Finding great tenants in the Centennial State begins with your Colorado rental application. Ready to say goodbye to piles of paperwork and lost documents? Enjoy a smooth application process with iPropertyManagement’s free rental application template.
Here’s a guide to the rules and regulations that govern Colorado rental applications.
Information to Collect
A Colorado rental application form helps landlords collect renter information, including:
- Personal information: Names (of applicants, co-applicants, and/or co-signers), date of birth, Social Security numbers, email, phone number, smoking status, vehicle details, and emergency contact
- Financial information: Employment status and income history
- Rental history: Previous and current residences
- Professional and rental references: Employer and previous landlord contact information
- Pets: Pets and/or service animals
Because this form collects sensitive renter information, laws regulate what questions landlords can ask, what information they can gather, and how they use it to make decisions.
Here’s a guide to tenant screening covering the laws applying to your Colorado rental application form.
Quick Guide to Screening a Tenant
These six steps can help you navigate tenant screening in a responsible, legally compliant way.
1. Pre-Screen
When a renter first discovers your listing, a pre-screener form can help you decide if they’re a good fit to apply.
Landlords use pre-screeners to sample a renter’s:
- Contact details
- Employment and income
- Self-stated credit score
- Move-in date range
- Household size, vehicles, pets, and smoking
Use a pre-screener to sort through leads and spot red flags, but remember, this form can’t replace your official Colorado rental application.
2. Conduct Showings
Ready to show the rental and meet with potential tenants? Schedule an open house and book property tours so renters can scope out the home or apartment in person.
3. Distribute and Collect Applications
After property showings and the pre-screener, it’s time to share your online rental application. Collect your completed rental application and fee, making sure the applicant signed the consent and acknowledgement section.
Colorado Application Laws
Each state has its own set of landlord-tenant rights and rental application laws. In Colorado, these fall under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
In Colorado, you can’t discriminate against or deny applicants solely based on:
- Disability
- Race
- Creed
- Color
- Sex or sexual orientation
- Gender identity or expression
- Marital or familial status
- Veteran or military status
- Religion
- National origin
- Ancestry
Colorado law protects these traits (C.R.S. 24-34-502).
Criminal history: You can consider criminal history within the past 5 years, but you can’t apply blanket bans based on it, or reference cases that didn’t end with a conviction (C.R.S. 38-12-904).
Eviction history: Landlords can only consider evictions within the past 7 years where the tenant lost the case in court (C.R.S. 38-12-904).
Portable tenant screening reports: Landlords must state their portable tenant screening report policy in writing on the rental listing. Colorado law requires you to accept this form of screening if applicants provide it at no cost to you and deliver it through a consumer reporting agency (C.R.S. 38-12-904).
Pets, ESAs, and Service Animals
Nearly 65% of Colorado residents have pets, so your Colorado rental application should account for them.
While landlords can’t discriminate against applicants because they have an animal with service status, tenants still have to cover property damage caused by their animals.
Pet information: Include questions about pets, Emotional Support Animals (ESAs), and service animals in the application form.
Fair Housing Act: You can’t discriminate against applicants based on their animal’s certified service status, or charge any pet deposit, pet rent, or pet fee for them. You can’t deny housing based on the service animal’s size, weight, or breed.
Federal Application Laws
These federal laws apply all across Colorado — and throughout the entire country.
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA): Landlords must receive an applicant’s written consent before conducting a credit check. If you deny a renter based on credit history, you must send the applicant an adverse action notice (Fair Credit Reporting Act).
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA): The ECOA protects individuals who receive public assistance, regulates how landlords assess credit history, and sets reporting guidelines for applicants (Equal Credit Opportunity Act).
Fair Housing Act (FHA): Landlords and employees who select renters can’t deny or discriminate based on:
- Race
- Color
- National origin
- Religion
- Sex
- Familial status
- Disability
You can’t ask questions about these traits, engage in discriminatory advertising, or offer unequal terms of renting (Fair Housing Act).
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): You can’t deny applicants solely based on a disability, and you must accommodate a renter’s condition (Americans with Disabilities Act).
4. Use a Third-Party Screening Service
Streamline your tenant screening by using services to conduct credit checks and criminal background checks.
5. Check Application References
Reach out to the applicant’s references. These sample questions can help you get the conversation started:
- Did this tenant ever miss rent?
- How would you rate your experience with this tenant?
- Would you recommend renting to this tenant?
- Did they ever damage the property or violate the lease in any way?
6. Approve or Deny Applications
As a best practice, always accept multiple applications on a first-come, first-served basis. Your decisions should consider:
- Credit Score: Set a minimum credit score requirement somewhere between 600 and 670.
- Rent-to-Income Ratio: Rent should be less than 30% of the applicant’s gross income.
- Rental History: Most landlords require a co-signer if the renter has less than a year of rental history available.
- Fact Check on Rental Application: Always verify an applicant’s identity, documents, employment, and income.
Denial Process
Apply the same denial process for all applicants. Landlords can deny based on credit, income, rental history, criminal background, or false information.
Denial notice: Colorado law requires you to send tenant rejection letters stating the reason you denied the applicant (C.R.S. 38-12-904).
Credit/Background denials: Under the FCRA, if you deny an applicant based on their credit or tenant background check, you must send them an adverse action notice stating the reporting agency’s name and contact details and the tenant’s right to dispute errors.
Document storage: Landlords should store screening reports and denied applications for three to five years. You can use these documents to defend yourself against claims of discrimination.
Avoiding Fraud
Falsified documents and phony personal details are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to rental application scams. Stay diligent by watching out for red flags and following these steps:
- Verify application details (identity, documents, income, employment)
- Speak with past landlords
- Run credit, background, and eviction checks
Sources
- 1 Col. Gen. Assembly, "Rental Application Fees: Concerning the rental application process for prospective tenants"
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This is the official summary provided by the Colorado General Assembly for HB19-1106, as enacted:
The act states that a landlord may not charge a prospective tenant a rental application fee unless the landlord uses the entire amount of the fee to cover the landlord’s costs in processing the rental application. A landlord also may not charge a prospective tenant a rental application fee that is in a different amount than a rental application fee charged to another prospective tenant who applies to rent:
- The same dwelling unit; or
- If the landlord offers more than one dwelling unit for rent at the same time, any other dwelling unit offered by the landlord.
The act requires a landlord to provide to any prospective tenant who has paid a rental application fee either a disclosure of the landlord’s anticipated expenses for which the fee will be used or an itemization of the landlord’s actual expenses incurred. The landlord is required to make a good-faith effort to refund any unused portion of an application fee within 20 days.
The act states that if a landlord uses rental history or credit history as criteria in consideration of an application, the landlord shall not consider any rental history or credit history beyond 7 years immediately preceding the date of the application. If a landlord considers criminal history as a criterion, the landlord shall not consider an arrest record of a prospective tenant from any time or any conviction of a prospective tenant that occurred more than 5 years before the date of the application; except that a landlord may consider any criminal conviction record or deferred judgment relating to certain criminal offenses involving methamphetamine, any offense that required the prospective tenant to register as a sex offender, any offense that is classified as a homicide, or stalking.
If a landlord denies a rental application, the landlord shall provide the prospective tenant a written notice of the denial that states the reasons for the denial.
A landlord who violates any of the requirements created in the act is liable to the person who is charged a rental application fee for triple the amount of the rental application fee, plus court costs. A landlord who corrects or cures a violation not more than 7 calendar days after receiving notice of the violation is immune from liability. A person who intentionally and in bad faith brings a meritless claim against a landlord is liable for the landlord’s court costs and reasonable attorney fees in defending the claim.
Source Link - 2 Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-12-904(1.5)(a)
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Except as provided in subsection (1.5)(f) of this section, a landlord shall accept a portable tenant screening report from a prospective tenant.Source Link
- 3 Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-12-904(1)
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Source Link
(a) If a landlord uses rental history or credit history as criteria in consideration of an application, the landlord shall not consider any rental history or credit history beyond seven years immediately preceding the date of the application, and the landlord must comply with subsections (1)(c) and (1)(d) of this section. (b) If a landlord uses criminal history as a criterion in consideration of an application, the landlord shall not consider an arrest record of a prospective tenant from any time or any conviction of a prospective tenant that occurred more than five years before the date of the application; except that a landlord may consider any criminal conviction record or deferred judgment relating to: (I) The unlawful distribution, manufacturing, dispensing, or sale of a material, compound, mixture, or preparation that contains methamphetamine, as described in section 18-18-405; (II) The unlawful possession of materials to make methamphetamine and amphetamine, as described in section 18-18-412.5; (III) Any offense that required the prospective tenant to register as a sex offender pursuant to section 16-22-103; or (IV) Any offense described in part 1 or part 6 of article 3 of title 18. (c) If a landlord uses financial information, including rental history or credit history, as a criterion in consideration of a rental application from a prospective tenant who is seeking to rent with the assistance of a housing subsidy, the landlord shall not consider or inquire about the prospective tenant’s: (I) Amount of income, except for the purpose of determining that the prospective tenant’s annual amount of income equals or exceeds two hundred percent of the portion of the annual cost of rent that is to be paid by the prospective tenant; or (II) Credit score, adverse credit event, or lack of credit score unless the landlord is required by federal law to consider a credit score or a lack of a credit score. (d) If a landlord uses financial information, including rental history or credit history, as a criterion in consideration of a rental application from any prospective tenant who is seeking to rent without the assistance of a housing subsidy, the landlord shall not consider or inquire about the prospective tenant’s amount of income, except for the purpose of determining that the prospective tenant’s annual amount of income equals or exceeds two hundred percent of the annual cost of rent. A landlord shall not require a prospective tenant to have an annual amount of income that exceeds two hundred percent of the annual cost of rent. (e) Notwithstanding subsections (1)(c) and (1)(d) of this section, nothing in said subsections precludes a landlord who is receiving funding from a governmental entity, quasi-governmental entity, or nonprofit organization that requires landlords to income-qualify tenants for income-restricted rental units from gathering any financial information about a prospective tenant for the purpose of determining the prospective tenant’s eligibility for an income-restricted rental unit if the funding source requires the landlord to collect such information as a condition for the receipt of funding.
