Selling a Rental House With Tenants in Colorado Springs: The 90-Day Rule and Your Options

To sell rental property in Colorado Springs, Colorado, you have two legal routes for a tenant who wants to stay. You can sell with the lease in place, or you can wait for the lease to end and give at least 90 days' written notice. Colorado's for-cause eviction law, passed in 2024 as HB24-1098, ended simple non-renewal for covered tenants, generally those past their first 12 months.

This guide covers what the statute says, which tenancies it skips, how deposits move at closing, and what waiting costs. If you already want out, compare Colorado Springs cash sale options or read how a tired landlord sale typically works.

Can you sell rental property in Colorado Springs with tenants in place?

You can sell rental property in Colorado Springs with tenants in place, because a sale changes the owner, not the lease. As a general rule, the buyer takes the house subject to the existing rental agreement. The rent, the end date, and the deposit terms carry on under the new owner.

Nothing in Colorado's for-cause eviction law requires you to empty a house before you sell it. The statute controls when a landlord may end a tenancy. It does not bar a sale.

What a buyer will ask for

Have this file ready before you ask anyone for a number:

• Each signed lease, plus any renewal or addendum.
• A rent roll showing who pays what, and on which day.
• Each deposit amount and the date it was collected.
• The date each tenant first moved in, which decides whether the for-cause law applies.
• Open repair requests and any notices already served.

Colorado's for-cause eviction law and the 90-day sale notice

Colorado lets a landlord end a covered tenancy to sell the house, but only at lease end and only after written notice giving the tenant at least 90 days. The rule sits in C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(d), added by HB24-1098. Governor Polis signed the bill on April 19, 2024, and it took effect that day (Colorado General Assembly, 2024).

The baseline is in subsection (1). A landlord "shall not serve a notice to terminate tenancy or a demand for possession" without cause. Withdrawing a house from the rental market to sell it is one of the listed no-fault causes.

Which houses the sale provision covers

The sale ground applies when a landlord plans to sell a residential premises that is "a single-family home, a townhome, a duplex, a triplex, or an individual condominium unit." That covers the single-family houses, townhomes, and small multiplexes that make up a typical small landlord's holdings. A building of four or more units is not on that list.

What the landlord must do

The statute sets three conditions for the sale ground:

• Give at least 90 days. The tenant gets at least 90 days after receiving the notice to vacate, on the same lease terms.
• Serve a proper written notice. It must state your intent to withdraw the house from the rental market and sell it, plus the move-out date.
• Do not relist it as a rental. The house cannot be listed as a long-term or short-term rental for at least 90 days after the move-out date.

The relisting bar has one exception. It does not apply if the landlord shows the house was listed for sale on a multiple listing service after the tenant had to leave. Keep the MLS record if a listed sale falls through.

What the notice cannot do

The sale notice cannot cut a lease short. Subsection (3)(d)(II) says nothing in it allows a landlord to terminate a rental agreement without cause "before the end of the term." A lease running through next August still runs through next August.

The notice also has to carry content from other statutes. Section 38-12-1303(5)(b) requires a statement of the legal and factual basis for the no-fault eviction. HB24-1098 also amended C.R.S. 13-40-106 so the notice must be in English, Spanish, or the tenant's known primary language. It must also tell tenants on SSI, SSDI, or Colorado Works cash assistance that they have a right to mediation.

Which tenancies are exempt from the for-cause law?

Colorado's for-cause law does not apply to six categories of tenancy, listed in C.R.S. 38-12-1302. If your tenant falls into one, the 90-day sale ground is not the rule that governs. The exempt categories are:

• A short-term rental, meaning a stay of less than 30 consecutive days.
• A tenant who has not been a tenant of the premises for at least 12 months.
• Housing leased under an employer-provided housing agreement.
• A tenant the landlord does not know to be a tenant.
• Certain mobile home spaces leased to a home owner.
• Some owner-occupied single-family houses, duplexes, and triplexes, covered next.

The owner-occupied exemption is narrow. It covers a unit where the owner lives in the premises as a primary residence, or lives in an adjacent property as a primary residence. The premises or the adjacent property must be a single-family house (with or without an accessory dwelling unit), a duplex, or a triplex. A building of four or more units does not qualify.

The notice rules for exempt tenancies

Exempt tenancies fall back on the general termination rules in C.R.S. 13-40-107. A landlord can end a periodic tenancy, or decline to renew a fixed term, with written notice served before the term ends. The minimum notice depends on the length of the tenancy:

• One year or longer: at least 91 days.
• Six months to under a year: at least 28 days.
• One month to under six months: at least 21 days.

A tenant in month 10 of a first one-year lease is exempt from Part 13 but still gets the 91-day notice for a one-year tenancy.

Three exit paths for selling a house with tenants in Colorado Springs

Selling a house with tenants in Colorado Springs comes down to three paths: sell occupied, wait out the lease plus notice, or negotiate a voluntary move-out. Each one moves the timeline and the carrying costs to a different party.

Path 1: Sell with the tenant in place

This is the fastest path, because no notice clock runs at all. The buyer steps into your side of the lease. The pool of buyers is smaller, since an owner-occupant usually wants a vacant house, so this path suits a buyer who purchases rentals as they stand.

Path 2: Wait out the lease and serve the sale notice

This path opens the full retail market, at the cost of time. Serve the notice at least 90 days before the lease ends, and set the move-out date at or after the end of the term. If the lease ends in May, the notice goes out by February.

After that, you carry every cost, with no rent, while the empty house is prepared, listed, and sold.

Path 3: A voluntary move-out agreement

Some landlords offer the tenant money or a rent concession to leave early, often called cash for keys. It works only if the tenant agrees and then leaves. C.R.S. 38-12-1305 voids any rental agreement or other agreement that purports to waive or modify Part 13. Have a Colorado landlord-tenant attorney draft the agreement rather than using a template.

Security deposits when you sell a Colorado rental

When you sell, Colorado requires you to either transfer each tenant's deposit to the buyer and notify the tenant by mail, or return it to the tenant. The rule is C.R.S. 38-12-103(4). The transfer notice must give the buyer's name and address.

The deadline changed in 2026. HB25-1249, effective January 1, 2026, replaced "within a reasonable time" with "within sixty days" after your interest ends (Colorado General Assembly, 2025). Once you comply, subsection (5) relieves you of further liability for that deposit.

HB25-1249 also limits deductions for carpet and paint, and it bars keeping a deposit for damage that existed before the tenancy. If you are selling at the end of a lease, those rules apply to your final accounting. If you sell with the tenant in place, the buyer handles the move-out accounting later.

What the Colorado Springs rental market looks like in 2026

Colorado Springs rents are lower than a year ago, and occupancy is recovering from a supply wave. CBRE put the average apartment rent at $1,457 in the first half of 2026, down 2.6% year over year (CBRE, August 2026). Rent was up 2.3% from year-end 2025.

Occupancy reached 94.4%, up 150 basis points from year-end 2025, and 369 units were delivered in the half (CBRE, August 2026). Net absorption was 1,319 units, so new renters outpaced new supply in the period.

The winter before was rougher. RealPage reported that rent cuts in Colorado Springs over the prior six months were the steepest the market had seen in more than 15 years (RealPage, February 2026). It placed the city among the bottom 10 of the nation's 150 largest apartment markets for annual rent change. Occupancy was 93.2% in January 2026.

These figures cover apartments, not single-family rentals. They still set the price of the competition. When new complexes offer concessions, a rented house has to compete on rent, condition, or both. For sale prices and listing trends, see our Colorado Springs housing market 2026 guide.

What does waiting cost a Colorado Springs landlord?

In the illustrative example below, six months of waiting costs a Colorado Springs landlord about $16,000 with the house occupied, and roughly $29,000 counting lost rent if it sits vacant. Every figure is an example. Use your own mortgage statement, tax bill, and insurance quote.

A 90-day notice, a few weeks of make-ready, and a listing period can add up to that, even before a buyer's loan closes. With the tenant paying $1,900, the occupied version runs about $800 a month short in this example, before any management fee.

Property tax varies widely across the city. Some Colorado Springs subdivisions sit inside a metropolitan district that adds its own mill levy. Our guide to selling a house in a Colorado Springs metro district explains how that shows up on the bill and at closing.

Problem tenants: what the statute allows

Colorado still allows eviction for cause, and the for-cause law lists the grounds in C.R.S. 38-12-1303(2). They include nonpayment of rent, a substantial violation, and a material violation of the lease. They also include a repeat violation after proper notice, and conduct that creates a nuisance or negligently damages the house.

The late-rent ground

A tenant who pays late more than two times during the rental agreement can face a no-fault eviction at the end of the term (C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(f)). A payment counts as late only if it arrives more than 10 calendar days after the due date. The landlord must also have served proper written notice for it.

A payment made within the cure period does not count. The same rules apply as for the sale ground: end of term, at least 90 days, and a written notice with the move-out date.

When selling beats evicting

An eviction takes time, legal fees, and a court date. Selling with the tenant in place hands the lease to a buyer who expects it. For a contested case, talk to a Colorado landlord-tenant attorney before serving anything.

Selling a tired landlord rental for cash in Colorado Springs

A direct cash sale lets a tired landlord in Colorado Springs sell before the lease ends, with no notice clock and no vacancy. Propcash is a direct cash homebuyer, so we buy the house ourselves. We buy with tenants in place. No eviction needed before you sell.

• Sell as-is. Worn carpet, a tired kitchen, and the hail-dented roof stay as they are.
• Skip showings. Your tenant does not have to keep the house show-ready for strangers.
• Pay no fees or commissions. Propcash is free for sellers.
• Pick your closing date. Closings can happen in as few as 7 days, or later if you prefer.

You get one cash offer based on local market data, and we show you how we got to the number. The leases transfer to us at closing, and the deposits move under C.R.S. 38-12-103(4). You can get a cash offer on your Colorado Springs rental and compare it with the cost table above.

Listing can net more when the lease ends soon and the house shows well. If that describes your house, an agent may be the better fit. If a cash sale isn't your best move, we'll tell you and point you to a local agent who fits. We may receive compensation from agents we refer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell my Colorado Springs rental house with tenants living in it?

You can sell a Colorado Springs rental house with tenants living in it. A sale changes who owns the house, and the buyer generally takes it subject to the existing lease, so the tenant keeps the same rent and end date. Colorado's for-cause eviction law does not require a landlord to remove a tenant before selling. The deposit moves to the buyer under C.R.S. 38-12-103(4).

How much notice do I have to give a tenant to sell a house in Colorado?

For a covered tenant, Colorado requires written notice of your intent to withdraw the house from the rental market and sell it, giving the tenant at least 90 days to move out (C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(d)). The notice must state the move-out date, and that date can fall no earlier than the end of the lease term. The tenant stays on the existing lease terms during those 90 days.

Can I end a lease early because I am selling my house in Colorado?

Colorado's sale provision does not let you end a lease early. C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(d)(II) says nothing in that subsection allows a landlord to terminate a rental agreement without cause before the end of its term. The options before the lease ends are to sell with the tenant in place or to reach a voluntary move-out agreement, which a Colorado landlord-tenant attorney should draft.

Which tenants are exempt from Colorado's for-cause eviction law?

C.R.S. 38-12-1302 excludes short-term rentals, tenants who have not been tenants for at least 12 months, employer-provided housing, certain mobile home spaces, and tenants the landlord does not know about. It also excludes some owner-occupied single-family houses, duplexes, and triplexes where the owner lives on site or next door. Exempt tenancies fall back on the general notice periods in C.R.S. 13-40-107.

What happens to the tenant's security deposit when I sell a rental in Colorado?

When your interest in the house ends by sale, C.R.S. 38-12-103(4) requires you to transfer the deposit to the buyer and notify the tenant by mail, or return it to the tenant. HB25-1249, effective January 1, 2026, sets the deadline at 60 days after your interest ends. Doing either step relieves you of further liability for that deposit.

Can I rent the house out again if the sale falls through?

Not right away if you used the sale notice. C.R.S. 38-12-1303(3)(d)(I)(C) bars listing the house as a long-term or short-term rental for at least 90 days after the move-out date. That bar does not apply if you can show the house was listed for sale on a multiple listing service after the tenant was required to leave.

Do I need to evict a problem tenant before selling a Colorado Springs rental?

You do not need to evict a problem tenant before selling. A buyer who purchases with tenants in place takes over the lease, including any problem tenant. Propcash buys with tenants in place, so no eviction is needed before you sell. If you do pursue an eviction for cause, a Colorado landlord-tenant attorney can confirm the notice and grounds.