. See An Act Concerning Landlord and Tenant Relations (HB 08-1356).
Find provisions of this new tenant’s bill of rights in Colorado’s statutes at Title 38 (Property – Real and Personal), Article 12 (Tenants and Landlords), Part 5 (Obligation to Maintain Residential Premises – Unlawful Removal), Sections 501 through 511 as follows:
38-12-501 Legislative declaration – matter of statewide concern – purposes and policies.
38-12-502 Definitions.
38-12-503 Warranty of habitability.
38-12-504 Tenant’s maintenance of premises.
38-12-505 Uninhabitable residential premises.
38-12-506 Opt-out.
38-12-507 Breach of warranty of habitability – tenant’s remedies.
38-12-508 Landlord’s defenses to a claim of breach of warranty – limitations on claiming a breach.
38-12-509 Prohibition on retaliation.
38-12-510 Unlawful removal or exclusion.
38-12-511 Application.
According to Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-12-501 (2008), this law was designed to:
- Simplify, clarify, modernize, and revise the law governing the rental of dwelling units and the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants.
- Encourage landlords and tenants to maintain and improve the quality of housing.
- Make uniform the law with respect to the subject of this part 5 throughout Colorado.
- Colorado Bar's CLE on Residential Landlord-Tenant Law, 10/16/08,which will address the new changes to the law.
- New law requires rental units to be habitable by Jerry Kopel in The Colorado Statesman, 6/13/08.
- Warranty of Habitability - Bed bugs, cockroaches, tenants and other pests by Drew Hamrick in Apartment Trends Magazine.
by Sheila Green, Reference Librarian
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