Denver tenant screening & landlord laws
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Denver tenant screening
Tenant screening generally means checking a prospective renter's background, credit, rental history, and sometimes criminal history before approving a lease. Denver sits entirely inside Colorado, and — unlike some cities profiled on this site — Colorado's state legislature has been unusually active on landlord-tenant issues in recent years, so the state floor here is already fairly detailed. This page focuses on what, if anything, Denver adds on top of that state floor, but it also summarizes the state baseline so you have the full picture in one place, since Denver has its own city-and-county structure that's worth understanding separately.
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As a quick baseline: Colorado generally requires landlords to accept portable tenant screening reports and waive extra fees when a qualifying report is provided; the state generally makes source of income (including housing vouchers) a protected class, with some landlord-size exceptions; security deposits are generally capped at two months' rent; and rent control is generally prohibited at the local level by state law, though a separate state law now requires "for cause" grounds for most residential evictions. Details on each are below. Always check for city-specific updates, since municipal rules can change independently of the state.
How Denver's rules layer on top of Colorado law
Because Colorado's legislature has passed detailed statewide statutes on screening reports, source of income, security deposits, and (as of 2024) for-cause eviction, much of what would otherwise be a "local ordinance" in other states is already handled at the state level in Colorado, and it applies uniformly in Denver. In the research completed for this page, no Denver-specific ordinance was confirmed that clearly expands on these state protections beyond what Colorado law already requires — see the hedge in the sections below and in the QA notes for exactly what was checked. Denver's Agency for Human Rights and Community Partnerships generally handles local human-rights enforcement, but the substantive tenant-screening and source-of-income rules that apply in Denver appear to come primarily from Colorado's state statutes described below.
Screening rules to follow in Denver
- Source of income: Colorado state law generally makes it an unfair housing practice to refuse to rent, or to discriminate in rental terms, because of a prospective tenant's source of income, including receipt of public housing assistance such as a housing choice voucher, a protection added by state law effective January 1, 2021. This state-level protection generally applies in Denver. It generally does not apply to landlords with three or fewer rental units, and landlords with five or fewer single-family rental units are generally not required to accept federal housing choice vouchers specifically for those units. Denver may have distinct source-of-income requirements; confirm any current Denver ordinance directly with the City and County of Denver before finalizing a screening policy.
- Denver's own source-of-income ordinance: The state statute is not the only rule that applies here. Denver Revised Municipal Code § 28-95 lists source of income among the protected classes in real estate transactions, and § 28-95(a)(8) makes it a discriminatory practice "to refuse to consider any source of income in the same manner as ordinary wage income in connection with an application for rental housing." The city ordinance carries its own exception, at § 28-95(b)(2), for a dwelling of no more than two units where at least one is owner-occupied. Check the city ordinance as well as the state statute against current text before relying on either.
- Criminal history: No specific state statute in Colorado restricts how landlords may consider criminal history in tenant screening, though local ordinances in Denver may exist. Confirm current city code before finalizing a screening policy. The federal Fair Housing Act's disparate-impact framework can still theoretically apply to criminal-history screening practices that disproportionately affect a protected class; any disparate-impact claim rests on the underlying statute and case law (e.g., Texas Dept. of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project).
- Screening/application fees: Colorado's Rental Application Fairness Act generally requires a landlord to accept a portable tenant screening report prepared within the prior 30 days and, if the applicant provides one, generally prohibits charging that applicant an application fee or a fee to use the report. Landlords must generally advise applicants of this option before collecting information that would trigger a fee. A landlord that doesn't accept more than one application fee at a time per unit (and refunds fees within 20 calendar days of declining to lease) is generally exempt from the acceptance requirement. Violations can generally result in $2,500 in statutory damages plus fees and costs, reduced to a $50 penalty if cured within 7 calendar days of notice.
Rent and eviction rules in Denver
- Rent control: Colorado state law generally prohibits counties and municipalities from enacting rent control ordinances on private residential housing, with narrow exceptions for voluntary agreements or deed restrictions tied to affordable-housing programs. This preemption remains in effect as of the most recent Colorado Revised Statutes reviewed, so Denver generally cannot adopt its own rent-cap ordinance.
- For-cause eviction: Separately from rent control, Colorado state law generally requires landlords statewide (including in Denver) to have a qualifying cause before terminating a residential tenancy, effective April 19, 2024. Qualifying causes generally include nonpayment of rent, lease violations, and a defined list of "no-fault" grounds (such as demolition/conversion, substantial repairs, owner move-in, or sale of the unit) that generally come with required notice periods, often at least 90 days. This requirement generally does not apply to short-term rentals, small owner-occupied properties (single-family homes, duplexes, or triplexes where the owner lives on-site or next door), or tenancies of less than 12 months, among other exceptions.
- Security deposits: Colorado law generally caps a security deposit at two months' rent, effective August 7, 2023, and generally requires return within one month of lease termination unless the lease specifies a longer period, up to 60 days. Deductions generally cannot cover normal wear and tear, and a landlord who wrongfully withholds a deposit can generally be liable for treble damages plus attorney fees.
County/township layers
Denver is unusual in that it is a consolidated City and County of Denver under Colorado's home-rule constitutional structure — one of only a couple of such consolidated governments in Colorado. That means there is generally no separate surrounding county government whose rules could diverge from the city's for unincorporated areas, because Denver's city and county boundaries are coextensive. Practically, this means the landlord-tenant rules described above apply uniformly across the entire city and county of Denver, without a separate "county layer" to check.
Frequently asked questions
Does Denver require landlords to accept housing vouchers?
Colorado state law generally requires this as a matter of source-of-income protection, with exceptions for very small landlords (three or fewer units generally, or five or fewer single-family rentals specifically for the voucher-acceptance requirement). This state law applies in Denver; we were not able to confirm whether Denver has a separate municipal ordinance layered on top.
Is there a cap on tenant screening or application fees in Denver?
Colorado's Rental Application Fairness Act generally requires landlords to accept portable screening reports in lieu of charging a new fee, rather than imposing a flat dollar cap on the fee itself.
Can a Denver landlord raise rent as much as they want?
Colorado state law generally prohibits local rent control, so Denver cannot generally cap rent increases by ordinance; however, state law separately requires advance notice of rent increases and, since April 2024, generally requires cause for most evictions statewide.
How much can a Denver landlord charge for a security deposit?
Colorado law generally caps security deposits at two months' rent as of August 2023.
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Disclaimer
The resources and information provided here are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Always consult your own counsel for up-to-date legal advice and guidance related to your practices, needs, and compliance with applicable laws.