Landlord Atlas

What late fees can a landlord charge in Colorado?

Verified July 9, 2026 All Colorado topics →

Colorado has one of the strictest late-fee statutes in the country: no fee at all unless rent is at least seven calendar days late, and the fee is capped at the greater of $50 or 5% of the past-due amount — note it keys to the amount actually unpaid, not the full month's rent.

The fee must be disclosed in the rental agreement, noticed in writing within 180 days of the missed due date, imposed only once per late payment (no daily fees or interest on fees beyond the cap), and never charged on the portion of rent a subsidy program pays. A tenant cannot be evicted or have a tenancy terminated over unpaid late fees alone, and rent payments cannot be applied to fees before rent. Violations carry an automatic $50-per-violation penalty; if the landlord fails to cure within seven days of written notice, the tenant can sue for $150 to $1,000 per violation plus damages, costs, and attorney fees, and offending lease clauses are void.

Colorado late fees at a glance

Statutory cap the greater of $50 or 5% of the amount of the past-due rent payment (C.R.S. 38-12-105(1)(b))
Mandatory grace period 7 days
Must be in the lease Yes
Daily fees Effectively barred: a late fee may be imposed only once per late payment unless the aggregate stays within the (1)(b) cap, and no interest may be charged on a late fee (38-12-105(1)(g)-(h)) — daily accrual beyond the greater-of-$50-or-5% ceiling is unlawful.
Reasonableness standard The hard cap displaces reasonableness balancing. Additional structural rules: no late fee unless rent is at least 7 calendar days late; the fee must be disclosed in the rental agreement; written notice of the fee must come within 180 days of the due date; no fee may be charged on rent portions payable by a subsidy provider; and a tenant may not be evicted, excluded, or terminated for unpaid late fees alone (38-12-105(1)).

Notes and caveats

The cap is the GREATER of $50 or 5% — sources occasionally flip it to 'lesser,' understating what small-rent landlords may charge. The 7-day rule means a fee may not be charged until rent is at least 7 days late (contrast WA, where fees can reach back to day one once the 5-day grace lapses — comparison-table material). Enacted by SB21-173 effective 2021-10-01. Subsection numbering of the penalty/cure scheme varies between code mirrors ((2)-(5) vs (3)-(5)); the substantive figures ($50 penalty, 7-day cure, $150-$1,000 per uncured violation) matched across two mirrors, so the pinpoint is given as a range. The 2026 'junk fee' disclosure law (HB25-1090, eff. 2026-01-01) governs fee disclosure generally but did not change these caps. HB26-1047 (payment options) died in committee 2026-02-24.

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Colorado's official CRS text is published via LexisNexis without stable deep links (GA-class sourcing situation), so verification pairs official session-law sources with current code mirrors: the HB25-1249 enrolled act read verbatim from the official leg.colorado.gov PDF (full text extracted) and re-confirmed against the official bill-page summary (independent reads matched on the 30-day return deadline, wrongful-retention standard, 125% presumption, walk-through, and carpet/paint rules, and confirmed NO deposit-cap change); official bill pages read for SB23-184 (deposit cap), SB21-173 (late fees), HB21-1121 (rent-increase notice/frequency), HB23-1068 (pet deposits), HB23-1115 (rent-control repeal — died), HB25-1092 and HB26-1047 (died), and SB26-054 (PCOA exemption, eff. 2026-11-01). Statute text quoted from the colorado.public.law and FindLaw mirrors (official: false), with §§ 38-12-105 and 38-12-701 each read on the mirror twice via independent fetches that matched. Checked 2026-07-09.