Colorado rewrote the security deposit law. Here’s what changed on January 1.
I’m not an attorney, so don’t take any of this as legal advice. I am a property manager with some years in this, and these are my thoughts on a law that changed how every deposit in Colorado gets handled. If any of it touches your situation, talk to your own attorney.
Deposits are the number two complaint in every property manager’s reviews in both of our markets. I know because I counted. So before I write anything else about deposits, here’s the law as it stands right now, because it changed this year and most of what you’ll find online is still the old version.
The short version: the clock got shorter, the penalty got bigger, and the flat “cleaning fee” in a lot of leases is now void. If you’re a landlord and you haven’t read this bill, you’re operating on rules that don’t exist anymore.
The bill is HB25-1249. It took effect January 1, 2026, and it applies to any lease that ends on or after that date.
What changed, in order of how much it matters
1. Thirty days, not “one month.” The deposit, or what’s left of it plus a written list of the reasons anything was kept, has to be back to the tenant within thirty days of the lease ending or the keys coming back, whichever is later. A lease can extend that to sixty days if it says so in writing. It can’t go past sixty.
2. Normal wear and tear cannot be charged. Period. That was always the rule. What’s new is that a lease clause charging a flat fee for cleaning or repairs from ordinary use is now void. Not “unenforceable if you fight it.” Void. If you signed a lease anywhere with an automatic cleaning fee at move-out, that clause is gone.
3. Carpet has a ten-year rule. A landlord can only charge for carpet if the damage is substantial and beyond normal wear, and only for the minimum replacement needed. And if the carpet wasn’t replaced within the last ten years, it can’t be charged at all.
4. Paint is the same idea. Only substantial damage beyond normal wear. Automatic repaint charges are out.
5. Either side can now request a move-out walk-through. In person or on video, before the lease ends, to document damage together. If it’s reasonably practical, the other side has to do it.
I’ll be honest: I don’t like this part of the law, and I want to tell you why. The move-out walk-through is the single most dangerous moment in property management. It’s when the tenant finds out, face to face, that part of their deposit is at risk for damage they caused, and it’s when property managers get threatened, hurt, and in the worst cases killed. That’s not a theory. It’s the reason our policy for years has been that we don’t do them. The law changed, so we changed with it, and the way we’ve decided to comply is on video: the tenant in the unit, our person at a computer, scheduled in advance, recorded.
And I’ll say the other quiet part too. A walk-through is not a good way to avoid a dispute. It’s rushed, and if there’s damage, the person who caused it isn’t pointing at it. What actually avoids a dispute is a thorough move-in inspection with good photos, and a thorough move-out inspection done properly, which takes longer than a walk-through ever will.
6. Get it wrong and the penalty is triple. A landlord who wrongfully keeps part of a deposit owes three times that amount plus attorney fees. The tenant has to give seven days’ written notice before suing, and the landlord can end the exposure by returning the disputed money in that window. In court the landlord has to prove the withholding was right. Not the tenant.
What this means if you own a rental
Your manager’s move-out process is now a legal process with a clock and a triple-damages penalty on it. Three questions to ask whoever manages your property:
- Do you do move-in and move-out inspections with photos, and can I see them?
- When was the carpet last replaced in my unit, and is that written down somewhere?
- Does the lease you’re using still have a flat cleaning fee in it?
If the answer to the last one is yes, that lease needs updating. I’d want to know the answer to all three about mine.
What this means if you rent
The move-in inspection is the most important thing you will do in the whole tenancy. Take it seriously. Photograph everything, including the things that look fine, and get it back to your manager on time. Every deposit dispute I have ever seen comes down to what can be proven about the day you moved in.
Then, during the lease, put in a maintenance request when something breaks or wears out. Don’t wait for move-out to mention the drip under the sink. A problem that’s on the record as a repair is not a problem that’s on your deposit.
And give the office your forwarding address in writing. The clock can’t help you if nobody knows where to send the check.
What we do
The tenant does the move-in inspection through an app in the first days of the lease, so every photo is timestamped, location-tagged, and filed automatically. Annual interior walkthrough. Move-out inspection against the move-in photos. Deposit statement within the time the lease allows.
This is the part I’m proud of. Most property management companies give you one option if you disagree with how your deposit was handled: your next step was to sue them. We don’t do it that way. There’s a security deposit dispute form on RentEclipse.com. You submit it with your photos and whatever else you have, and our team sits down with all of it and checks it against the file. More often than not, when we get one of these, it’s something we got wrong. Human error, because we’re human. If you know me then you know how much my faith and integrity matter to me. So, I’d rather own a mistake and fix it, than make you hire a lawyer to prove it. That’s the whole reason the form exists.
Questions on your own situation, owner or tenant: 719.581.RENT. If you’re in a dispute with another company, call a lawyer, not a blog.
Sources: C.R.S. §§ 38-12-102 through 38-12-104 as amended by HB25-1249 (Session Laws 2025, ch. 401), effective January 1, 2026. General information from a property manager, not legal advice. Eclipse Property Management & Real Estate.
A note on AI. The thoughts, experience, and opinions here are mine. This is not AI content. It’s not written by AI. I didn’t just give it a prompt and out popped this blogpost. This is real. However, I do use AI as a writing and editing tool to help shape and polish the final text, and to check facts and figures before publishing. If it feels too polished to be really written by Chuck, or a detector flags this post, that’s why. AI is a tool, and I used it to help with the words, spelling, and grammar, not the thinking.