Colorado: Security Deposit Return Deadlines & Deductions
The short answer
A Colorado landlord has 30 days after the lease ends or you surrender the unit (whichever is later) to send a written statement and return the rest of your deposit — up to 60 days if your lease says so. The deposit itself can't exceed two months' rent. A landlord can deduct unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, other lawful lease charges, and repairs for damage beyond normal wear and tear, but not for ordinary wear and tear, uncleanliness that doesn't make the unit substantially dirtier than move-in, or anything that already existed before you moved in. Missing the deadline forfeits the landlord's right to keep any of it; a wrongful withholding — one the landlord doesn't fix within 7 days of your written demand — entitles you to three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus attorney fees and costs.
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This is the general rule in Colorado. Ezel applies current Colorado law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | C.R.S. §§ 38-12-102, -102.5, -103 (Title 38, Art. 12, Part 1), §§ 102–103 as amended by 2025 HB 25-1249, effective 2026-01-01 |
|---|---|
| Deadline to return the deposit | 30 days after lease termination or surrender of the premises, whichever occurs last (up to 60 days if the written lease specifies a longer period) |
| Itemized statement required? | Yes — a written statement of exact reasons whenever any portion is retained, delivered with the deadline; supporting documentation (photos, invoices, receipts, estimates) required only if the tenant makes a written request within 14 days |
| What can be deducted | Unpaid rent, unpaid utility charges, other lawful charges listed in the lease, and necessary repairs for damage beyond normal wear and tear that didn't preexist the tenancy. Carpet may be charged only for substantial, irreparable damage (never for carpet 10+ years old at move-in); paint only for substantial damage across the whole unit's interior. Ordinary wear and tear, ordinary uncleanliness, and preexisting conditions are never deductible. |
| Maximum deposit amount | 2 months' rent, with no exception for a small landlord; a separate rule caps any additional pet deposit at $300 |
| Interest on the deposit? | No state-mandated interest |
| Penalty for a late/bad-faith withholding | Missing the deadline or statement requirement, or otherwise wrongfully withholding, forfeits the landlord's right to keep any portion. A retained amount is presumed a bad-faith wrongful withholding if it's 125% or more of actual damages. If the landlord doesn't pay the wrongfully withheld amount within 7 days of the tenant's written demand, the tenant can recover 3x that amount plus attorney fees and court costs; a good-faith landlord found to have merely overestimated damages owes only the excess plus court costs, not treble damages. |
| Separate account or bond required? | No segregated account, trust account, or bond required |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Colorado's security deposit scheme runs through three adjoining sections of the same Part 1: the deposit cap (§ 38-12-102.5), the definitions including "normal wear and tear" (§ 38-12-102), and the return/itemization/penalty mechanics (§ 38-12-103). Sections 102 and 103 were substantially rewritten by 2025's HB 25-1249, effective January 1, 2026 — already in force.
Deadline to return the deposit
The clock is 30 days from whichever comes later: the lease's termination or your surrender of the premises. § 38-12-103(1)(a) states it plainly: "A landlord shall, within thirty days after the termination of a lease or surrender of a premises, whichever occurs last, return to the tenant the full security deposit... unless the lease agreement specifies a longer period of time, but not to exceed sixty days." Before 2026-01-01 the statute used "one month" instead of "thirty days" for the same deadline — a wording change, not a substantive one.
Itemized statement required?
Yes, whenever the landlord has actual cause to keep any part of the deposit. The 2026 amendment adds a documentation right: if you ask in writing within 14 days after getting the statement, the landlord must also hand over the supporting paperwork — "photographs, inspection forms or reports, receipts, invoices, or estimates" — for whatever was retained.
What can be deducted
A landlord may keep money only for unpaid rent, unpaid utility charges, other lawful charges your lease actually lists, or repairs for damage beyond normal wear and tear that didn't already exist when you moved in: § 38-12-103(1)(b) limits "actual cause" to exactly those four categories. The 2026 amendment also expanded what counts as non-deductible "normal wear and tear" to include ordinary uncleanliness — a landlord can't charge you for everyday dirt, only for a unit left "substantially less clean" than it was at move-in (§ 38-12-102(4)). Two categories get their own tighter rule: carpet can only be charged for substantial, irreparable damage, and never at all if it was already 10 or more years old when you moved in; paint deductions require substantial damage across the whole interior, not just a wall or two (§ 38-12-103(11)).
Maximum deposit amount
Two months' rent, full stop — Colorado doesn't carve out a lower or higher tier for any type of landlord. § 38-12-102.5: "a landlord shall not require a tenant to submit a security deposit in an amount that exceeds the amount of two monthly rent payments." A separate, much smaller rule caps any extra deposit charged for a pet at $300 (§ 38-12-106); that's on top of, not counted against, the two-month cap.
Interest on the deposit?
No. Colorado's statute doesn't require a landlord to pay interest on a held deposit.
Penalty for a late/bad-faith withholding
Two distinct remedies apply to two different failures. Simply missing the 30-day deadline or the statement requirement — or wrongfully withholding in any of the ways the statute defines — forfeits the landlord's right to keep any portion of the deposit at all (§ 38-12-103(2)). Separately, if the withholding is wrongful and the landlord doesn't pay back the wrongfully withheld amount within 7 days of your written demand, you can sue for three times that amount plus attorney fees and court costs (§ 38-12-103(3)). An amount is presumed wrongful if it's 125% or more of the landlord's actual damages (§ 38-12-103(3.5)), and the landlord — not you — has to prove what the actual damages were. If a landlord acted in good faith but a court later finds the amount kept was reasonable-sounding but still too high, the landlord owes only the excess plus court costs, not the treble penalty.
Separate account or bond required?
No. Colorado doesn't require a segregated account, an interest-bearing account, or a bond for held deposits.
What trips people up
The 7-day demand-and-cure window is a real precondition to treble damages, not just a courtesy. Before you can sue for the 3x penalty, you have to send the landlord written notice demanding the deposit back and stating you intend to file suit; the landlord then gets 7 days to pay up before the treble-damages exposure kicks in.
"Normal wear and tear" now expressly includes ordinary dirtiness, not just physical deterioration. A landlord can't dock your deposit for typical everyday grime — only for a unit that's substantially dirtier than it was when your tenancy started.
Carpet age matters more than carpet condition. Even visibly worn carpet can't be charged to you for replacement if it was already 10 years old or older when you moved in — the statute treats that as an automatic bar, regardless of how it looks at move-out.
Common questions
My landlord sent an itemized statement but never showed me any receipts — is that allowed? Yes, unless you asked in writing for the supporting documentation within 14 days of getting the statement. If you made that request and the landlord still didn't produce it, that's a basis to challenge the deduction.
Can my landlord charge me a bigger deposit for having a pet? Only up to $300 more, and that extra amount must be refundable like any other deposit — it isn't folded into the ordinary two-month cap, but it also can't exceed the separate $300 pet-deposit ceiling.
Do I have to wait the full 30 days before doing anything? No — the 30-day clock is the landlord's outer deadline to act, not a waiting period for you. If the landlord already sent a deficient statement or ignored the deadline, you can send your written demand once the deadline has passed.
Statutes and sources
- C.R.S. § 38-12-102.5 — two-month security deposit cap.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1)(a) — 30-day (up to 60-day) return deadline.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1)(b) — the four permitted categories of "actual cause" for retention.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - C.R.S. § 38-12-102(4) — "normal wear and tear" definition, including the 2026 uncleanliness clause.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - C.R.S. § 38-12-103(11) — carpet and paint deduction limits.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - C.R.S. § 38-12-103(2) — forfeiture for noncompliance or wrongful withholding.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - C.R.S. § 38-12-103(3) — treble damages, attorney fees, and the 7-day demand/cure window.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - C.R.S. § 38-12-103(3.5) — bad-faith/125% presumption and the good-faith-excess carve-out.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - C.R.S. § 38-12-106 — $300 cap on any additional pet security deposit.
https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-38.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - CO SB 26-054, Ch. 61 — future post-closing-occupancy exception to the
two-month cap, operative January 1, 2027.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb26-054 (checked 2026-07-31)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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