Free Colorado Lease Extension Agreement — overview

A Colorado Lease Extension Agreement continues an existing residential lease for an additional period under the same (or modified) terms. The form on this page produces a comprehensive Colorado lease extension that both parties sign to make the extension binding.

Complete the Lease Extension Agreement Form

Complete the form below to generate a comprehensive Colorado Lease Extension Agreement. The form produces a multi-page PDF in legal-document format with all sections, signature lines, and full statutory references. Both parties must sign the printed copy for the lease extension to take effect.

About the Colorado Lease Extension Agreement

Colorado does not require a statutory form for a lease extension. Any signed writing by both parties is sufficient to extend the existing lease for an additional period. CRS Title 38, Article 12 governs residential landlord-tenant relations; key provisions include the once-per-twelve-months limit on rent increases (CRS 38-12-702) and, where there is no written rental agreement, the 60-day written notice requirement (CRS 38-12-701) and the implied warranty of habitability under CRS 38-12-503.

Colorado’s Lease Extension Agreement Framework

• Statute: CRS Title 38, Article 12 (Tenants and Landlords)
• Rent increase: once per 12-month period of consecutive occupancy (CRS 38-12-702); at least 60 days written notice where there is no written rental agreement (CRS 38-12-701)
• Implied warranty of habitability: CRS 38-12-503 (Habitability Act of 2008)
• Security deposit: capped at two monthly rent payments (CRS 38-12-102.5); must be returned within thirty days after termination of the lease or surrender of the premises, whichever occurs last, or up to sixty days if the lease so provides (CRS 38-12-103(1)(a))
• Form: signed writing by both parties is sufficient — no statutory form required

What This Document Does

• Identifies both parties and the original lease being extended
• States the new extension term start and end dates
• Specifies rent during the extension (and any changes)
• Addresses security deposit treatment
• Confirms all other original lease terms remain in effect (or specifies modifications)

Notice Requirements and Best Practices

Colorado does not require statutory notice to negotiate a lease extension, but best practice is to communicate intentions 60-90 days before the original lease end date. If the parties cannot agree on extension terms, a tenancy outside part 13 simply expires on its end date (unless the lease provides for automatic month-to-month conversion). For a tenancy that part 13 does cover, expiry is not enough on its own: under C.R.S. 38-12-1303(1) the landlord still needs a statutory ground, and a refused offer of reasonable terms is itself a no-fault ground under 38-12-1303(3)(e) carrying ninety days’ notice. Rent may not be increased more than once in any 12-month period of consecutive occupancy (CRS 38-12-702), and where there is no written rental agreement at least 60 days written notice is required (CRS 38-12-701). Under a written extension the agreed rent governs for its term.

Can a Colorado landlord simply decline to renew a lease?

For most Colorado residential tenancies, no. Since House Bill 24-1098, C.R.S. 38-12-1303(1) provides that a landlord “shall not serve a notice to terminate tenancy or a demand for possession or otherwise proceed with an action for unlawful detainer… unless there is cause.” Declining to renew at the end of a fixed term is a termination of the tenancy for this purpose, so a landlord who simply wants the unit back at the end of the term needs a statutory ground, not merely the expiry of the lease.

This is why an extension is often the practical path in Colorado: where no cause exists, continuing the tenancy on agreed terms is the outcome the statute points to anyway, and an extension records those terms in writing instead of letting the tenancy roll over by default.

Which tenancies are exempt

C.R.S. 38-12-1302(1) applies part 13 to “every residential premises in the state” and then carves out six categories. Part 13 does not apply to: (a) a short-term rental property; (b) a unit where the owner or master tenant lives in and maintains the premises as a primary residence, or lives in an adjacent property they maintain as their primary residence, where the premises is a single-family home with or without an accessory dwelling unit, a duplex or a triplex and is not a multifamily property of four or more units; (c) a mobile home space leased to a home owner or under a lease-to-own arrangement; (d) premises leased under an employer-provided housing agreement as defined in C.R.S. 13-40-104; (e) a residential tenant who has not been a tenant of a residential premises for at least twelve months; and (f) a residential tenant who is not known to the landlord to be a tenant.

Carve-out (e) is the one to read twice, because it is the most commonly hit of the six: for the first twelve months of a tenancy there is no just-cause protection at all. A landlord deciding whether to extend a first-year lease is very often outside part 13 entirely, and the ordinary notice rules govern instead.

Extension or renewal? The distinction that changes the paperwork

The two words are used interchangeably in conversation and mean different things on paper. An extension continues the existing lease: the original agreement remains in force, its terms survive, and only the end date – and sometimes the rent – changes. A renewal creates a new lease for a new term, which replaces the old one.

The practical consequences run in both directions. Under an extension, every clause you negotiated the first time carries forward automatically, including the ones you may have forgotten; guarantor obligations and the original security deposit generally continue without a fresh instrument. Under a renewal, anything not carried into the new document is gone, a guarantor may need to sign again for the new term to be covered, and the deposit is usually treated as transferring only because the parties say so. Colorado does not define either term by statute, so the label on your document matters less than what the document actually says about which terms survive.

Rent during an extension: what Colorado limits and what it does not

Two sections do the work, and they have different scopes. C.R.S. 38-12-702 provides that in residential tenancies “a landlord shall not increase rent more than one time in any twelve-month period of consecutive occupancy by the tenant” – and it says this applies regardless of whether there is a written rental agreement, regardless of the length of the tenancy, and regardless of whether the tenancy is fixed, month-to-month or indefinite. That limit follows the tenant across an extension.

C.R.S. 38-12-701(2)(a) is narrower and is frequently misquoted. It requires at least sixty days’ written notice of a rent increase “in a residential tenancy in which there is no written agreement between the landlord and tenant.” It is a rule for undocumented tenancies. Where a written extension sets the rent for its term, the agreed figure governs for that term, and the sixty-day rule is not the mechanism by which it changes. The same section, at (2)(b), also bars a landlord from terminating an undocumented residential tenancy “with the primary purpose of increasing a tenant’s rent in a manner inconsistent with this section.”

Colorado has no statewide cap on the amount of a residential rent increase. The constraints are the once-per-twelve-months frequency limit, the notice rule for undocumented tenancies, and whatever the parties have agreed in writing.

Notice periods if the tenancy is not extended

Where the just-cause requirement does not apply – that is, for nonresidential property or the exempt residential categories listed in C.R.S. 38-12-1302(1)(a), (b), (d), (e) or (f) – C.R.S. 13-40-107 sets the notice to terminate a periodic tenancy or to decline to renew a fixed term. The notice must expire at the end of the period or fixed term, and the required lead time is set by the length of the tenancy:

• A tenancy of one year or longer: at least 91 days
• Six months or longer but less than a year: at least 28 days
• One month or longer but less than six months: at least 21 days
• One week or longer but less than one month, or a tenancy at will: at least three days
• Less than one week: at least one day

The statute also requires that the written notice describe the property, state the particular date when the tenancy will terminate, and be signed by the party giving it. The ninety-one-day figure surprises landlords more than any other number in Colorado practice: a decision not to extend a year-long lease has to be made and communicated roughly three months before the term ends.

What happens if neither party acts

A tenant who stays past the end of the term without a new agreement is in holdover. C.R.S. 13-40-104(1)(c) defines unlawful detention to include a tenant of nonresidential property or of the exempt residential categories who “holds over and continues in possession… after the expiration of the term for which the… premises was leased or after the tenancy has been terminated by either party.” For covered residential tenancies the just-cause framework governs instead, which is precisely why letting a Colorado tenancy lapse into an undocumented arrangement is the worst of the available outcomes: the tenant keeps possession, the once-per-year rent limit still applies, and the landlord has swapped a written agreement for the sixty-day notice regime in 38-12-701.

Who counts as a landlord, and which premises are covered

Whether any of this applies to a given tenancy is decided by definitions rather than by intuition, and C.R.S. 38-12-1301 supplies them by cross-reference to other parts of the code. Four are worth knowing before you conclude a tenancy is exempt.

“Cause” is defined circularly and deliberately: it means a circumstance described in 38-12-1303(2). There is no general reasonableness standard sitting behind it, so a ground that is not on the list is not cause, however sensible it may be commercially.

“Landlord” takes its meaning from 38-12-502(5), with a carve-out: it does not include the management or landlord of a mobile home park unless the park is renting both a mobile home space and a mobile home to a resident, and that resident is not living there under a lease-to-own agreement. Mobile home park tenancies are largely governed by their own part of the code rather than by this one.

“Primary residence” is not a matter of where someone spends their time. It is the address listed on a Colorado driver’s licence, identification card or voter registration; or used for paying state or federal taxes; or used for public school registration – measured at the time a valid no-fault eviction is exercised under C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3). That definition is what makes the owner-occupied exemption checkable rather than arguable, and a landlord relying on that exemption should expect the documentary version to be the one that counts.

“No-fault eviction” means an action brought under article 40 of title 13 for eviction under the conditions in 38-12-1303(3) – the demolition, renovation and owner-occupancy grounds described below. “Accessory dwelling unit” and “dwelling unit” likewise borrow their definitions from 38-12-801(7)(a) and 38-12-502(3) respectively, which matters for the owner-occupied carve-out, since that exemption turns on whether the property is a single-family home with or without an accessory unit, a duplex or a triplex – and expressly not a multifamily property of four or more dwelling units.

The effect of reading those together is narrower than landlords often assume. The exemption for owner-occupied property requires the owner or master tenant to live in and maintain the premises as their primary residence, or to live in an adjacent property they maintain as their primary residence; and the property has to be within the one-to-three-unit range. A four-unit building whose owner lives in one of the units is a covered residential premises.

The grounds that count as cause

C.R.S. 38-12-1303(2) does not write its own list. It says cause “exists only as described in the following sections” and then cross-references C.R.S. 13-40-104, which is where the substance lives. In practical terms, the at-fault grounds a landlord of a covered residential tenancy can rely on are:

• Non-payment of rent – 13-40-104(1)(d).
• A substantial violation as described in 13-40-107.5 – 13-40-104(1)(d.5).
• A material violation of the lease or rental agreement – 13-40-104(1)(e).
• A repeat violation after proper notice of the earlier one – 13-40-104(1)(e.5). The prior notice is what makes this ground available, which is a reason to document a first breach even when you do not act on it.
• Nuisance, disturbance interfering with quiet enjoyment, or negligent damage to the property – 13-40-104(1)(j).
• Holding over after the term or after termination – 13-40-104(1)(c) – which, note, is confined to nonresidential property and the exempt residential categories.

The remaining cross-references cover possession after a legal sale, possession after a judgment or decree once the redemption period has run, an heir or devisee holding over after a personal representative has conveyed the property, and a vendee who fails to comply with an agreement to purchase. They rarely arise in an ordinary residential tenancy.

What “substantial violation” actually means

That ground carries the shortest timetable in Colorado landlord-tenant practice, so it is worth knowing precisely. C.R.S. 13-40-107.5(2) declares it “an implied term of every lease of real property in this state that the tenant shall not commit a substantial violation while in possession of the premises” – it is in the lease whether or not anyone wrote it there.

Subsection (3) defines it as an act or series of acts by the tenant or any guest or invitee that, taken together, occurs on or near the premises and endangers a person or wilfully and substantially endangers the property of the landlord, a co-tenant or someone living on or near the premises; or constitutes a violent or drug-related felony under the listed articles of title 18; or is a criminal act carrying a potential sentence of one hundred eighty days or more that has been declared a public nuisance under state law or a local ordinance based on a state statute.

Where it applies, 13-40-107.5(4)(a) allows a tenancy to be terminated at any time, effective three days after service of a written notice to terminate – which must describe the property, state the particular date the tenancy ends and the grounds, and be signed by the landlord or the landlord’s agent or attorney. The landlord then carries the burden of proving the violation by a preponderance of the evidence under subsection (5)(a). Two defences sit in (5)(b) and (5)(c): that the tenant neither knew of nor could reasonably have prevented a guest’s or invitee’s act and immediately notified law enforcement; and that the tenant is a documented victim-survivor of unlawful sexual behaviour, stalking, domestic violence or domestic abuse that caused or contributed to the alleged violation. The three-day figure is not a general Colorado eviction period, and using it for an ordinary lease breach is a serious misstep.

No-fault grounds, and the ninety-day rule attached to them

C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3) provides separately for no-fault evictions – the situations where the tenant has done nothing wrong but the tenancy still ends. Each carries its own procedure, and the recurring feature is that the tenant gets at least ninety days after written notice to vacate, and may remain during that period on the existing rental agreement’s terms.

Demolition or conversion

Where a landlord plans to demolish the premises, convert it to a non-residential use, or convert it to a short-term rental, a no-fault eviction may be initiated at the end of the rental agreement term. The written notice must state the vacate date – at least ninety days out – and include a description and timeline of the project with a material demonstration of the proposed commencement date, such as a copy of a building permit or an application for a permit or licence to operate a short-term rental.

Substantial repairs or renovations

The same ninety-day structure applies, plus an expected completion date and a general description of the work, and a duty to proceed “without unreasonable delay” once possession is recovered. Where the work is expected to last less than one hundred eighty days, the landlord must send the tenant written notice of the expected completion date; if the tenant responds within ten days that they want to return, the landlord must offer a first right of refusal on a new rental agreement with reasonable terms, and the tenant then has thirty days to occupy unless the parties agree otherwise in writing.

Two limits sit on this ground and both matter. A landlord may not use it where the repairs are the ones required to remedy a breach of the warranty of habitability under C.R.S. 38-12-503, and may not use it where the work is initiated in retaliation against the tenant as described in 38-12-509(1). Renovation, in other words, cannot be the route around a habitability complaint.

Occupancy by the landlord or a family member

A landlord who plans to recover the premises for their own use and occupancy as a residence, or for a family member’s, may initiate a no-fault eviction at the end of the rental agreement term. C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(c)(I) attaches four conditions, and all of them bind: the landlord or family member must move in within three months after the tenant vacates; the tenant must get proper service of written notice at least ninety days before the vacate date, remaining in possession on the existing agreement’s terms; no substantially equivalent unit may be vacant and available in the same building; and the landlord must not list the premises for long- or short-term rental for at least ninety days after the vacate date.

Two variations sit alongside those. Under 38-12-1303(3)(c)(II), a landlord who is on active military duty, or the spouse of such a person, gives forty-five days’ notice rather than ninety. Under (3)(c)(III), where the landlord or the family member is a person with a disability, the three-month move-in period may be extended for a reasonable time to allow the premises to be adapted.

Withdrawal from the rental market to sell

C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(d) allows a no-fault eviction where the landlord plans to sell a premises that is a single-family home, townhome, duplex, triplex or individual condominium unit – not a larger building. The tenant gets at least ninety days after written notice of the landlord’s intent to withdraw the premises and sell, and the landlord must not list it for long- or short-term rental for ninety days after the vacate date, unless the landlord can produce evidence it was listed for sale on a multiple-listing service after that date. Subsection (3)(d)(II) is explicit that nothing here permits terminating a rental agreement without cause before the end of its term.

The tenant refuses to sign a new lease with reasonable terms

This is the ground that matters most on this page. Under C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(e), if a tenant refuses to sign a new rental agreement with reasonable terms, the landlord may initiate a no-fault eviction, again allowing the tenant at least ninety days after the required notice to vacate.

So a landlord whose extension or renewal offer is turned down is not stuck. What the statute requires is that the terms offered be reasonable – a word it does not define, and on which we are aware of no controlling Colorado appellate construction. An offer that raises rent within the once-per-twelve-months limit and otherwise carries the existing terms forward is a very different proposition from one loaded with new obligations. The offer, and the refusal, are worth documenting.

History of nonpayment of rent

C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(f) provides a no-fault ground where the tenant has a history of paying rent late – late meaning more than ten days after the due date, where the landlord served the notice required by C.R.S. 13-40-104(1)(d) on each occasion. It rewards landlords who documented each late payment at the time and offers nothing to those who did not.

What a Colorado lease extension should record

• The original lease, identified precisely – parties, property and the date of the agreement being extended, so it is unambiguous which terms survive.
• The new end date, and whether the tenancy converts to month-to-month afterwards or simply ends.
• The rent for the extension term, and the date any change takes effect – checked against the once-per-twelve-months limit in 38-12-702.
• That the security deposit carries forward under the original terms, rather than leaving it to inference.
• Any term that is actually changing, stated as a change, with a line confirming everything else continues unaltered.
• Signatures from every original party, including any guarantor whose obligation is meant to continue.

Can a Colorado landlord refuse to renew a lease without giving a reason?

For most residential tenancies, no. C.R.S. 38-12-1303(1) bars a landlord from serving a notice to terminate or proceeding with an unlawful detainer action unless cause exists, and that framework reaches a decision not to renew. The exemptions in 38-12-1302(1) – short-term rentals, certain owner-occupied one-to-three-unit properties, mobile home spaces and employer-provided housing among them – are where a no-reason non-renewal remains possible.

How much notice is needed to end a one-year lease in Colorado?

Where C.R.S. 13-40-107 applies, a tenancy of one year or longer requires at least 91 days’ written notice, expiring at the end of the term. Shorter tenancies scale down: 28 days at six months or more, 21 days at one month or more, three days for weekly tenancies or a tenancy at will, and one day below a week.

Is a lease extension different from a lease renewal in Colorado?

Legally the labels are not defined by statute, but the documents usually do different things. An extension continues the existing lease and its terms with a new end date; a renewal creates a new lease that replaces the old one. What controls is the text: an extension should say which terms survive, and a renewal should carry forward anything you still want.

Can rent be raised in a Colorado lease extension?

Yes, if the parties agree, subject to C.R.S. 38-12-702’s limit of one increase in any twelve-month period of consecutive occupancy – which applies whether or not there is a written agreement. The separate 60-day notice rule in 38-12-701(2)(a) applies to residential tenancies with no written agreement, so where a written extension sets the rent, that agreed figure governs for its term.

Does the security deposit carry over into an extension?

Usually yes under an extension, because the original lease continues in force – but say so in the document. Colorado amended its security deposit law in 2025, so confirm the current return deadlines and itemisation duties against the code rather than relying on older summaries.

What happens if the tenant stays after the lease ends with nothing signed?

The tenancy does not simply vanish. For exempt tenancies, C.R.S. 13-40-104(1)(c) treats holding over after the term as unlawful detention. For covered residential tenancies the just-cause framework continues to apply, and the arrangement becomes an undocumented tenancy governed by the notice rules in 38-12-701 – a worse position for the landlord than a signed extension.

Does a guarantor stay on the hook through an extension?

Often, but do not assume it. Where the original lease continues under an extension, a guaranty written to cover that lease will usually follow it; where the guaranty is limited to a defined term, or the document is structured as a renewal creating a new lease, the guarantor may need to sign again. Having the guarantor sign the extension removes the argument.

Related Resources

• Colorado landlord tenant laws
• Colorado habitability laws
• Colorado security deposit laws
• Colorado eviction notice laws
• Colorado late fee laws
• Landlord forms