Colorado Rental Late Fee Laws: Caps, Grace Period, and Cure Rights

Under Colorado rental late fee laws, a landlord cannot charge more than $50 or 5% of the past-due rent (whichever is greater), cannot charge anything until at least seven calendar days after rent was due, and cannot evict you for failing to pay a late fee. Those limits come from C.R.S. 38-12-105, and a landlord who breaks them owes you $50 per violation, with steeper consumer protection penalties possible on top.¹

How Much a Landlord Can Charge

The cap is the greater of $50 or 5% of the overdue rent payment.¹ On $900 rent, 5% is $45, so the fee tops out at $50. On $1,800 rent, 5% is $90, and that is the ceiling. Whatever your lease says, a landlord cannot exceed this number for any single late payment.

The cap covers every residential rental in the state, written lease or verbal agreement, and it applies to mobile home owners renting lot space in a park as well as to conventional tenants.

When a Late Fee Can First Be Charged

A landlord has to wait at least seven calendar days after rent was due before assessing any late fee.¹ Weekends and holidays count. If rent is due on the first, the earliest a fee can appear is the eighth. Pay in full inside that window and no fee should ever hit your account.

Your lease cannot shorten the grace period. A clause that says late fees start on day two or day five is unenforceable to the extent it conflicts with the statute.

What the Lease Must Say, and How You Must Be Told

Two things have to happen before a landlord can legally collect a late fee. The rental agreement itself must disclose that a late fee exists, and if the lease is silent, the landlord cannot charge one at all.¹ That rule applies to verbal month-to-month arrangements too.

The landlord also has to give you written notice of the fee within 180 days after the date the rent was due.¹ Miss that window and the right to collect is gone. The statute calls for “written” notice, so a passing text or a verbal reminder is on shaky ground; paper or authorized email is the reliable form.

What Landlords Cannot Do

The statute blocks the tactics that used to turn one missed payment into a spiral.

No eviction over unpaid late fees. A landlord cannot terminate your lease, start an eviction, or remove you from your home because you have not paid a late fee. Rent and late fees are separate obligations. Unpaid rent can still support eviction; an unpaid late fee cannot. The same protection covers mobile home lot leases.¹
No stacking. One late payment produces one fee, not a weekly or daily charge. The total for any single late payment cannot exceed the $50-or-5% cap.¹
No interest. A landlord cannot tack interest onto an unpaid late fee, however long it sits.¹
No skimming from rent. When you pay rent, the landlord has to apply the money to rent. They cannot redirect part of the payment to cover an old late fee and then treat you as short on rent.¹

Penalties When a Landlord Violates the Rules

A landlord who breaks any of these restrictions owes the tenant $50 per violation.¹ Charging during the grace period, exceeding the cap, failing to disclose the fee in the lease, and pulling a fee out of a rent payment each count as their own violation with their own $50 penalty.

The Seven-Day Cure Period

The landlord gets seven days to fix the problem before the penalty locks in. That clock starts when the landlord receives written or electronic notice from you identifying the violation.¹ Reverse the charge inside the seven days and no penalty attaches. Ignore the notice and the $50 sticks.

Put your objection in writing. A short email is enough: name the fee, the date it was charged, and the specific rule it breaks (for example, “This fee was assessed on the fourth day after rent was due, which violates the seven-day grace period under C.R.S. 38-12-105”), and ask for it to be removed. That starts the cure clock and builds your paper trail.

Consumer Protection Act Exposure

The statute classifies a late fee violation as an unfair or deceptive trade practice, which pulls in Colorado’s Consumer Protection Act. Under C.R.S. 6-1-113, a tenant who proves a violation is entitled to at least $500 in actual damages. If the landlord acted in bad faith, the court must award treble damages, and the tenant can recover attorney fees and costs. For a landlord who repeatedly overcharges or refuses to cure, the exposure quickly outruns the fee itself.

How to Push Back on an Improper Fee

Start with the written notice described above. Most disputes end there, because a landlord who knows the statute also knows the math on penalties.

If the landlord refuses, Colorado small claims court handles disputes up to $7,500.² Filing fees run $31 or $55 depending on the amount claimed.³ Bring your lease, bank statements showing when rent cleared, any late fee notice the landlord sent, and copies of your written objection. The judge will look at what the lease actually says, whether the seven-day grace period was respected, whether the fee was inside the cap, and whether written notice went out inside 180 days.

Colorado’s anti-retaliation statute separately bars a landlord from raising rent, terminating your lease, threatening eviction, or harassing you because you disputed a charge in good faith.⁴ Retaliation is also a defense you can raise if the landlord files an eviction case after you complained.

One common dead end: the Colorado Division of Housing does not mediate late fee disputes for most renters. Its authority runs to mobile home parks, not conventional apartments and houses.⁵ For a standard tenancy, the route is small claims court, or county or district court for larger consumer protection claims.

Bounced Check Fees Are a Separate Charge

A returned-check fee is not a late fee and is governed by a different statute. Under C.R.S. 13-21-109, a payee can collect up to $20 for a dishonored check, plus the face value of the check and any actual bank charges.⁶ A landlord can charge both a returned-check fee and a late fee if the bounced payment means rent lands more than seven days late, but the late fee still cannot exceed the $50-or-5% cap.

1
Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-105 – Late Fees Charged to Tenants and Mobile Home Owners
2
Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 13-6-403 – Jurisdiction of Small Claims Court – Limitations
3
Colorado Judicial Branch. Small Claims Cases Filing Fees
4
Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38-12-509 – Prohibition on Retaliation
5
Colorado Division of Housing. Disputes with Landlords
6
Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 13-21-109 – Recovery of Damages for Bad Checks