What can a landlord charge for a rental application in Colorado?

No dollar cap, but a rental application fee may not exceed the landlord's cost of processing the application, and no application fee at all may be charged when the applicant supplies a portable tenant screening report.

Colorado sets the ceiling by cost rather than by a fixed figure. A landlord may charge an application fee only if the entire amount goes to the landlord's costs of processing the application, and those costs may be measured either as the actual expense for that application or as the average expense per applicant across multiple applications. The fee must be the same amount for every applicant for the same unit and, where the landlord offers more than one unit at the same time, for any unit the landlord offers. If the applicant hands over a portable tenant screening report, the landlord may charge no application fee. The definition of a rental application fee is deliberately wide: it covers any sum however named that is taken in connection with an application, and also any nonrefundable fee taken before the tenancy begins, while excluding a refundable security deposit and rent paid in advance.

Screening charges must be uniform across applicants, a landlord may not charge anything to access or use an applicant-supplied portable screening report, and a landlord must accept such a report subject to three permitted conditions.

Beyond the cost limit, Colorado attaches four conditions to screening charges. The amount must be identical for every applicant for the same unit and for any other unit the landlord is offering at the same time. A landlord must accept a portable tenant screening report from an applicant, and may not charge any fee for accessing or using it. Where an applicant supplies such a report, the landlord may not charge an application fee either. A landlord may require that the report was completed within the previous thirty days, that it is available at no cost to access or use, and that the applicant state there has been no material change in its contents. A landlord who accepts only one application fee at a time for a unit, or one from each applicant or applicant group where the unit is shared, and who refunds that fee in full within twenty calendar days after either side declines the lease in writing, is exempt from the acceptance and advisement duties.

Unspent amounts must be returned with a good-faith effort within twenty calendar days after the application is processed; a landlord using the one-fee-at-a-time exemption must return the whole fee within twenty calendar days after either side declines the lease in writing.

The general rule is a partial refund keyed to cost. A landlord who takes a fee and does not use all of it on processing must remit the remainder, making a good-faith effort to do so within twenty calendar days after processing the application. The second rule is a full refund keyed to the exemption: a landlord who accepts only one application fee at a time must return the total amount to each applicant within twenty calendar days after written communication from the landlord, the landlord's agent, or the applicant declining to enter into a lease for the unit. Colorado does not require a refund simply because the unit was filled by someone else, because the applicant withdrew, or because the landlord never ran a screening report, though the cost-based rule reaches the last of those in practice.

Before any screening step for which a fee would be expected, the landlord must tell the applicant of the right to supply a portable screening report and that doing so bars both an application fee and an access fee; a landlord who takes a fee must also give either anticipated expenses or an itemization of actual expenses.

The pre-collection duty is the portable-report advisement. Before taking any action relating to tenant screening for which the landlord would expect to collect an application fee, the landlord must advise the applicant, in substantially the statutory wording, of the right to provide a portable tenant screening report and of the bar on charging either an application fee or an access-or-use fee once one is provided. That advisement must appear where it is reasonably likely to reach applicants: in advertisements and public notices of the unit's availability in at least twelve-point bold-faced type unless the format makes that impracticable, on the home page of the landlord's or agent's website in the same type, in the paper or online application in the same type, or spoken directly to the applicant with written confirmation of receipt. Separately, a landlord who has taken a fee must give the applicant either a statement of the anticipated expenses the fee will cover or an itemization of the actual expenses incurred, and must explain how an average-cost fee was worked out. The pricing section adds that, before a person agrees to pay any amount that sits outside a listing's total price, the refundability of that amount, what it is charged for, and who receives it must all be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. From January 1, 2027 every rental application must also carry a notice of the information and data the landlord will attempt to access when screening, a general description of the factors the landlord will consider including credit history, rental history, income and criminal background where applicable, and whether a third-party screening service is used and its name; that addition does not require a landlord to adopt or publish fixed disqualifying criteria.

A denied applicant must receive a written notice stating the reasons for the denial, plus a copy of any consumer report the landlord obtained and notice of the right to dispute it, with a good-faith effort to deliver within twenty calendar days of the denial decision.

Colorado imposes its own denial-notice duty on top of federal credit-reporting law. The notice must be written and must state the reasons for the denial. If the application led the landlord to obtain a consumer report, the landlord must also hand over a copy of that report and tell the applicant of the right to dispute its accuracy with the consumer reporting agency. Where a proprietary screening system makes it impossible to cite the specific criteria, the landlord must instead give the applicant a copy of the screening company's report with only the proprietary information removed. An electronic notice is allowed unless the applicant asks for paper. The landlord must make a good-faith effort to deliver the notice no more than twenty calendar days after deciding to deny. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act carries its own adverse-action requirements; the duties described here are Colorado's and go further in what the applicant must be given.

A landlord must accept a portable tenant screening report and may charge neither an application fee nor an access-or-use fee when one is supplied; the landlord may require that the report was completed within the previous thirty days, that it is available at no cost, and that the applicant confirm nothing material has changed.

A portable tenant screening report is a consumer report prepared at the applicant's request that carries the applicant's name, contact information, verification of employment and income, last-known address and, for each jurisdiction shown as a prior residence, a rental and credit history report and a criminal history record check, along with the date through which the information is current. An applicant seeking to rent with the assistance of a housing subsidy need not include a credit history report, a credit score or an adverse credit event. A landlord must accept such a report, may not charge for accessing or using it, and may not charge an application fee once one is provided. The three conditions a landlord may impose are a thirty-day currency window, availability at no cost to the landlord, and a statement from the applicant that nothing material has changed since the report was generated, including name, address, bankruptcy status, criminal history or eviction history. Since January 1, 2026 a landlord may no longer insist that the report arrive directly from the consumer reporting agency or through a third-party reporting website. A landlord who accepts only one application fee at a time and refunds it in full within twenty calendar days after either side declines the lease in writing is exempt from these duties.

Colorado has no section devoted to holding deposits, but a nonrefundable charge taken before the tenancy begins is treated as a rental application fee and carries the processing-cost limit and the receipt and refund duties, while a refundable advance that secures performance of the lease is a security deposit capped at two months' rent.

The answer comes from two definitions rather than a holding-deposit section. A rental application fee is defined to include any nonrefundable fee that precedes the onset of the tenancy, however it is named, so a nonrefundable charge to hold a unit is subject to the same rules as an application fee: it must go entirely to processing costs, it must be identical across applicants, it needs a receipt, and any unspent part must be returned. The definition expressly leaves out a refundable security deposit and rent paid before the tenancy starts. A refundable advance whose main function is to secure performance of the rental agreement falls under the security-deposit sections instead, where the amount a landlord may require is capped at two monthly rent payments. Naming a payment something else does not change which set of rules applies.

Since January 1, 2026 any offer, display or advertisement of an amount a person may pay, including a rental listing, must show the total price as a single number displayed more prominently than any other pricing information, and any amount outside that total price must have its refundability, subject and recipient disclosed before the person agrees to pay.

Colorado's pricing section sits in the Consumer Protection Act but names landlords, tenants, dwelling units and rental agreements in its own definitions, and the Colorado Department of Law has addressed guidance on it to landlords and property management companies. The total price is the maximum of all amounts a person must pay, taking in everything that must be paid to obtain or use the property and everything not reasonably avoidable; government charges and shipping charges sit outside it unless the advertiser chooses to include them. A landlord need not fold the actual utility cost charged for service to the unit into the advertised total. Misrepresenting the refundability, subject, recipient or actual price of any charge is prohibited outright. The section also lists charges a landlord may not require of a tenant, among them a charge for a good, service or property not actually provided, a charge for maintaining common areas, a charge related to property taxes, a charge for the overdue payment of something that is not rent, a payment-processing charge where no cost-free payment route is reasonably accessible, and a charge that rises by more than two percent over a lease of a year or less. The act applies to conduct occurring on or after January 1, 2026, and the attorney general may make rules under it.

Any violation of the Rental Application Fairness Act makes the landlord liable to the aggrieved applicant for $2,500 plus court costs and reasonable attorney fees, after seven calendar days' notice, unless the landlord cures within seven days of that notice and pays a $50 penalty instead.

The fee, receipt, refund, uniformity, portable-report, advisement and denial-notice duties all sit inside the Rental Application Fairness Act, so the same remedy attaches to each: $2,500 to the applicant aggrieved by the violation, plus court costs and reasonable attorney fees. A person who intends to sue must notify the landlord at least seven calendar days before filing, and a landlord who corrects the violation within seven calendar days of that notice owes a $50 penalty and nothing more. Bringing a meritless claim purposefully and in bad faith makes the claimant liable for the landlord's court costs and reasonable attorney fees. The income-criteria duties carry their own structure of a $50 initial penalty plus a further $2,500 statutory penalty if uncured, on top of economic damages, costs and fees. Enforcement is not limited to applicants: the attorney general may bring civil and criminal actions under the act, and since August 6, 2025 counties and municipalities may independently bring civil actions to enforce it. Violating the pricing section is declared a deceptive, unfair and unconscionable act or practice; an aggrieved person may send a written demand for reimbursement of the offending charges and actual damages, and a violator who does not pay within fourteen days owes actual damages plus interest at eighteen percent a year compounded annually, with no pre-suit demand required before filing.