Does Colorado have its own lead paint disclosure law?

No. Colorado has no state lead paint disclosure statute for landlords. The duty in Colorado is entirely federal, under 42 U.S.C. 4852d with implementing rules at 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A. Title 38 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, which contains the landlord-tenant and warranty of habitability provisions, does not mention lead-based paint anywhere. What Colorado does add is a Real Estate Commission form mandate that binds licensed brokers, and Regulation Number 19, which certifies the people who perform lead abatement. Neither is a landlord disclosure duty.

Do I have to give Colorado tenants 10 days to inspect for lead?

No. The 10-day inspection opportunity is a sales rule, not a rental rule. 40 CFR 745.110(a) says that before a purchaser is obligated under any contract to purchase target housing, the seller shall permit the purchaser a 10-day period to conduct a risk assessment or inspection. The lessor requirements at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contain no inspection-opportunity item at all. Colorado's own paperwork proves the point: the Real Estate Commission's LP45 sales disclosure carries the 10-day item, and its LP46 rental disclosure does not contain one. You may offer an inspection window voluntarily, but no rule compels it for a lease.

Is the Colorado LP46 form mandatory for landlords?

It depends on who you are. LP46 is marked Mandatory by the Colorado Real Estate Commission, and C.R.S. 12-10-403(4)(c) provides that a broker shall use a commission-approved form when such a form exists and is appropriate for the transaction. That duty binds licensees. A natural person renting out property they own is not a real estate broker: C.R.S. 12-10-201(6)(a) reaches only people acting for compensation in the listed acts, and 12-10-201(6)(b)(VII) expressly exempts a natural person acting personally with respect to property owned or leased by that person. So a self-managing owner may use any disclosure that carries all six federal elements. If a licensed property manager or broker handles your lease, they must use LP46.

Are studio apartments exempt from the Colorado lead disclosure?

Not since the 2025 amendment. This changed on January 13, 2025. 40 CFR 745.103 as amended (89 FR 89416) defines target housing as housing constructed prior to 1978, except housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities or any 0-bedroom dwelling (unless any child who is less than 6 years of age resides or is expected to reside in such housing). The child parenthetical now sits after both limbs and governs each of them, so a studio is target housing when a child under six resides or is expected to reside there. A 0-bedroom dwelling is one in which the living area is not separated from the sleeping area, and the term includes efficiencies, studio apartments, dormitory housing, military barracks, and rentals of individual rooms in residential dwellings. It was unconditionally exempt before the amendment, which is what many older charts still show.

What is Colorado Regulation 19?

Regulation Number 19, The Control of Lead Hazards, 5 CCR 1001-23, is the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission rule that accredits lead training programs, certifies the individuals and firms who perform lead-based paint activities, and sets work practice standards. It is a certification regime, not a disclosure regime: the word disclosure does not appear in it, and it never uses the words landlord or lessor. It matters to landlords in one specific way. Part A, Section I.B exempts people performing lead-based paint activities in residential dwellings they own, but that exemption withdraws where the dwelling is occupied by someone other than the owner or the owner's immediate family. A tenant-occupied rental is exactly that, so a landlord cannot self-perform abatement in an occupied pre-1978 unit.

Does a Colorado landlord have to test for lead-based paint?

No. The rule requires disclosure of what you actually know, not investigation. The regulation settles it in its own text: the last sentence of 40 CFR 745.107(a) provides that nothing in that section implies a positive obligation on the seller or lessor to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities. Colorado's own mandatory form says the same thing in plainer words: LP48, Lead-Based Paint Obligations of the Landlord, states that there is no obligation of Landlord to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities. If the unit has never been tested and you hold no reports, no knowledge is the honest answer. What you may not do is check no knowledge while holding a report or knowing of a hazard.

How long must a Colorado landlord keep the signed disclosure?

At least three years from the commencement of the leasing period, under 40 CFR 745.113(c). Colorado's LP46 form restates the same period. Keep the signed disclosure, a note of which pamphlet edition was delivered, and copies of every record you handed over. Note what the rule itself says about that period: 40 CFR 745.113(c)(2) provides that the recordkeeping requirement is not intended to place any limitations on civil suits under the Act, or to otherwise affect a lessee's or purchaser's rights under the civil penalty provisions of 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3). Three years is how long you must retain the file, not a measure of how long you can be sued.

Which Colorado rentals require a lead paint disclosure?

Any residential rental constructed before 1978, which the rule calls target housing. Units built in 1978 or later are outside the rule. The exemptions are narrow and come from two places. 40 CFR 745.103, as amended effective January 13, 2025 (89 FR 89416), excludes 0-bedroom dwellings and designated elderly or disabled housing unless a child under six resides or is expected to reside there; the 0-bedroom exclusion was unconditional before that amendment. 40 CFR 745.101 exempts foreclosure sales, leases of housing found lead-based paint free by a certified inspector, short-term leases of 100 days or less where no renewal or extension can occur, and qualifying renewals of existing leases. None of the 745.101 exemptions carries a child condition.

What are the penalties for skipping the Colorado disclosure?

Two separate exposures. First, 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3) makes a knowing violator jointly and severally liable to the lessee for three times the amount of damages that person incurred, and 4852d(b)(4) lets the court add court costs, reasonable attorney fees, and expert witness fees. Second, government civil money penalties assessed by EPA and HUD, which are inflation-adjusted every year, with the operative EPA amounts published in the table at 40 CFR 19.4. Any specific dollar figure quoted on a form site is stale within a year, so consult the current table rather than a blog post. Knowing violations can also carry criminal exposure.

Does the Colorado disclosure apply to lease renewals?

A fresh disclosure is required for a new lease with a new lessee. Renewals are addressed by 40 CFR 745.101(d), which exempts renewals of existing leases in target housing in which the lessor has previously disclosed all information required under 745.107 and where no new information described in 745.107 has come into the possession of the lessor. Watch that cross-reference: it points at 745.107, not at 745.113. Both conditions must hold. If you obtained a new lead report or learned of a hazard since the original disclosure, the exemption is gone and the new information must be disclosed.

Does non-disclosure void a Colorado lease?

No. EPA states that the disclosure rule does not cancel leasing or sales contracts. A landlord who fails to disclose has committed a violation and may owe treble damages and fees under 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3), and may face an agency civil penalty, but the lease itself remains in force. Tenants sometimes read the rule as a lease-termination right and landlords sometimes fear it is one. It is neither. The remedy is damages and agency enforcement, not rescission.

When does a Colorado landlord owe the renovation pamphlet?

This is a separate duty from the leasing disclosure, and the timing is widely reported backwards. Colorado Regulation 19, Part B applies to renovations of target housing performed for compensation. Section III.A requires that, no more than 60 days before beginning renovation activities in a dwelling unit, the renovator provide the owner with the pamphlet and obtain a written acknowledgment or a certificate of mailing at least 7 days prior. That is a maximum lookback window, not a 60-day waiting period: the pamphlet must be no more than 60 days old at the start of work, not delivered at least 60 days ahead. Section III.A.2 adds that where the owner does not occupy the unit, an adult occupant must also receive the pamphlet. Minor repair and maintenance disturbing 2 square feet or less of interior painted surface per room, or 20 square feet or less of exterior surface, is outside Part B.

Is lead paint a habitability defect under Colorado law?

Not by name. C.R.S. 38-12-505 lists the conditions that make a residential premises uninhabitable, and lead is not among them; the enumerated items are mold and dampness, appliances, weatherproofing, plumbing, water, heat, electrical, cleanliness and extermination, receptacles, floors and stairways, locks, code compliance, environmental cleanup standards, methamphetamine remediation, compliance with the radon disclosure statute at C.R.S. 38-12-803, and cooling devices. That radon item is telling: at 38-12-505(1)(b)(XV) Colorado made a disclosure failure a habitability defect, so it plainly knows how to do it, and it created no lead equivalent. Lead is also absent from the 38-12-505(4) list of conditions rebuttably presumed to materially interfere with a tenant's life, health, or safety. Deteriorated lead paint can still reach the statute through the general limbs: 38-12-505(1)(b)(XII) covers compliance with applicable building, housing, and health codes whose violation materially interferes with the tenant's life, health, or safety, and 38-12-505(1)(c) covers premises otherwise unfit for human habitation. The point that matters is that disclosure and habitability are independent duties: disclosing a hazard does not license you to leave it in place.

Can the Colorado lead paint disclosure be signed electronically?

Yes. Electronic disclosure and signature are permitted under the E-SIGN Act, 15 U.S.C. 7001. EPA attaches conditions: give a clear statement of the right to receive paper documents, explain the procedure to withdraw consent and its consequences, explain how to access and retain the electronic records, and obtain the tenant's consent demonstrating they can actually access the materials. A link alone is not delivery. Retain the electronic record for the same three years, in storage you control rather than in a vendor account you may stop paying for.

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Free Colorado Lead Paint Disclosure

The federal disclosure every Colorado landlord must deliver before leasing housing built before 1978. Authority is 42 U.S.C. 4852d and 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F. Colorado adds no lead paint statute of its own — and the 10-day inspection window you see on other sites is a sales rule, not a rental rule.

Federally Required 42 U.S.C. 4852d 40 CFR Part 745 Colorado Free PDF

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Reviewed for Colorado ~19 min read

A Colorado lead paint disclosure is the federally mandated form a landlord delivers to a prospective tenant before any lease of residential property built before 1978. It carries the fixed federal lead warning statement, states the lessor’s actual knowledge of lead-based paint and hazards, lists the records being handed over, documents the tenant’s receipt of the EPA pamphlet Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home, captures any agent’s acknowledgment, and is signed and dated by every party. Authority is 42 U.S.C. 4852d (Section 1018 of Title X, the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992), implemented at 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F (EPA) and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A (HUD). Colorado imposes no separate lead paint disclosure statute — the duty here is purely federal. What Colorado does add is a Real Estate Commission form mandate that binds licensed brokers, and a lead abatement certification rule, Regulation Number 19. Neither creates a landlord disclosure duty, and both are explained below alongside our Colorado habitability laws guide. Generate the form below, then read on for exactly what the rule requires.

Key Takeaways

Pre-1978 is the only trigger. Original construction before 1978 makes the unit “target housing” and the disclosure mandatory. The build date controls even if the unit was gutted and rebuilt in 1995.
Colorado has no lead paint disclosure statute. The duty is 100% federal. Title 38 of the Colorado Revised Statutes — the landlord-tenant title — does not contain the words “lead-based paint” anywhere.
The 10-day inspection window does not apply to leases. 40 CFR 745.110(a) gives it to purchasers only, and Colorado’s own forms agree: the Commission’s LP45 sales disclosure has the 10-day item, the LP46 rental disclosure has none.
LP46 is mandatory for brokers, not for owners. C.R.S. 12-10-403(4)(c) binds licensees to Commission forms. A natural person renting out their own property is not a broker under C.R.S. 12-10-201(6)(b)(VII).
You never have to test. Colorado’s own LP48 form says it outright: “There is no obligation of Landlord to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities.”
Regulation 19 is not a disclosure rule. It certifies the people who perform lead abatement. The word “disclosure” does not appear in it.
Retain the signed disclosure three years from the commencement of the leasing period (40 CFR 745.113(c)). It is your only real defence in an enforcement inquiry.

▶ Watch overview

Colorado lead paint disclosure overview

Colorado Lead Paint Disclosure at a Glance

Trigger

Built before 1978

Authority

42 U.S.C. 4852d

Colorado Statute

None — federal only

Retention

3 years

Timing

Before lease obligation

Pamphlet

EPA, mandatory

Duty to test

10-day inspection

Sales only

The one-line answer: if your Colorado rental was built before 1978 and the lease runs longer than 100 days, you must hand the tenant this signed disclosure plus the EPA pamphlet before they are obligated under the lease, and keep the signed copy for three years. Nothing in Colorado law changes that; nothing in Colorado law adds to it.

What the Colorado lead paint disclosure does

The lead paint disclosure — often called the Section 1018 disclosure, after the 1992 statute that created it — is the formal federal notice a Colorado landlord delivers to a prospective tenant for any residential property built before 1978. It does four things in one document.

First, it puts the tenant on notice of potential lead exposure through the federally mandated lead warning statement, the fixed language at 40 CFR 745.113(b)(1) that must be attached to or included within the lease.

Second, it transmits the lessor’s actual knowledge of lead-based paint or hazards in the dwelling. The lessor picks one of exactly two positions: known lead-based paint or hazards are present, with a description of what is known; or the lessor has no knowledge of lead-based paint or hazards in the housing. There is no third box, and there is no “maybe”.

Third, it transmits any reports the lessor holds from prior inspections, risk assessments, or hazard-reduction work. The lessor either provides copies of all available records and lists them, or affirmatively states that no reports or records exist.

Fourth, it documents the tenant’s receipt of the disclosure and of the EPA pamphlet. The signed acknowledgment is the landlord’s primary defence in any later EPA or HUD inquiry or private civil action.

The disclosure is not optional and the duty is not waivable by agreement. A pre-1978 Colorado rental leased without one exposes the landlord to government civil penalties and to a tenant’s private action for triple damages plus fees. Compliance takes fifteen minutes; non-compliance is the most expensive paperwork failure in pre-1978 rental practice.

Does Colorado have its own lead paint law?

No. Colorado has no state lead paint disclosure statute for landlords, and this page will not invent one. Unlike a handful of states that layer their own lead registry, testing, or certification-of-compliance regimes on top of the federal rule, Colorado does not. Every substantive disclosure requirement described on this page comes from federal law: 42 U.S.C. 4852d, 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F, and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A.

This is a claim worth proving rather than asserting, because “Colorado lead law” pages are abundant and vague. Three checks against the primary text:

Title 38 of the Colorado Revised Statutes — the title containing the landlord-tenant provisions, the warranty of habitability, and the required lease disclosures — does not contain the phrase “lead-based paint” or “lead paint” anywhere. Not once. (The same title mentions mold dozens of times, which is how you know the absence is real and not an artefact of searching.)
Title 12, Article 10 — the real estate broker licensing article — does not contain the phrase either. The Commission’s lead forms are Commission products, not statutory ones.
Regulation Number 19, Colorado’s lead rule, never uses the word “disclosure” and never uses the words “landlord” or “lessor”.

So when a competing page tells you “Colorado requires landlords to disclose lead paint”, the accurate translation is: federal law requires it, and the landlord happens to be in Colorado. That is not a quibble. It tells you which text governs when there is a dispute, which agency enforces it, and which cite to give a tenant’s lawyer. What Colorado genuinely contributes is three adjacent things, each covered in its own section below:

The Real Estate Commission’s LP forms. Colorado publishes mandatory lead disclosure forms — and they are a better argument for our reading of the federal rule than anything on the internet. See the next section.
Regulation Number 19, 5 CCR 1001-23. A lead abatement and pre-renovation education rule administered by the Air Quality Control Commission. It certifies contractors. It is routinely mis-cited as a landlord duty.
The warranty of habitability, C.R.S. 38-12-503 and 38-12-505. Applies to the condition of the premises independently of disclosure — though, as covered below, it does not name lead.

Because the obligation is federal rather than state-specific, the same disclosure applies to a rental in any state — our federal lead-based paint disclosure form is the generic version of the Colorado form on this page.

Colorado’s own forms prove the 10-day rule is a sales rule

Here is the most useful thing on this page, and no competing Colorado page mentions it.

The Colorado Real Estate Commission publishes four lead-based paint forms, all marked Mandatory. They come in two matched pairs — one for sales, one for rentals — and the difference between the pairs settles the single most-disputed question in lead compliance.

Commission form	Transaction	Does it carry the 10-day inspection item?
LP45 — Lead-Based Paint Disclosure (Sales)	Attachment to the Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate	Yes. Item 7 recites the buyer’s 10-day opportunity; item 8 makes the buyer elect to obtain an inspection or waive it.
LP46 — Lead-Based Paint Disclosure (Rentals)	Attachment to the Residential Lease or Rental Agreement	No. The form runs items 1 to 6 — the landlord’s acknowledgment of their obligations and the three-year retention rule, knowledge of lead-based paint, records and reports, then the tenant’s three items: read the warning statement, received the information, received the pamphlet. A licensee acknowledgment block and a certification of accuracy follow, unnumbered. There is no inspection item of any kind.
LP47 — Lead-Based Paint Obligations of Seller	Seller’s acknowledgment of duties	Yes. Item 5 states the seller “shall permit the buyer a 10-day period… to conduct a risk assessment or inspection”.
LP48 — Lead-Based Paint Obligations of the Landlord	Landlord’s acknowledgment of duties	No. The landlord’s list of obligations runs to five items and contains no inspection duty at all.

Read that table again, because it is a controlled experiment. The same agency, in the same forms family, revised on the same date, drafted a seller’s obligations form that carries the 10-day duty and a landlord’s obligations form that does not. That is not an oversight. Colorado’s Real Estate Commission drew the line exactly where the Code of Federal Regulations draws it: 40 CFR 745.110(a) runs to purchasers, and the lessor rules at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contain no inspection item.

So when a Colorado property-management blog tells you to “offer tenants a 10-day period to conduct a lead-based paint inspection” — and the highest-ranking one for that query does, in those words — it is contradicted by the federal regulation and by the state’s own mandatory paperwork simultaneously.

What LP48 actually says about testing

The landlord obligations form is unusually blunt, and it is worth quoting because it disposes of a second myth in one sentence. LP48 opens: “Landlord acknowledges the following obligations, which shall be completed before the tenant is obligated under any contract to lease the Property. There is no obligation of Landlord to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities.” Evaluation means a risk assessment or inspection; reduction means abatement or interim controls. Colorado’s own mandatory form tells landlords, in its opening paragraph, that they need not test and need not remediate to satisfy this rule. It then lists the five things they must do: the warning statement, the pamphlet, disclosure of known paint and hazards, disclosure of records including common areas and building-wide evaluations, and signature.

Do I have to use Colorado’s official LP46 form?

This is the question every Colorado landlord actually has when they discover the Commission forms exist, and no ranking page answers it. The forms say “Mandatory”. Mandatory for whom?

The form mandate binds licensees, not owners. The duty comes from C.R.S. 12-10-403(4)(c): “A broker shall use a commission-approved fo