Colorado Eviction notice (nonpayment)

What notice does a landlord have to give before evicting for unpaid rent in Colorado?

Under C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d), a tenant or lessee who holds over without permission of the landlord after any default in the payment of rent, after ten days' notice in writing has been duly served requiring in the alternative the payment of the rent or the possession of the premises, has committed an unlawful detention; except that, for a nonresidential agreement or an employer-provided housing agreement, three days' notice is required, and for an exempt residential agreement, five days' notice is required. No such agreement shall contain a waiver by the tenant of that notice requirement. It is not necessary, in order to work a forfeiture of such agreement for nonpayment of rent, to make a demand for such rent on the day it becomes due, but a failure to pay such rent upon demand, when made, works a forfeiture. Under subsection (4)(a), it is not an unlawful detention as described in subsection (1)(d), (1)(d.5), (1)(e), (1)(e.5), or (1)(j) if the tenant or lessee is a victim-survivor of unlawful sexual behavior, stalking, domestic violence, or domestic abuse, which was the cause of, contributed to, or resulted in the alleged unlawful detention and which has been documented by at least one of the listed methods (a police report; a valid civil, criminal, or emergency protection order or restraining order issued under article 14 or 14.5 of title 13 or section 18-1-1001; a self-attestation affidavit meeting the statute's content rules; or a letter signed by a qualified third party as described in the statute). Subsection (4)(b) provides that a person is not guilty of an unlawful detention under subsection (4)(a), including for nonpayment of rent, if the tenant agrees to and remains compliant with the requirements described in subsection (4)(e) and if the alleged violation was caused by or resulted from that unlawful sexual behavior, stalking, domestic violence, or domestic abuse against the tenant or lessee. A rental, lease, or other agreement must not contain a waiver of the protections in subsection (4). Subsection (4)(e) and the other paragraphs of subsection (1) are not fully restated here. Example: for an ordinary residential tenancy, the written pay-or-possess notice in subsection (1)(d) is ten days, not three; the three-day period in that subsection applies to a nonresidential agreement or an employer-provided housing agreement.

Verified Source: C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d) · last checked 2026-11-12