Colorado Lease Termination Rights After a Tenant's Death

That second path gives a landlord a clear, workable option even when no personal representative has come forward to formally close things out, as long as the 30-day threshold has passed and one of the two triggering conditions, unpaid rent or property substantially removed, is actually met.

4. Security deposits are treated differently from penalties

The law doesn't touch a landlord's ability to retain a security deposit for damage genuinely tied to the death itself. A landlord may retain a security deposit or associated damages deposit sufficient to cover costs related to the damage caused by the death of the tenant.

[Cite: HB25-1108, adding Colorado Revised Statutes section 38-12-801(3.5)]

This is a narrower allowance than it might first appear. It's tied specifically to damage caused by the death, not a general license to deduct the deposit for the same kinds of things, unrelated pre-existing damage, unpaid utility bills, or standard move-out cleaning, that would be assessed against any other departing tenant. Colorado's ordinary security deposit rules, including the deadlines and itemization requirements that apply to deposit returns generally, still apply on top of this death-specific allowance.

5. The notice requirement leaves some details open

The statute's rent-acceleration limit is triggered by "notice to the landlord of the death of the tenant," but the text doesn't specify who has to give that notice or spell out a formal notice procedure. Neither the bill text nor the secondary compliance sources reviewed for this article fill in that gap with a defined process.

[Cite: HB25-1108, adding Colorado Revised Statutes section 38-12-801(3.5)]

In practice, this means a landlord's clock likely starts running from whenever it actually becomes aware of the death, however that information arrives, family member, personal representative, property staff observation, rather than from a specific, legally defined notification event. A property manager without a clear internal process for documenting when and how that awareness occurred is left without a bright-line answer from the statute itself.

6. The law doesn't address co-tenant situations

This is worth stating plainly rather than glossing over: the statute doesn't specifically address what happens when a lease has multiple tenants and only one of them dies. Letty's Act is written around a lease ending because of a tenant's death, and doesn't spell out how the rent-acceleration limit, penalty voiding, or possession provisions apply, or don't apply, when a surviving co-tenant remains in the unit and the lease itself continues.

[Cite: HB25-1108, adding Colorado Revised Statutes section 38-12-801(3.5)]

A property manager handling a lease with surviving co-tenants after one tenant's death is working outside what this statute directly resolves. That's a fact pattern worth flagging for a housing attorney rather than assuming the same protections and deadlines automatically extend to a lease that isn't actually terminating.

7. Why this took the form it did: the "Letty's Act" background

HB25-1108 is commonly referred to as Letty's Act, reflecting the personal case that helped drive the legislation, a family facing lease-break penalties after a tenant's death. The bill passed the Colorado legislature and was signed by the Governor on June 4, 2025, taking effect September 1, 2025.

[Cite: HB25-1108, 2025 Colorado Session Laws]

Understanding that background is useful context for why the law is framed narrowly around termination due to death specifically, rather than as a broader early-termination reform. It's targeted relief for a specific, recurring situation rather than a general rewrite of Colorado's early-termination rules.

8. What property managers should update in lease templates and procedures

Standard lease language addressing early termination, liquidated damages clauses, move-in concession forfeiture provisions, and any automatic rent-acceleration clause, needs a carve-out, or at minimum a compliance note for staff, recognizing that these provisions can't be enforced against an estate when the termination is due to the tenant's death.

The move-out and possession process should also account for the two available paths to retaking the unit: acting on a personal representative's surrender, or documenting the 30-day threshold along with unpaid rent or substantially removed property, so staff have a clear, defensible basis for retaking possession rather than defaulting to a formal eviction that the law doesn't require in these circumstances.