LEGAL HANDBOOK
DREW HAMRICK | COLORADO APARTMENT ASSOCIATION
Warranty of Habitability Early
Notification Requirements
T
he new notice requirements
of Colorado’s Warranty of
Habitability (effective August
2, 2019) require a landlord to type, long
before making repairs. The requirements
are specific and time sensitive. They will
doom the reasonable, but inexperienced
landlord to losing the dispute, regardless
of the underlying merits of the
argument.
The statutory clock starts ticking
when the landlord receives “reasonably
complete written or electronic notice of
the condition” of the problem from the
resident. The statute allows for a pre-
agreed specific email address, phone
www.aamdhq.org
number, or electronic portal for notices.
Therefore, a prudent lease contract
should include specified and required
contact information for this purpose.
Upon receipt of the resident’s notice,
the landlord must provide a response
within 24 hours that includes:
• The landlord’s intentions for
remedying the condition.
• An estimate of when the
remediation will commence (24 or
96 hours depending on seriousness).
• An estimate of when the
remediation will be completed.
There’s oddly no requirement that
the landlord’s response notice be in
writing. However, both expediency and
the need to prove the content and timing
of the response notice dictate written or
electronic notice.
While these are the only three
required elements of the landlord’s
response notice, it is a convenient
opportunity to provide notice of entry
(whether or not required by lease) and
also influence the likely outcome of a
litigated finding of what might constitute
the statute’s undefined obligation to
“commence remedial action”.
OCTOBER 2019
TRENDS | 17