Are you wondering whether breaking a lease in Colorado is doable? Tenants may have the option to legally break a lease early in Colorado for various reasons. The most common include uninhabitable living conditions, active military duty, domestic violence, landlord harassment, lease violations by the landlord, and early lease termination clauses. However, you can’t just go about breaking a lease in Colorado without potentially exposing yourself to penalty fees and other possible legal issues.
Wondering how to break a lease in Colorado? In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about how to get out of a lease in Colorado, so you won’t have to worry about penalties and legal consequences after you move out. The cost of living in Colorado can already be high, so let’s try and minimize your early termination amount!
State Lease Laws - Tenant Rights & Responsibilities When Signing a Lease in Colorado
In Colorado, a written rental agreement is required for rental terms lasting 12 months or longer. For shorter leases, landlords are encouraged to create formal, written agreements to avoid potential disputes and establish clear expectations for both parties. This is something to know when breaking a lease in Colorado.
Your Rights as a Tenant
As a tenant, you have certain rights in Colorado. If these are violated, breaking a lease in Colorado becomes easier. These rights include:
A safe and habitable living space
Rental spaces must be livable, and the landlord must fix things that are broken in a timely manner. Issues affecting health, safety, or life must be fixed within 24 hours. Work must begin on other essential repairs within 96 hours and shouldn’t persist past 7 or 14 days.
Privacy and quiet enjoyment
Landlord tenant law says they can’t enter your home without prior notice unless there is an emergency or the lease says something different.
Security deposit protection
You are entitled to your security deposit upon termination of the lease, minus expenses for repairs beyond normal wear and tear or unpaid rent.
Fair housing and anti-discrimination
In Colorado, no one can be legally turned away from renting a place due to their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicap, or family status.
Right to notice for lease termination
For a month-to-month lease, the landlord must provide at least 21 days written notice of termination before the end of the rental period. No notice is required for a fixed-term lease, but communicating intentions in writing is good practice.
Your Responsibilities as a Tenant
In Colorado, your responsibilities include:
- Paying rent on time
- Reasonable efforts for keeping the property free of trash or waste
- Keeping the property safe and in good condition
- Making minor required repairs
- Giving your landlord at least 21 days’ notice if you plan to move out when breaking a lease in Colorado that’s month-to-month
What Happens If You Break a Lease in Colorado
Now we get to how to break a lease in Colorado. Breaking a lease in Colorado is allowed as long as you give your landlord written notice and meet one of the acceptable requirements. These include domestic violence, uninhabitable living conditions, active military duty, or an early termination clause in the agreement.
If you break your lease without a valid reason, you may have to pay a penalty to cover unpaid rent, re-advertising costs, new tenant screening costs, and other costs. You might also lose some or all of your security deposit.
Unjustifiable reasons to break your lease include transferring to another school or job location, getting married or divorced, moving closer to family or friends, and losing a roommate or a job.
How to Get Out of a Lease in Colorado
There are legal reasons to break a lease in Colorado. Breaking a lease in Colorado without penalty is acceptable if one of several conditions is met:
Active Military Duty
If you are in the Armed Forces, Public Health Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), or the National Guard, you may be eligible to break your lease as long as you can prove that you signed the lease before entering active duty. You also have to show that you will be on duty for at least 90 days after sending the notice. You must give at least 30 days’ notice when breaking a lease under Active Military Duty. If this is you, you no longer have to wonder how to break a lease in Colorado!
Early Termination Clause
Your landlord may have made a provision in your lease agreement that allows breaking a lease in Colorado. Typically, an early termination clause in a Colorado lease agreement will require that you meet certain requirements. These include paying a fee for leaving the rental property early, as well as other conditions that you agreed to when you signed the lease.
Domestic or Sexual Violence
If you are a victim of domestic violence or assault, unlawful sexual behavior, or stalking, and you fear imminent danger for yourself or your children, you can provide your landlord with documentation of the crimes. This allows for breaking a lease in Colorado without further obligations. You should send the landlord written notice, along with a copy of the legal order or police report that proves you are a victim of domestic violence.
Uninhabitable Living Conditions
Landlords in Colorado, as well as every other state, are required by law to meet certain health and safety standards before renting a unit to a new tenant. If your rental unit becomes uninhabitable, you might have legal grounds to terminate the lease early.
Some common examples of why your unit may become uninhabitable include non-functioning appliances, no running hot and cold water, a leaky roof or broken windows that let water in, no heating, unaddressed pest infestation, plumbing or electrical problems, unsanitary common areas, and non-compliance with other health and safety codes. This would make breaking a lease in Colorado for medical reasons acceptable.
If your residence becomes uninhabitable, you should document the problem and contact your landlord to resolve the issue as soon as possible. If your landlord doesn’t address the problem within a reasonable amount of time, you have the right to either repair the issue yourself and deduct the cost from your rent, withhold any rent payments until the issue is addressed, or end the lease and move out early without penalty.
Gas Related Hazards and Problems
Breaking a lease in Colorado without penalty requires tenants to notify their landlords of any problems with the piping or any gas appliances. Once you notify your landlord of the issue, they have 72 hours (during business days) to get the hazard repaired.
If the landlord fails to complete the repairs within the specified period and the gas-related hazard persists, you may be able to leave the unit without incurring penalties. Additionally, the landlord must return your security deposit, or the appropriate portion, and refund any rent paid for dates after you have vacated the property. The landlord has 72 business hours from the time you exit the property to comply.
Unenforceable or Voidable Lease
If you sign a lease agreement in Colorado that contains clauses that are contrary to Colorado law and cannot be enforced in court, you have a right to break your lease without penalty. Examples of unenforceable clauses include:
- Requiring you to waive your right to your security deposit
- Waiving your landlord’s responsibility for acts of gross negligence
- Requiring you to pay the remainder of your rent if you have been called into military service before the end of your lease term
- Requiring you to waive the covenant of quiet enjoyment of the premises
- Requiring you to waive the warranty of habitability of the premises
- Allowing your landlord to forcibly remove you and your personal property without going through the eviction process as required by Colorado law
- Tenant consent to eviction for non-payment of rent, or for any other reason, without a 3-day notice as required by Colorado statute
Landlord Harassment or Privacy Violation
Colorado laws allow you, as the tenant, to break your lease without penalty if you have been harassed by your landlord. The action by the landlord must be serious enough to warrant justification to break your lease. If the landlord repeatedly violates this, you can get out of your lease. Some common actions by landlords that justify breaking your lease include:
Illegally entering your rented unit
There is no state law in Colorado that specifies the amount of notice a landlord must give a tenant before entering a rental property, with the exception of giving 48 hours notice before inspecting for or treating bed bugs. However, it's considered appropriate to notify you at least 24 hours in advance. If your landlord repeatedly enters your unit without providing sufficient notice beforehand, it constitutes a violation of your right to privacy and provides grounds to terminate your lease without penalty.
Removing windows or doors, turning off your utilities, or changing the locks
If a landlord commits any type of action that inhibits your access to a livable space, a court may consider you to be "constructively evicted", giving you justification for breaking a lease in Colorado without further rent obligation.
Refusing to accept your rent payments
If they don't accept your rent payments, breaking a lease in Colorado will be easy.
Sexually harassing you
Breaking a lease in Colorado is possible if a landlord is sexually harassing you. You will need documented proof of this.
Physically or verbally threatening you
Any threat to your being under Colorado law means that breaking a lease in Colorado is acceptable.
Engaging in Discrimination
Under the Fair Housing Act, a landlord may not discriminate against a tenant based on race, religion, national origin, or gender.
Breach of Contract By the Landlord
If your landlord breaches the terms of your lease agreement in Colorado, you may have legal grounds to break the lease. You have the option to seek remedies through the Colorado small claims court and may be entitled to recover damages resulting from the landlord’s breach of contract. Under Colorado law, breach of contract by the landlord includes failure to maintain the property, entering the rental unit without proper notice, or unjustified rent increases.
You should document the violation and notify the landlord in writing. If your landlord fails to remedy the breach, you can seek damages for any financial losses incurred due to the breach.
Minimize Early Termination Penalty
There are certain reasons to break a lease that could incur a penalty. For example, breaking a lease in Colorado to buy a house isn’t a penalty-free reason. So, what is the penalty for breaking a lease in Colorado? That will depend on your contract and your landlord. If you do have to terminate your lease early but don’t have the legal right, here are some things you can do that might limit your exposure to penalties:
- Provide your landlord with as much notice as possible, preferable 30 to 90 days
- Seek a replacement tenant
- Forfeit your security deposit
- Pay your remaining rent
- Negotiate with your landlord toward a mutually agreeable solution.
More Information on Tenant’s Rights to Break a Lease in Colorado:
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