Chapter 3 - § 3.1 • DUTY TO DELIVER POSSESSION AND LANDLORD OBLIGATIONS

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 3.1 • DUTY TO DELIVER POSSESSION AND LANDLORD OBLIGATIONS

§ 3.1.1—Duty to Deliver Possession

A landlord-tenant relationship is created when an estate passes to the tenant. After such a relationship has been created, the landlord has a duty to deliver possession of the property to the tenant. "It is fundamental to the relationship of landlord and tenant that an estate pass to the tenant and that he achieve possession and control of such property." Hoffman v. King Res. Co., 530 P.2d 961, 962 (Colo. 1975). Absent an agreement to the contrary, a tenant is entitled to the possession of the leased premises to the exclusion of the landlord. Sundheim v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 904 P.2d 1337 (Colo. App. 1995), aff'd on other grounds, 926 P.2d 545 (Colo. 1996).

In Senco Investments, LLC v. Melonakis, No. 15CV31403 (Denver District Court, 2016), the court addressed a situation where the parties agreed, by lease, that the tenant had to permit the landlord to have access to the premises "at reasonable times" for "any reasonable purpose." Id. at 3. The landlord attempted to evict the tenant because of the tenant's refusal to permit entry to the premises. The trial court said that the parties had agreed that, to determine whether an attempted entry is reasonable, an objective standard was to be used. Id. Under this standard, the court held that the "Landlord should have communicated with the Tenant to schedule a mutually agreeable time to enter the apartment. . . . By unilaterally setting a date and time for entry, without first communicating with Tenant, Landlord created its own scheduling problems when the date and time proved to be problematic for Tenant." Because the landlord's attempted entry was objectively unreasonable, eviction was not warranted. Id. at 4.

If the landlord fails to deliver the property, then the tenant is entitled to damages that include the return of money paid and the reasonable value of the tenancy, which has been defined as the reasonable value of the premises for the term of the tenancy. In Colorado National Bank v. Ashcraft, 83 Colo. 136, 263 P. 23 (1927), the court awarded the tenant the estimated value of profits lost because of the landlord's failure to deliver possession of a farm rented by the tenant.

§ 3.1.2—Required Documents

If there is a written rental agreement, the landlord shall provide a copy of the agreement that is signed by the landlord and the tenant, no later than the seventh day after the tenant has signed the agreement. The landlord may provide an electronic copy to the tenant unless the tenant requests a paper copy. C.R.S. § 38-12-801(1).

A written rental agreement must include a statement indicating the name and address of the person who is the landlord or their authorized agent and a written or electronic notice of a change to the landlord or the authorized agent must be provided...