Denver Relocation Assistance Law: Uninhabitable Units

[Cite: Denver Revised Municipal Code section 27-28(3)]

In practice, that ties the landlord's relocation-assistance duty directly to how quickly the underlying repair actually gets done. A landlord motivated to limit relocation costs has a direct incentive to complete the repair promptly, since the obligation ends once the unit is brought back into compliance.

4. What happens if a landlord doesn't comply

Failing or refusing to comply with a relocation-assistance order is itself unlawful under the ordinance. Beyond that, if the city ends up providing the relocation assistance because the landlord didn't, the entire cost to the city of providing it, plus five percent of that cost, plus any costs of collection and other incidental costs, becomes a debt owed to the city.

[Cite: Denver Revised Municipal Code section 27-28(4)]

That debt is secured by a lien against the property. The manager certifies a statement of the debt to the manager of finance, who records the lien with the clerk and recorder, and the debt becomes immediately due and payable in full upon recordation.

[Cite: Denver Revised Municipal Code section 27-28(4)]

5. How the lien ranks against other claims on the property

The lien created under this provision is superior and prior to all other liens on the property, regardless of when those other liens were recorded, with one specific exception: liens for general property taxes and special assessments still take priority over it. If the debt goes unpaid, the manager of finance can collect it the same way delinquent real property taxes are collected.

[Cite: Denver Revised Municipal Code section 27-28(4)]

That priority ranking matters for anyone assessing risk on a Denver multifamily property. A lien under this provision would sit ahead of a mortgage or other financing lien recorded earlier, which is a meaningfully different risk profile than an ordinary contractor's lien or a typical municipal fine.

6. Why this ordinance exists: the state-law backdrop

This city-level mechanism builds on Colorado's existing state habitability framework, which already gave tenants relocation-related rights but generally required pursuing them through the court system. Denver's ordinance gives the city's own health department a direct administrative path, an order backed by a lien, rather than leaving enforcement solely to individual tenant litigation.

[Cite: Denver Ordinance No. 469-25]

For a property manager, this means noncompliance risk now runs through a city administrative process with a real financial consequence attached, in addition to whatever exposure already existed under state law and any individual tenant claims.

7. What else changed in the same ordinance

Ordinance No. 469-25 didn't only add the relocation-assistance and lien provisions. The same enactment repealed former section 27-28.5, which had covered compliance with orders issued under this part of the code, and it renumbered the sections that had followed it. A property manager working from an older copy of the housing code, or from bookmarked section numbers predating May 2025, should confirm they're looking at the current numbering before relying on a specific cross-reference.

[Cite: Denver Revised Municipal Code, editor's note to section 27-28.5]

8. What property managers should do once a placard goes up

The practical sequence starts the moment a unit is designated unfit for human habitation. Granting entry for repair promptly matters, since the relocation-assistance order specifically applies once that access has been granted; delaying access doesn't avoid the underlying designation but can affect how the process plays out. From there, documenting the relocation assistance offered in writing, and moving quickly on the actual repair, both work to limit the duration of the assistance obligation and avoid triggering the noncompliance lien process entirely.

A property manager who already tracks placarding and unfit-designation notices closely, and has a process for offering written relocation assistance promptly once repair access is granted, is well positioned under this ordinance. One relying on informal, undocumented responses to habitability complaints is the more exposed position, given the lien consequence attached to noncompliance.