Free Colorado Security Deposit Itemized Deductions — overview

A Colorado Security Deposit Itemized Deductions is the statutory disposition statement required under Colorado CRS §38-12-103. Landlord must itemize all deductions claimed against the security deposit and return the balance (if any) within thirty days of lease termination (or up to 60 days if the lease specifies).

Complete the Security Deposit Itemized Deductions

Complete the form below to generate a Colorado Security Deposit Itemized Deductions. Be precise on every line item – vague entries are often successfully challenged. Attach photos, receipts, and contractor estimates as supporting documentation.

About the Colorado Security Deposit Itemized Deductions

Colorado’s security deposit statute (CRS §38-12-103) is among the strictest in the country. The landlord must return the deposit (or a written itemized statement plus any net balance) within THIRTY DAYS of lease termination by default, or up to 60 days if the lease specifies a longer period. The itemized statement must list each charge with specificity – vague entries are routinely challenged successfully. Charges must be supported by actual costs (receipts, contractor invoices) – landlords cannot deduct estimated or future costs. Wear-and-tear is explicitly NOT chargeable. If the landlord wrongfully withholds any portion of the deposit (defined as bad-faith retention), the tenant may sue for TREBLE DAMAGES (3x the wrongfully withheld amount) plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs. Before suing, the tenant must give the landlord a 7-day written demand and cure opportunity under §38-12-103(3)(a).

Colorado Security Deposit Framework

• Statute: CRS §38-12-103 (Security Deposits)
• Deadline: 1 month after termination (lease can extend to 60 days max)
• Required: written itemized statement of deductions
• NOT chargeable: ordinary wear-and-tear
• Penalty for bad-faith retention: TREBLE DAMAGES + attorney fees
• Tenant prerequisite: 7-day written demand and cure opportunity before suing

Penalties for Improper Handling

Colorado’s treble-damages remedy under CRS §38-12-103(3)(a) is one of the harshest in the country. If a landlord wrongfully withholds any portion of the deposit (bad-faith retention) – including for non-chargeable wear-and-tear, unsupported amounts, or untimely return – the tenant may recover 3x the wrongfully withheld amount plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs. Colorado courts have applied this penalty even for technical violations (vague itemization, missing receipts, late delivery). Best practice: itemize every charge with specificity, attach supporting documentation, send via certified mail within 1 month (or 60 days max per lease), and keep copies of everything.

Best Practices

• Document with photos. Move-in and move-out photos are powerful evidence in any deposit dispute.
• Keep receipts. Charges must be supported by actual costs – retain invoices, contractor estimates, and receipts.
• Distinguish wear-and-tear from damage. Normal wear-and-tear is NOT chargeable in any state. Faded paint, minor carpet wear, and small nail holes are typically not chargeable.
• Time everything precisely. Most states have strict statutory deadlines from move-out for itemization and return. Missing the deadline can forfeit ALL deduction rights.
• Send by trackable method. Certified mail with return receipt is the gold standard – establishes both delivery and receipt date.

Related Resources

• Colorado security deposit laws
• Colorado habitability laws
• Colorado landlord tenant laws
• Colorado eviction notice laws
• Colorado late fee laws
• Security deposit laws by state

How Much Can a Colorado Landlord Collect as a Security Deposit?

Colorado caps the deposit itself before it ever becomes an itemized-deductions question. Under C.R.S. § 38-12-102.5, effective August 7, 2023, a landlord may not require a tenant to submit a security deposit that exceeds two months’ rent under the rental agreement. This section sets no separate cap on pet deposits stacked on top of the base deposit; Colorado’s pet-deposit limit is set separately by C.R.S. § 38-12-106 — but the two-month ceiling applies to the security deposit as a whole. A landlord who collected a deposit before that date is not required to refund the excess retroactively, but any deposit collected or renewed after August 7, 2023 must respect the cap.

This matters for the itemized-deductions statement because the deposit total on line 3 of the form is the ceiling against which every deduction on line 4 is measured — a landlord cannot deduct more than what was actually held, and cannot have held more than the statutory maximum in the first place.

What Deductions Are Valid — and What Isn’t — Under § 38-12-103

C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1) draws a hard line: no security deposit shall be retained to cover normal wear and tear, or for any damage or defective condition that pre-existed the tenancy. The statute lists what a landlord may deduct for instead: nonpayment of rent, abandonment of the premises, nonpayment of utility charges, repair work, or cleaning contracted for by the tenant.

• Not deductible: carpet wear from ordinary foot traffic, faded paint, minor nail holes from hung pictures, worn appliance finishes — anything that is the expected result of a tenant living in the unit.
• Deductible (with documentation): unpaid rent balances, unpaid utility bills the tenant was responsible for, damage beyond normal use, and cleaning or repair costs the tenant contracted for or caused.

The written statement itself is not optional paperwork — it is the landlord’s only lawful path to keeping any part of the deposit. C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1) requires the landlord to deliver a written statement listing the exact reasons for any retention, accompanied by payment of the difference between the amount deposited and the amount retained. Mailing the statement and any refund to the tenant’s last known address satisfies the delivery requirement. Skipping this step is not a paperwork error — under § 38-12-103(2), failure to provide the written statement within the statutory window works a forfeiture of the landlord’s entire right to withhold any portion of the deposit, regardless of how legitimate the underlying deduction would otherwise have been.

The 7-Day Notice a Tenant Must Give Before Suing

C.R.S. § 38-12-103(3)(a) gives a wrongfully-shorted tenant a real remedy — but it comes with a procedural precondition most tenants never hear about. Before a tenant can file a court action over a wrongfully withheld deposit, the tenant must give the landlord written notice of intent to file, at least seven days before filing. This notice period gives the landlord a last chance to cure — return the balance or produce the missing statement — before litigation exposure attaches.

If the landlord still fails to make the tenant whole after that notice, and a court finds the retention was willful, § 38-12-103(3)(a) makes the landlord liable for treble (three times) the amount of the deposit wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs. Section 38-12-103(3)(b) then shifts the burden of proof: once the tenant establishes a shortfall, it is the landlord who must prove the withholding was not wrongful — not the other way around.

Gas Appliance Hazard Notices Can Change the Deposit Timeline

A less-known trigger sits in C.R.S. § 38-12-104. If a gas utility’s service personnel discover a hazardous condition in a gas appliance, gas piping, or other gas equipment, they must notify the customer of record in writing. A tenant who learns of that hazard must immediately notify the landlord in writing. The landlord then has 72 hours (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays) after receiving that written notice to have the hazard repaired by a qualified professional.

If the landlord does not complete the repair within that 72-hour window and the hazardous condition remains, the tenant may vacate the premises — at which point the lease becomes null and void and the tenant may demand immediate return of the security deposit. The landlord then has a further 72 hours after the tenant vacates to deliver the deposit (plus any rent rebate owed for the period after move-out) to the tenant’s forwarding address. If the tenant does not receive the deposit, or the required written statement of deductions, within that window, § 38-12-104 deems the retention willful and wrongful automatically — and, notwithstanding the treble-damages standard in § 38-12-103(3), entitles the tenant to twice the amount of the security deposit plus reasonable attorney fees under this specific hazard-triggered pathway.

Key Colorado Deposit-Return Deadlines at a Glance

Trigger	Deadline	Statute
Standard return / written statement of deductions	30 days (up to 60 if the lease specifies)	C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1)
Gas appliance hazard repair, after written notice	72 hours (excluding weekends/holidays)	C.R.S. § 38-12-104(3)
Deposit + rebate return after tenant vacates for an unrepaired gas hazard	72 hours after tenant vacates	C.R.S. § 38-12-104(4)
Tenant’s pre-suit notice of intent to sue over withheld deposit	At least 7 days before filing	C.R.S. § 38-12-103(3)(a)
Late-fee written-notice window to the tenant	Within 180 days of the missed rent due date	C.R.S. § 38-12-105(1)(j)

These deadlines interact: a landlord who is still inside the 30/60-day deposit-return window when a gas-hazard dispute arises does not get an independent extension — the shorter, hazard-specific 72-hour clocks in § 38-12-104 run on top of, not instead of, the general § 38-12-103 timeline.

Colorado Security Deposit Itemized Deductions — Frequently Asked Questions

Does the landlord have 30 days or 60 days to return the deposit?
The default under C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1) is 30 days (one month) after lease termination or surrender/acceptance of the premises, whichever is later. That window extends to a maximum of 60 days only if the lease agreement itself specifies a longer period, up to that 60-day ceiling.

What happens if the landlord misses the deadline entirely and sends nothing?
Under § 38-12-103(2), missing the deadline for the written statement forfeits the landlord’s right to withhold any portion of the deposit — the full amount becomes owed. If the landlord’s silence is found willful, § 38-12-103(3)(a) exposes the landlord to treble damages plus attorney fees and court costs, after the tenant’s required 7-day pre-suit notice.

Is a text message or email a valid delivery method for the itemized statement?
The statute’s delivery standard is satisfied by mailing the statement to the tenant’s last known address; many landlords also send a written statement by text or email, but mailing remains the method the statute expressly deems compliant.

Can a landlord charge more than a 5% late fee on unpaid rent that later gets deducted from the deposit?
No. Under C.R.S. § 38-12-105(1)(b), a late fee cannot exceed the greater of $50 or 5% of the past-due rent payment — not 5% of the full monthly rent. A late fee that exceeds this cap, or that was never disclosed in the rental agreement as required by § 38-12-105(1)(c), is void and unenforceable and cannot lawfully be deducted from the security deposit.

Is there a cap on how large the original security deposit can be?
Yes — for deposits collected or renewed on or after August 7, 2023, C.R.S. § 38-12-102.5 caps the security deposit at two months’ rent.

What Happens to a Colorado Security Deposit When the Property Is Sold?

When a Colorado landlord’s interest in a rental unit ends, the deposit does not simply stay in the old owner’s account. C.R.S. § 38-12-103(4) states that upon cessation of the landlord’s interest in the dwelling unit — whether by sale, assignment, death, appointment of a receiver, or otherwise — whoever is in possession of the security deposit must, within a reasonable time, do one of two things.

• Transfer the funds (or whatever remains after lawful deductions under subsection (1)) to the landlord’s successor in interest, and notify the tenant by mail of the transfer and of the transferee’s name and address; or
• Return the funds (or the remainder after lawful deductions) directly to the tenant.

C.R.S. § 38-12-103(4) expressly says the “person in possession of the security deposit” includes but is not limited to the landlord, the landlord’s agent, or the landlord’s executor, so a property manager holding trust funds and an estate executor are both covered. Colorado attaches no fixed day count here: the standard is “within a reasonable time,” not a numbered deadline like the one-month rule in subsection (1). Two consequences follow, both stated in the statute:

• Under C.R.S. § 38-12-103(5), once the person in possession complies with subsection (4), that person is relieved of further liability for the deposit. Doing the transfer-and-notify step correctly is what closes out a departing owner’s exposure.
• Under C.R.S. § 38-12-103(6), a transferee who receives the funds is deemed to have all of the rights and obligations of a landlord holding those funds as a security deposit. A buyer who takes over occupied units inherits the itemization duty, the deadline, and the penalty exposure that go with the money.

The deduction rights travel with the deposit. A buyer cannot treat the balance as unencumbered cash, and a seller cannot escape a defective itemization by pointing at the closing date.

Can a Colorado Lease Say the Security Deposit Is Non-Refundable?

No. C.R.S. § 38-12-103(7) provides that any provision, whether oral or written, in or pertaining to a rental agreement by which any provision of that section for the benefit of a tenant or members of the tenant’s household is waived is deemed to be against public policy and is void.

Because § 38-12-103(7) voids the waiver rather than the whole lease, the offending clause simply drops out and the statutory rule governs. Lease terms that cannot survive it include:

• A term declaring some or all of the deposit “non-refundable” regardless of condition.
• A term purporting to waive the written itemized statement, or to let the landlord keep the deposit without delivering one.
• A term setting a return deadline longer than the sixty-day ceiling that C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1) allows a lease to specify.
• A term stating the tenant gives up the right to sue, or waiving the treble-damages and attorney-fee remedy in C.R.S. § 38-12-103(3)(a).
• A term charging the deposit for normal wear and tear, which § 38-12-103(1) forbids outright.

A void clause is worse than no clause at all: it gives the landlord false confidence, and it does nothing to defend the retention when the burden of proof shifts under C.R.S. § 38-12-103(3)(b).

What Are Colorado’s Pet Deposit and Pet Rent Limits?

Colorado caps pet money separately from the base deposit, under C.R.S. § 38-12-106, which carries an editor’s note stating the section is effective January 1, 2024.

What the landlord charges	Colorado limit	Refundable?	Statute
Additional pet security deposit	No more than $300	Yes — the statute requires it to be refundable to the tenant	C.R.S. § 38-12-106(1)
Additional pet rent	No more than $35 per month, or 1.5% of the tenant’s monthly rent per month, whichever amount is greater	No — it is rent, not a deposit	C.R.S. § 38-12-106(2)

Because § 38-12-106(1) requires the additional pet security deposit to be refundable, a Colorado landlord cannot book it as a non-returnable pet fee and leave it off the amount-held line: it is deposit money, subject to the same itemization and return rules. C.R.S. § 38-12-106(3) defines “pet animal” by reference to section 35-80-102(10), so the cap is tied to that statutory definition rather than to whatever the lease calls the animal.

How Does the Deposit Statement Work With Roommates and Partial Move-Outs?

Colorado’s return statute is written around the tenancy, not around individual roommates. C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1) speaks of “the tenant” in the singular and does not divide a deposit among co-tenants, allocate deductions between them, or create a duty to refund one roommate’s share when that roommate moves out while the tenancy continues.

The timing language points the same way. The one-month period in C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1) runs from termination of the lease or surrender and acceptance of the premises, whichever occurs last. Both of those events belong to the tenancy as a whole. One occupant handing back a key while the lease continues and the remaining tenants stay in possession is not a surrender and acceptance of the premises, so it does not start the statutory clock.

Because the statute is silent on allocation, any split among roommates is a matter for the lease and for the co-tenants themselves. The landlord cannot use that silence to skip the statutory steps once the tenancy actually ends.

One documentation rule reinforces this. Under C.R.S. § 38-12-802, when a landlord receives a payment made in person by a tenant in cash or by money order, the landlord must contemporaneously provide a receipt showing the amount paid and the date of payment. For other payments, the landlord must provide a receipt showing the amount, the recipient, and the date within seven days of a tenant’s request, unless an existing procedure already gives the tenant that record. A landlord who takes deposit money in cash from one roommate and issues no receipt has surrendered the cleanest proof of what was held and by whom.