Rental Application and Tenant-Screening Fee Requirements in Colorado
At a glance
| Governing law and coverage | C.R.S. §§ 38-12-901 to -905 (Rental Application Fairness Act); covers dwelling-unit owner, manager, lessor, or sublessor and prospective tenants; no small-landlord exemption |
|---|---|
| Fees allowed or prohibited | Application/processing/screening fee allowed only for processing costs; no application or report access/use fee when qualifying portable report supplied, unless landlord uses one-application-at-a-time/full-refund alternative (§§ 38-12-902 to -904) |
| Maximum charge and adjustment | No flat dollar cap; fee may not exceed actual processing expense or average per-applicant processing expense and must be uniform for applicants to same or simultaneously offered units (§ 38-12-903(1)-(2)) |
| Permitted costs and charge timing | Entire fee must cover application-processing costs; unused amount returned by good-faith effort within 20 calendar days after processing; no separate statewide vacancy condition (§ 38-12-903) |
| Before-screening disclosures | Before fee-generating screening, portable-report/no-fee advisement in specified ads, homepage, application, or oral-plus-written-confirmation format; expense disclosure/itemization after payment; broader application disclosures start Jan. 1, 2027 (§§ 38-12-903(3), -904(1.5), 2026 ch. 326) |
| Receipt, report copy, and refund | Receipt for every fee (electronic unless paper requested); unused fee returned within 20 days after processing; landlord-obtained consumer report copy plus dispute-right advisement; alternative-process landlord refunds full fee within 20 days after written decline (§§ 38-12-903(3)-(4), -904(1.5)(f), (2)) |
| Applicant-supplied or reusable reports | Generally must accept portable report completed within prior 30 days, available at no access/use cost, with no-material-change statement and statutory contents; housing-subsidy report need not include credit history/score/adverse credit event (§§ 38-12-902(2.5), -904(1.5)) |
| Application order and adverse action | No general first-in-order rule; optional one-application-at-a-time/full-refund model; denial reasons in writing, generally within 20 days, with consumer-report copy/dispute notice or proprietary-screening report with only proprietary information redacted (§ 38-12-904) |
| Remedies and stronger local rules | $2,500 plus court costs and reasonable attorney fees; 7-day pre-suit notice; cure within 7 days requires $50 penalty instead; attorney general enforcement; Part 9 states no express local-preemption clause (§ 38-12-905) |
The fee must track processing cost
Colorado's Rental Application Fairness Act defines a rental application fee broadly as money charged in connection with an application or another nonrefundable pretenancy fee. Under C.R.S. § 38-12-903, the landlord may use the fee only for application-processing costs. The amount may be based on the actual expense for that application or the average per-applicant expense across multiple applications.
Applicants for the same unit must be charged the same amount. If the landlord offers multiple units simultaneously, the fee also must be the same across those units. The landlord must provide either anticipated-expense disclosure or an itemization of actual expenses, including the average-fee calculation when that method is used.
Under C.R.S. § 38-12-903(2)-(4), every payer receives a receipt. It may be electronic unless the applicant requests paper. If the full fee is not used for processing, the landlord must make a good-faith effort to return the balance within 20 calendar days after processing.
Portable tenant screening reports
Under C.R.S. §§ 38-12-902(2.5) and 38-12-904(1.5), the general rule is mandatory acceptance of a portable tenant screening report. The landlord may require that it:
- was completed within the previous 30 days;
- is available at no cost to access or use; and
- comes with the applicant's statement that specified information has not materially changed since generation.
The report must contain the statutory identity, contact, employment/income, address, rental/credit, and conviction-history information. Since January 1, 2026, a report for an applicant using a housing subsidy need not contain credit history, a credit score, or an adverse credit event. The same amendment removed the former rule allowing the landlord to demand direct delivery through the consumer reporting agency or a third-party website.
When the applicant provides a qualifying report, the landlord may charge neither an application fee nor a fee to access or use it.
Advisement or one-application-at-a-time alternative
Before taking fee-generating screening action, C.R.S. § 38-12-904(1.5)(d)-(f) requires an advisement that the applicant may provide a portable report and that doing so bars the application and access/use fees. The statute specifies delivery through unit advertising or public notices, the landlord's homepage, the application, or an oral advisement with written confirmation; specified written placements generally use at least 12-point bold type.
A landlord may avoid the portable-report acceptance and advisement rules by accepting no more than one application fee at a time for the unit or tenant group and returning the full fee within 20 calendar days after either side communicates in writing that no lease will be made.
Reports and denial notices
If the application causes the landlord to obtain a consumer report, C.R.S. § 38-12-904(2) requires a copy of that report and notice of the right to dispute its accuracy. A denial requires written reasons. If a proprietary screening system prevents direct citation of the criteria, the applicant receives the screening-company report with only proprietary information redacted. The landlord must make a good-faith effort to give the denial notice within 20 calendar days after the denial decision.
January 1, 2027 change
2026 Colo. Sess. Laws ch. 326, § 3 (HB 26-1196) adds a new C.R.S. § 38-12-904(1.7), effective January 1, 2027. Beginning then, every rental application must state the information and data the landlord will attempt to access, generally describe the evaluation factors, and identify any third-party screening service. The act does not require fixed disqualifying criteria. Until that effective date, the narrower portable-report advisement and post-denial rules described above remain the state-specific application disclosures.
The operative language begins: “A landlord shall include in all rental applications: (I) A notice to prospective tenants regarding the information and data the landlord will attempt to access when conducting a tenant screening.”
Remedies and local rules
Under C.R.S. § 38-12-905, an aggrieved prospective tenant may recover $2,500 plus court costs and reasonable attorney fees. The applicant must give at least seven calendar days' pre-suit notice. A landlord that cures within seven days after notice owes a $50 penalty but otherwise avoids the statutory damages. The attorney general may independently enforce the Act. Part 9 states no express local-preemption clause.
Common questions
Can the landlord charge more because my screening is complicated? The fee must be based on actual expense or the landlord's average per-applicant expense, and the uniform-fee rule applies to applicants for the same or simultaneously offered units.
Must every landlord accept my portable report? Not if the landlord uses the statutory one-application-at-a-time process and provides the required full refund within 20 days after written communication declining the lease.
Do I receive the landlord's consumer report even if I am approved? Section 38-12-904(2) ties the report-copy and dispute advisement to an application that results in the landlord obtaining a consumer report, not only to denial.
Is the 2027 disclosure rule already required? No. The signed act sets January 1, 2027 as its effective date.
Statutes and sources
- C.R.S. §§ 38-12-902 to -905 — fee limits, disclosures, portable reports,
receipts, refunds, denial procedure, and remedies.
A landlord shall not charge a prospective tenant a rental application fee unless the landlord uses the entire amount of the fee to cover the landlord's costs in processing the rental application.
Official sources: https://leg.colorado.gov/laws/session-laws/HB19-1106/129/download and https://leg.colorado.gov/laws/session-laws/HB23-1099/151/download (accessed 2026-07-21) - 2025 Colo. Sess. Laws ch. 399 — housing-subsidy report contents and repeal of the direct-delivery requirement, effective January 1, 2026.
A credit history report, a credit score, or an adverse credit event is not required ... [for] a prospective tenant who is seeking to rent with the assistance of a housing subsidy.
Official source: https://leg.colorado.gov/laws/session-laws/HB25-1236/399/download (accessed 2026-07-21) - 2026 Colo. Sess. Laws ch. 326, § 3 — future application disclosures.
A landlord shall include in all rental applications ... [a] notice ... regarding the information and data the landlord will attempt to access ...
Official source: https://leg.colorado.gov/laws/session-laws/HB26-1196/326/download (accessed 2026-07-21; effective 2027-01-01)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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