Colorado Rent Increase: the 60 Days Most Tenants Lack
Colorado 60-day notice applies only without a written lease. The rule that reaches every tenant is different: one increase per 12 months, whatever the tenancy.
Last updated:
Colorado requires 60 days’ written notice before a rent increase — but only if you have no written rental agreement. If you signed a lease, and most tenants have, the statute gives you no notice period at all and your lease governs.
That is the opposite of how Colorado is usually reported. The protection that does reach you is a different one, and it is stronger than it sounds: your landlord may raise the rent only once in any 12-month period, whatever kind of tenancy you have.
The 60 days are narrower than every guide says
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-12-701, added by House Bill 21-1121, requires a
landlord to give 60 days’ written notice before increasing rent for a residential
tenant who does not have a written agreement. Aggregators list Colorado as a
flat 60-day state and omit the condition, which inverts the rule for the majority of
renters.
If you have a written lease, look at what it says about notice at renewal. That is your answer, and it may well be more generous than 60 days — but it comes from your agreement, not from the statute.
One increase a year, and that one applies to everyone
§ 38-12-702 prohibits a landlord from increasing rent more than once
in any 12-month period. Unlike the notice duty, this is not limited to tenants without a
written agreement: it covers a fixed-term lease, a month-to-month arrangement and an
undocumented tenancy alike.
For most Colorado renters this is the real protection, and it is the one worth checking first. If the rent moved twice inside twelve months, the second increase is the problem, regardless of how much notice came with it.
The loophole the statute closes
Section 38-12-701 also bars a landlord from terminating a tenancy in order to get around the notice requirement. Without that, the duty would be trivial to avoid in a state where rent is otherwise uncapped: end the tenancy, offer a new one, call the result a fresh agreement rather than an increase.
If a notice to quit arrived shortly before an offer to re-let the same unit at a higher figure, the sequence is worth recording and worth raising.
No cap, and no Colorado city can set one
There is no limit on the size of a Colorado increase.
§ 38-12-301 preempts local rent control, so Denver and Boulder cannot
cap rent however their councils vote. Mobile home lot rent is treated separately and
requires 60 days’ notice regardless of whether there is a written agreement.
When this needs a lawyer
Get advice if the rent has moved twice in twelve months, if a termination notice preceded an offer to re-let at a higher rent, or if the increase followed a repair request or complaint. Colorado Legal Services covers tenant matters statewide at no charge.
Sources
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-12-701 (60-day notice
where there is no written agreement, and the bar on terminating to evade it) and
§ 38-12-702 (one increase per 12-month period), both added by House Bill
21-1121 (2021); § 38-12-301 for preemption of local rent control. The
enrolled bill and the Colorado Bar Association’s summary of it were both read.
Sources differ on whether the frequency limit sits at § 38-12-702 or at
§ 38-12-204(3); the current code index gives § 38-12-702. Verified November 2026.
This is general information, not legal advice about your tenancy.
Colorado is one of nine jurisdictions with a statute written about rent increases rather than one borrowed from the law on ending a tenancy — how all 51 compare. Oregon has the same once-a-year limit and a cap on top of it; Texas has neither.
Not sure what your lease says about increases?
Upload it and we will read the rent, renewal and notice clauses and tell you what they commit you to. No account needed, and the preview is free.