A rent payment must be late by at least seven calendar days before the landlord may charge the covered late fee.
The ceiling is the greater of $50 or 5% of the amount of the past-due rent payment.
The late fee must be disclosed in the rental agreement.
The landlord may not impose a late fee on the portion of rent a rent subsidy provider, rather than the tenant, is responsible for paying.
Start with the due date and count seven calendar days
Colorado’s statutory trigger is timing-specific. Preserve the lease provision showing the contractual due date and the payment confirmation or ledger entry showing when the rent was actually received.
Do not start with the percentage calculation if the seven-calendar-day threshold has not first been satisfied.
The amount ceiling uses the greater of $50 or 5% of past-due rent
The statute caps the covered late fee at the greater of two dollar amounts: $50, or 5% of the amount of the past-due rent payment. The relevant percentage base is therefore the past-due rent payment, not automatically the original full monthly rent after a partial payment.
For calculator use, compute 5% of the past-due rent payment, compare that amount with $50, and use the larger dollar amount as the Maximum fee / cap. Do not enter $50 as a minimum floor because the Colorado rule describes the maximum permitted fee, not a required minimum fee.
The fee must be disclosed in the rental agreement
Colorado separately prohibits requiring payment of a late fee unless the late fee is disclosed in the rental agreement. Preserve the executed lease and any late-fee addendum rather than relying only on the resident portal or a later fee schedule.
Partial payments and rent subsidies can change the calculation base
Because the percentage component refers to the past-due rent payment, a partial payment can materially change the five-percent amount. Reconstruct the ledger balance before the fee was assessed.
The statute also prohibits imposing a late fee on the portion of rent for which a rent subsidy provider, rather than the tenant, is responsible. Preserve tenant-share and subsidy-share records when applicable.
Colorado also restricts repeat and follow-on late-fee practices
- The landlord may not require interest on a late fee.
- The landlord may not recoup a late fee from a rent payment made by the tenant.
- A landlord may not use nonpayment of late fees alone as the basis for specified removal or termination actions described by the statute.
- The statute restricts repeated late fees for the same late payment and keeps the total within the statutory amount ceiling.
- The landlord must provide written notice of the late fee within the statutory 180-day period after the rent payment was due.
Documents to compare
- Executed rental agreement and any late-fee addendum.
- Rent due date shown in the lease.
- Resident ledger showing the past-due rent amount before the fee posted.
- Payment confirmations and any partial-payment history.
- Tenant-share and subsidy-provider records when housing assistance applies.
- Written late-fee notice and its date.
- Any later rent payment showing whether a late-fee amount was deducted from the rent payment.
Use the Colorado rule with the late-fee calculator
First test the seven-calendar-day trigger. Then calculate 5% of the actual past-due rent payment and compare it with $50. The larger of those two amounts is the statutory dollar ceiling to enter as Maximum fee / cap; $50 is not a minimum fee the landlord must charge.
Compare this issue across states
Use nationwide comparison pages only where RentBillCheck has dedicated source-verified state topics for the same issue.
Official sources
Current 2026 Title 38 statutory text. Section 38-12-105 contains the statewide residential late-fee timing, amount, disclosure and prohibited-practices framework.
Colorado General AssemblySB21-173 — Rights in Residential Lease Agreements ↗Official enacted-bill page for the legislation that created Colorado’s modern residential late-fee protections in C.R.S. § 38-12-105.