What’s already law, what’s still moving at the Capitol, and what it means as of March 23, 2026
If you own rental property in Colorado, or you are thinking about buying more, the 2026 legislative session can feel like trying to hit a moving target. Some of the biggest landlord-facing changes are not actually brand new 2026 laws at all. They are 2025 bills that are now fully in effect in 2026. At the same time, several 2026 bills are still alive and could materially change eviction timelines, utility billing, tenant reporting practices, and certain housing development incentives. As of March 23, 2026, the practical takeaway is this: Colorado is continuing its broader trend toward tighter tenant protections, more operational disclosure requirements, and more state involvement in housing policy, while also advancing a few measures meant to increase housing supply and reduce friction in certain development and transaction scenarios.
For landlords and investors, that means the real question is no longer just “What passed this year?” It is also “What is already changing my operations right now?” and “Which pending bills should I be planning for before they become law?” That distinction matters, because a number of the rules affecting deposits, fees, screening, enforcement, and subsidy-related tenancy are already in force today, while some of the most significant 2026 proposals are still only under consideration.
The laws landlords are already operating under in 2026
The first place investors should focus is not pending legislation. It is the set of 2025 bills that took effect in 2025 or on January 1, 2026 and are now part of the everyday compliance environment.
One of the biggest is HB25-1090, Protections Against Deceptive Pricing Practices, which became law with a January 1, 2026 effective date. As enacted, it requires clear disclosure of the maximum total price a person may pay for property, bars misrepresenting the nature and purpose of pricing information, and specifically prohibits landlords from requiring tenants to pay certain fees, charges, or amounts that the act bars. The law also gives an aggrieved person a path to demand reimbursement and, if the issue is not corrected within 14 days, to pursue actual damages plus 18% interest. For landlords, this is the bill that has made “junk fee” conversations much more urgent. It does not mean every separate charge is illegal, but it does mean lease drafting, marketing copy, and fee disclosure practices need to be much cleaner and much more defensible than they used to be.
Another major operational shift is HB25-1249, Tenant Security Deposit Protections, which took effect on January 1, 2026. This law expands the definition of “normal wear and tear,” says a landlord may not retain deposit amounts for preexisting conditions, requires relevant documentation if the tenant makes a written request, creates walk-through inspection requirements when reasonable and practicable, and defines several situations as wrongful withholding. It also creates a presumption that a retained amount is unreasonable if it is 125% or more of actual damages, places the burden on the landlord in deposit litigation to prove actual damages, and sharply narrows when carpet replacement and painting can be charged back to tenants. In plain English, this is a documentation law as much as a deposit law. Owners who still rely on loose move-out notes, generic invoices, or vague line items are more exposed than they were a year ago.
SB25-020, Tenant and Landlord Law Enforcement, has also been in effect since August 6, 2025, and it matters because it changes who can enforce landlord-tenant rules. The law clarifies the attorney general’s enforcement authority, allows counties and municipalities to bring civil actions to enforce certain state landlord-tenant laws, and creates a receivership mechanism for multifamily properties where there is reasonable cause to believe the landlord has engaged in a pattern of neglect. For investors, that is not just a legal technicality. It increases the enforcement risk for owners of poorly maintained multifamily assets and raises the stakes on deferred maintenance, habitability complaints, and local government scrutiny.
Two other 2025 laws deserve attention because they affect leasing and application practices that many owners still have not fully updated. HB25-1236, Residential Tenant Screening, effective January 1, 2026, changes portable screening report rules by providing that a prospective tenant using a housing subsidy is not required to include a credit history report, credit score, or adverse credit event in the screening report, and it repeals language that allowed a landlord to require direct availability through a consumer reporting agency or third-party website. That means screening workflows have to be rethought, especially for applicants using subsidies.
Relatedly, HB25-1240, Protections for Tenants with Housing Subsidies, effective May 29, 2025, requires landlords initiating an eviction for nonpayment against a subsidized tenant to comply with certain federal notice requirements, requires reasonable efforts to respond to documentation requests needed for rental assistance applications, and makes failures in that process an unfair housing practice. Courts are directed to award at least $5,000 in damages for certain subsidy-based discrimination violations. The investor takeaway is that source-of-income issues are no longer something to treat as a side compliance topic. In Colorado, they increasingly sit at the center of fair housing risk.
There is also HB25-1168, Housing Protections for Victim-Survivors, effective May 22, 2025, which broadens protections for tenants experiencing domestic violence, unlawful sexual behavior, stalking, and domestic abuse. Among other things, it requires repayment plans in certain rent-default situations when proper documentation is provided, requires reasonable efforts at personal service, suppresses certain court records, limits certain damage claims after early lease termination, and restricts assignment of alleged debt to third-party collectors without documentation and notice. This will not touch every tenancy, but it absolutely affects notice practices, collections decisions, and case handling when these facts arise.
The most important 2026 bills still moving
As of March 23, 2026, the biggest active landlord-facing bill is probably HB26-1106, Eviction Protections for Tenants. It is still under consideration and is scheduled for a House Judiciary hearing on March 24. As introduced, it would limit the number of eviction actions a county court schedules on one business day, bar naming minors as defendants when a parent or guardian is already named, require a hearing rather than default judgment when a tenant’s answer expresses an intent to cure nonpayment, expand excuses for late answers, repeal appeal bonds in eviction cases, extend the time to execute a writ of restitution from 48 hours to 30 days except in substantial-violation cases, and prohibit execution of writs during inclement weather. If enacted in anything close to its current form, this would be a meaningful shift in eviction timelines, carrying costs, and case strategy for landlords.
From an investor perspective, HB26-1106 is not just about “tenant protections.” It is about time. Time is money in an eviction. Longer cure windows, more procedural off-ramps, slower execution of writs, and fewer same-day settings all increase the period between nonpayment and repossession. For large operators, that may mean recalibrating reserves and collections strategy. For small landlords, it may mean rethinking whether self-management is still worth the risk in certain asset classes. The bill is still only under consideration, but it is exactly the kind of proposal owners should be watching closely because even a narrower final version could still affect months of operating assumptions.
UPDATE (March 25th 2026): House Bill 1106 has officially been withdrawn by its sponsors as of today. The bill, which aimed to significantly expand tenant protections in eviction proceedings—including limiting how many cases courts could hear per day, extending timelines, and broadening acceptable reasons for delayed responses—faced growing concern around its practical impact on court capacity and overall housing operations. HB 26-1106 Eviction Protections for Tenants would have introduced additional procedural delays and administrative burden on an already strained court system, with critics warning it could increase costs and slow resolution timelines for both landlords and tenants. As a result, sponsors ultimately chose to pull the bill rather than move it forward in its current form, signaling both the complexity of eviction reform and the increasing scrutiny around unintended consequences tied to housing policy.
Another live bill is HB26-1196, Tenant Data Information, scheduled for hearing on March 24. It would require “covered landlords” with five or more dwelling units, or those receiving certain financial assistance, to offer positive rent reporting to at least one consumer reporting agency before lease execution and again at renewal if the tenant initially declines. If the tenant opts in, the landlord must report rental payment information, cannot charge for the service, and cannot pass the cost through by raising rent. The bill would also make noncompliance an unfair and deceptive trade practice. On paper, this sounds tenant-friendly and credit-building oriented. Operationally, though, it adds another compliance process, another data-handling responsibility, and another potential enforcement hook for larger landlords.
SB26-054, Security Deposits & Post-Closing Occupancy Agreements, is more limited but still important for investors and real estate professionals. Current law generally caps security deposits at two months’ rent. This bill would create an exception for post-closing occupancy agreements in residential sales transactions, and the bill says that exception would take effect January 1, 2027. As of March 23, it is still under consideration, with a House committee hearing set for March 24. This is not a broad pro-landlord change for ordinary rentals, but it could be very helpful in the increasingly common situation where a seller remains in possession temporarily after closing and the buyer wants stronger deposit protection.
HB26-1224, Protections for Mobile Home Park Residents, is also still alive. As introduced, it would add financial and maintenance disclosure requirements in mobile home park sale notices, require arm’s-length and good-faith conduct in sales, and cap the amount a landlord may charge each resident to cover the registration fee at $17. Its next hearing is in House Finance on March 30. This bill is narrower than general landlord-tenant legislation, but for park owners and investors in manufactured housing, it is significant because it adds more sale-process transparency and limits some fee recovery.
The 2026 measures that appear favorable to owners, developers, or transaction efficiency
Not everything this year is a restriction. A few 2026 bills could make life easier for owners, developers, or housing producers.
The clearest example is HB26-1013, Ratio Utility Billing Systems. As of March 23, the bill has passed the legislature and was sent to the governor on March 19. It authorizes landlords to use ratio utility billing systems for residential premises if certain conditions are met, including that total tenant billings do not exceed the total utility charge, no extra fee is added beyond actual utility costs, common-area utility costs are excluded, and the allocation method is clearly disclosed in the lease. This matters because it gives statutory footing to a billing practice many owners want to use, provided it is done transparently and without padding charges.
That is especially notable because another utility-billing bill, HB26-1284, Requirements for Tenant Utility Billing, was postponed indefinitely in committee on March 18. That bill would have required water submeters in all new residential construction beginning January 1, 2027, mandated submeter-based water billing for those new projects, and required a 10% deduction before allocating bills under a ratio system for certain properties. In other words, the legislature did entertain a more prescriptive utility-billing framework this year, but that standalone bill is dead as of March 23. The practical read is that Colorado may be more comfortable at the moment with authorizing RUBS under guardrails than with imposing the broader submetering structure HB26-1284 proposed.
There is also SB26-001, Workforce Housing & Housing Tax Credit, which has passed the legislature and was sent to the governor on March 18. It allows counties to use certain ad valorem tax revenue in county funds for housing authorities and workforce housing, permits local governments to sell or dispose of public property for affordable housing or housing identified in a needs assessment, and expands transferability of the middle-income housing tax credit to transferees that do not own an interest in the qualified project. For developers and investors active in workforce or middle-income housing, this is one of the more meaningful supply-side measures this session because it can improve capital structuring and local-government participation in housing projects.
Similarly, HB26-1001, Housing Developments on Qualifying Properties, has passed the legislature. It requires certain jurisdictions, beginning after December 31, 2027, to allow residential development on qualifying properties owned by nonprofits, school districts, housing authorities, certain transit entities, and similar owners, subject to an administrative approval process and with limits on how restrictive local standards can be. This bill does not directly create new rights for the average mom-and-pop landlord, but it does continue the state’s broader push to expand housing supply by limiting some local barriers. Over time, that could affect development competition, land values, and where new product comes online.
One other bill worth noting is SB26-046, Property Tax Administrative Procedures, which has passed the legislature and was sent to the governor on March 18. It is mainly an administrative bill, but it changes several property-tax deadlines and procedures, including the real-property protest deadline moving from June 8 to June 1 and increasing from $10,000 to $20,000 certain abatement/refund thresholds. This is not a landlord-tenant bill, but for investors managing appeals, valuations, and tax administration, it is relevant operationally.
The 2026 bills that already died
It also helps investors to know what is no longer moving, at least as standalone measures.
HB26-1047, Protections for Residential Tenants, is listed as lost. As introduced, it would have required more documentation with unlawful detention complaints, required redaction of personal identifying information in posted notices, kept more eviction records suppressed unless the case involved a substantial lease violation, and required at least one rent-payment option that did not require use of an online portal or a transaction fee. Even though it is dead, it is still useful as a signal of where tenant advocates and some lawmakers want to go on eviction records, notice practices, and fee-free payment options.
Likewise, HB26-1284 is lost, as noted above. As a standalone bill, it will not become law this session unless its substance reappears elsewhere. As of March 23, though, the official status is that it was postponed indefinitely in House Transportation, Housing & Local Government.
What all of this means for Colorado investors right now
The bigger pattern is more important than any one bill. Colorado is not moving in a deregulatory direction for rental housing operations. The trend line is toward more disclosure, more tenant procedural protections, more enforcement avenues, and more specific rules around deposits, screening, notices, and billing. Even when bills die, the policy ideas often show where future legislation may be headed. Owners waiting for the environment to “swing back” to a simpler pre-2020 model are probably reading the state wrong.
That does not mean Colorado is impossible for investors. It does mean the model is changing. The landlords most likely to stay profitable are not necessarily the ones with the cheapest operations. They are the ones with the strongest systems: tighter documentation, cleaner leases, faster maintenance response, better notice procedures, more disciplined deposit accounting, and more conservative underwriting on delinquency and turnover timelines. In this environment, compliance is part of asset management. It is no longer just a legal department issue.
For investors evaluating acquisitions, this also affects how to think about risk. A value-add multifamily deal in Colorado is not just about rents, expenses, and cap rate. It is also about whether the existing management culture can withstand tighter enforcement, whether legacy lease forms and deposit practices are compliant, whether evictions will take longer than a pro forma assumes, and whether utility reimbursement or ancillary revenue practices are still defensible. The delta between a well-run building and a loosely managed one may become even more expensive over the next few years. That is my read based on the direction of both enacted law and pending proposals as of March 23, 2026.
What landlords should be doing now
As of today, Colorado landlords and investors should already be reviewing lease fee language, deposit handling procedures, move-in and move-out documentation, screening processes for applicants using subsidies, and workflows for subsidy-related notices and paperwork. They should also be watching HB26-1106 and HB26-1196 especially closely this week, since both were scheduled for committee on March 24, 2026. Owners using or considering ratio utility billing should track HB26-1013 at the governor’s desk, and anyone involved in post-closing possession arrangements should monitor SB26-054.
The bottom line is this: as of March 23, 2026, the biggest immediate mistake a Colorado landlord can make is assuming the risk is only in the bills that have not passed yet. A substantial amount of the real change is already here. The bills still moving matter, but the compliance bar has already risen. Investors who understand that now will make better operating decisions than the ones who wait until the next lawsuit, the next turnover dispute, or the next legislative headline forces the issue.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Because several 2026 bills are still pending as of March 23, 2026, owners should verify current status before making policy changes or consult Colorado counsel for property-specific guidance.