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Free Colorado 3-Day Notice to Pay Rent — Employer Housing

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Colorado 3-Day Demand to Pay Rent or Deliver Possession — for an employee in employer-provided housing. Three days’ notice under C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d), not the standard ten.

3-Day Pay-or-Quit C.R.S. § 13-40-104 Employer Housing Free PDF

A Colorado three-day notice to pay rent or deliver up possession is the demand an employer-landlord serves on an employee who has fallen behind on rent in employer-provided housing. Where a standard residential tenant gets a ten-day pay-or-quit notice, the statute gives an employee-tenant only three days. Under C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d), when the occupant is an employee and the employer (or an affiliate) is the landlord, the required notice for nonpayment is three days — the same shorter window the law allows for nonresidential agreements. This is a served legal notice, so the exact wording, the day count, and the manner of service all have to be right, because a defective or miscounted notice will defeat a later eviction.

Complete the fields below to generate a Colorado three-day demand to pay rent or deliver up possession for employer-provided housing. Serve the completed notice under C.R.S. § 13-40-108 and retain proof of delivery.

A Colorado three-day notice to pay rent or deliver up possession is a demand for compliance — the first formal step before an eviction — that an employer serves on an employee who lives in housing the employer provides and who has stopped paying rent. It is the employer-housing version of the demand landlords across Colorado use for nonpayment, but with a compressed timeline. The Colorado eviction notice statutes in Title 13, Article 40 (forcible entry and detainer) set the day count, the required contents, and the service rules, and this notice is built to match them. The generator above assembles a Colorado-aligned notice; the guide below explains exactly what the law requires and why the day count is different for employer-provided housing.

Employer-provided housing is common in Colorado’s ranch, resort, ski-area, agricultural, hospitality, caretaker, and property-management sectors, where an employer supplies a home, cabin, apartment, or on-site unit as part of the job. When rent is owed on that housing and the worker holds over, the employer does not use the ordinary ten-day residential demand — the statute treats this tenancy differently because it is bound up with the employment relationship. Under C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d), a tenant who defaults on rent and holds over becomes an unlawful detainer only after written notice; the general period is ten days, “except that, for a nonresidential agreement or an employer-provided housing agreement, three days’ notice is required.” That single carve-out is what this form implements.

The reason the two are grouped is practical. An employer-provided tenancy is closer to a nonresidential arrangement in the eyes of the statute: the occupancy is a benefit of employment rather than a stand-alone lease, and the legislature allowed the employer to move faster on unpaid rent than a conventional residential landlord could. The three-day period, however, does not relax any of the other requirements. The notice still has to name the parties and the premises, state the rent due, give the pay-or-quit alternative, and be served in a lawful manner, or it fails just as a ten-day notice would.

The heart of this form is the three-day demand. C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d) requires that written notice be “duly served upon the tenant or lessee holding over, requiring in the alternative the payment of the rent or the possession of the premises,” and it fixes three days for an employer-provided housing agreement, as opposed to the ten days that governs a standard residential tenancy and the five days that governs a narrow class of exempt single-family rentals. Three days is a floor, not a suggestion: the employer may give more time, but never less, and the statute expressly bars any lease clause purporting to waive the notice — “no such agreement shall contain a waiver by the tenant of the notice requirement of this subsection (1)(d).”

Counting the three days correctly is where employers most often stumble. The period runs from the day after the notice is served, and the deadline should fall at the end of the third full day. If the count is short by even a day, or the deadline lands before three full days have passed, a court can dismiss a later eviction for a defective notice. When the timing is close, the safe course is to add a day of cushion rather than risk serving a notice that is one day short. The generator lets you enter both the day count and the calendar deadline so the served document states an unambiguous date.

The three-day period is available only when the arrangement fits the statutory definition. C.R.S. § 13-40-104(5) defines an employer-provided housing agreement as “a residential tenancy agreement between an employee and an employer when the employer or an affiliate of the employer acts as a landlord.” Three elements have to line up: the occupant is an employee, the housing is provided in connection with that employment, and the landlord is the employer itself or an affiliate of the employer. If any element is missing — for example, the worker rents from an unrelated third party, or the employment ended long before and the occupancy has since become an ordinary market tenancy — the shorter period may not apply and the ten-day residential notice should be used instead.

Because the tenancy is tied to the job, employer-housing disputes often mix questions of unpaid rent with questions of continued employment. This notice addresses only the nonpayment path: it demands that the employee pay what is owed or give up possession. If you also intend to end the tenancy because the employment has ended, that is a separate question with its own analysis, and you should not rely on this pay-or-quit notice to accomplish it. When rent and employment issues overlap, get advice specific to the situation before serving, so the notice you use matches the ground you are actually standing on.

• Employee occupant — the person in possession is an employee of the landlord, not an unrelated market renter.
• Housing tied to the job — the unit is provided in connection with the employment, as an on-site or benefit arrangement.
• Employer or affiliate is the landlord — the landlord is the employer, or an affiliate of the employer acting as landlord (C.R.S. § 13-40-104(5)).
• The claim is unpaid rent — this notice is the pay-or-quit demand for nonpayment, not a termination for a lease violation or for the end of employment.

A valid Colorado pay-or-quit notice is precise. It should identify the employer or landlord and the employee-tenant by name, describe the premises clearly enough that there is no doubt which unit is meant, and state the exact amount of rent due through the date of the notice. It must then make the demand in the alternative: that the employee either pay the full amount owed or deliver up possession of the premises within the notice period. It must state that the period is three days and give the calendar deadline. Finally it must be signed and dated by the employer, landlord, or authorized agent, and it should record how and when it was served.

Getting the dollar figure right matters as much as the day count. If the notice overstates the rent — by folding in late fees, damages, or amounts not yet due — a court may treat the whole demand as defective, because the tenant cannot know exactly what to pay to cure. State the past-due rent by itself, list the periods it covers, and keep other charges out of the pay-or-quit figure unless you are certain they are properly part of “rent” and recoverable this way. Spell the amount out clearly; ambiguity about what must be paid to keep possession is one of the most common reasons these notices fail.

Service is governed by C.R.S. § 13-40-108, which allows three methods. You may serve the notice by personally delivering a copy to the employee or other person occupying the premises; by leaving a copy with a member of the tenant’s family above the age of fifteen years who resides on or is in charge of the premises; or, when no one is available to receive it, by posting a copy in a conspicuous place on the premises. The statute’s core methods are personal service, substituted service on a qualifying family member, and posting; pick the method that fits the situation and record it on the notice.

Whatever method you use, document it. Note the date and time of service, the exact method, and who served the notice, and keep a signed copy. That proof of service is what an employer attaches to a forcible-entry-and-detainer filing if the employee neither pays nor leaves, and it is the first thing a court examines. Because Colorado prohibits self-help — changing the locks, removing belongings, or shutting off utilities to force a move-out — the only lawful way to recover possession after a valid, uncured notice is through the court’s eviction complaint process, not by taking the premises back yourself.

• Using ten days instead of three. The employer-housing carve-out is three days; using the ten-day residential period just slows the process, but using three days when the tenancy is not employer-provided is fatal — confirm the category first (C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(d)).
• Miscounting the days. The period runs from the day after service; a short count or a deadline that falls too early defeats a later eviction.
• Overstating the rent. Folding late fees, damages, or not-yet-due amounts into the pay-or-quit figure can void the demand; state the past-due rent alone.
• Improper service. Serving by a method not authorized in C.R.S. § 13-40-108, or failing to post when no one is available, undermines the notice.
• No proof of service. Without a dated record of how and when the notice was served, the employer cannot prove the case in court.
• Relying on a waiver. Any lease clause purporting to waive this notice is void; the three-day demand still has to be served.
• Self-help eviction. Locking out the employee or removing belongings is prohibited; possession must come through the court after the notice expires uncured.

• Confirm the category first — verify the tenancy is an employer-provided housing agreement under C.R.S. § 13-40-104(5) before using the three-day period.
• State the exact past-due rent and the periods it covers, keeping late fees and damages out of the pay-or-quit figure.
• Count the three days from the day after service and give a clear calendar deadline; add a cushion when the timing is tight.
• Serve by an approved method and post only when no one is available to receive it (C.R.S. § 13-40-108).
• Record proof of service — date, time, method, and server — and keep a signed copy.
• Never lock out or self-help; recover possession through the court’s eviction process after the notice expires uncured.
• Have counsel review any case where unpaid rent and the end of employment overlap, since the correct notice can differ.

Once the three-day notice is served, the clock runs. If the employee pays the full past-due rent within the period, the default is cured and the tenancy continues — the employer should accept the payment, note the date, and treat the matter as resolved for that period. If the employee delivers up possession, the employer takes the unit back and can pursue any remaining unpaid rent as a separate money claim. Keep the served notice and the proof of service either way, because they document that the demand was properly made.

If the employee does neither — does not pay and does not leave — the employer’s next step is a forcible-entry-and-detainer (eviction) action in county court under Title 13, Article 40. The court, not the employer, orders possession, and the served notice is the foundation of that filing: the judge will check that the right notice period was used, that the required contents were present, and that service was proper. This is exactly why the day count and the wording on the front end matter so much; a clean, correctly served three-day notice is what lets the eviction proceed, while a defective one sends the employer back to the start. Plan the timeline, calendar the deadline, and keep the paperwork organized so the transition from notice to court, if it comes to that, is seamless.

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