If you are a renter in Colorado, you have the right to expect that your unit will be habitable. Whether you are renting an apartment or a home, a warranty of habitability exists to ensure that your living conditions are safe and your unit is functional.
If a landlord violates the warranty of habitability, you have rights — including the right to break your lease early, pay for repairs and reduce your rent accordingly, or sue your landlord to force them to make repairs and cover your losses.
Because these rights often stem from and interact with the terms of your lease, working with a knowledgeable Colorado lease agreement attorney can be essential in understanding your legal options and enforcing your rights effectively.
Sue My Landlord has a very long and successful history of representing clients whose landlords violated the warranty of habitability. Contact our Colorado tenants’ rights lawyers at (720) 783-7368 to learn more about how we can help you if you are being forced to live in unsafe conditions in violation of the law.
What is the Warranty of Habitability?
Colorado, like most states, has had a warranty of habitability law on the books for a long time. This law ensures that no landlord can offer a rental unit for someone to live in that is actually unlivable.
Regardless of what the lease or the landlord says, Colorado law guarantees that rental properties meet a certain basic minimum level of functionality and safety — or that they are habitable.
There have been significant changes to Colorado’s warranty of habitability since the pandemic, including the passage of SB24-094 in 2024. This law gave tenants many new protections by clearly defining what types of conditions made a space uninhabitable and by giving tenants certain rights when those conditions exist.
Specifically, Colorado’s warranty of habitability laws now make clear:
- Certain conditions create a rebuttable presumption that a unit is not habitable, including but not limited to a lack of weatherproofing, a lack of running water, a lack of working heat or air conditioning, unsafe gas exposure, inaccessible fire exits, and pests.
- Landlords have a limited time to fix these serious issues, and there is a rebuttable presumption that a landlord has failed in their obligations to you if they were notified either 7 or 14 days prior about an unsafe condition and it still has not been corrected (the specific time varies by condition).
- Landlords must provide safe living spaces while these issues are being fixed — which could include a hotel or a comparable rental unit that must have a kitchen if it will take more than 48 hours to fix the problem (or, if there is no kitchen, the landlord must provide an allowance for meals).
- Landlords are forbidden from retaliating against tenants who take action when they are forced to live in an uninhabitable space.
There are many more specific details to the law, which an experienced Colorado tenants’ rights lawyer can help you understand. However, the basic purpose of strengthening the warranty of habitability rules was to ensure that no tenant was left trapped in an unsafe space because their landlord failed to fulfill their basic obligations.
Remedies for a Breach of the Warranty of Habitability
If a landlord violates the law and/or fails to correct unsafe living conditions, tenants have rights. There are a number of potential remedies available that you can pursue if you find yourself in this situation. For example, you could:
- Terminate your lease early. You don’t have to continue living somewhere unsafe just because you signed a lease for a year (or some other designated period) and your lease is not up yet.
- Make the repairs yourself. You can get repairs completed by a licensed professional and deduct the reasonable cost of those repairs from your rental payments.
- Go to court to get justice. You can go to court to compel your landlord to make fixes and to compensate you for actual damages you suffered due to the unsafe conditions. In some circumstances, it may even be possible to recover punitive damages when your landlord has acted egregiously in putting you at risk by creating conditions that make your home dangerously unlivable.
The right remedy for a breach of the warranty of habitability is going to depend on the nature of your problem as well as your goals. You do not have to leave your rental unit if you like living there – you can force the landlord to make it safe for you with the help of an experienced Colorado tenant attorney.
How a Colorado Tenant Attorney Can Help If the Warranty of Habitability Was Violated
At Sue My Landlord, our legal team has dedicated their careers to helping tenants understand and protect their rights. We are not afraid to stand up against any landlord, no matter how large their investment real estate portfolio, and we know the law inside and out, so we can maximize your chances of a successful outcome. Our legal team will:
- Help you to understand your rights
- Work with you to try to find a resolution with your landlord
- Assist in gathering evidence to prove a violation of the warranty of habitability and to demonstrate the extent of your loss so you can maximize your recovery
- Represent you in court if necessary to get you the money you deserve when your home was made unsafe
- Protect you if your landlord retaliates against you unlawfully for fighting for a safe living space
These are just some of the many services we can offer. We have a long history of satisfied tenants who have been able to get longstanding issues resolved so they can feel confident that the place they call home will provide a functional space to live their daily life and raise their family without fear of health or safety concerns.
Contact a Tenant Lawyer in Colorado Today
If you suspect your landlord has violated the warranty of habitability, it’s time to take legal action. You don’t have to live somewhere unsafe for any longer than necessary. Reach out to Sue My Landlord today to schedule a free consultation and find out how we can help make the legal system work for you.
