Governor signs “for- cause” eviction protections into law
Supporters organized for months to pass bill year after similar effort died in state Senate
Gov. Jared Polis signed “forcause” eviction protections into law Friday, making Colorado the sixth U. S. state to enact the policy, which is aimed at blunting displacement of vulnerable tenants.
The law, passed by the legislature late last month, effectively gives tenants a right of first refusal to renew their leases. That protection, supporters say, will insulate renters from discriminatory or retaliatory nonrenewals from l andlords, who may want to rid themselves of a tenant who complained about a n apartment’s condition.
“This is t he r ight t hing t o do,” said Democratic Rep. Javier Mabrey, who sponsored the bill this year with House Majority Leader Monica Duran and Democratic Sens. Julie Gonzales and Nick Hinrichsen. “In working on this legislation, we heard from families who have seen firsthand the lack of basic protections can have o n families … who are removed based on the color of t heir s kin or b ecause they’ve made valid complaints about problems in their homes.”
What does the law do?
Broadly, the new law g ives tenants a right of first refusal on whether to renew their lease or not. State law requires cause — such as failure to pay rent — before a tenant can be evicted during a lease. This new law covers the expiration of that lease and who gets to decide whether to renew it.
Why is the new law important?
The law is among t he most significant tenant protections passed in Colorado in recent memory, as lawmakers seek solutions to the state’s housing crisis and the tens of thousands of evictions it causes every year.
While Polis has pursued landuse reforms that s eek to spur denser development, progressive lawmakers have sought more immediate protections to reduce evictions and displacements.
This evictions bill represented the most prominent policy within that approach, which also included efforts to improve the safety of housing, improve tenants’ access to eviction proceedings and regulate the contents and requirements of lease agreements.
Like Polis’ land- use measures,
the passage of the for- cause bill has been a months- long fight.
How did the bill get to Polis’ desk?
Last year, a similar but more s weeping version of t he b ill, a lso backed by Mabrey a nd Gonzales, cleared the House but stalled in the Senate amid opposition from moderate Democrats.
That attempt died a procedural death on the penultimate day of the 2023 legislative session, as Mabrey and other supporters watched on from the Senate lobby. Its death sparked criticism from progressive legislators and advocates that state leaders hadn’t prioritized renters or done enough to protect them.
How did legislators change their approach?
This y ear lawmakers brought a more narrowly tailored version of the policy, removing more controversial e lements, s uch as a requirement that l andlords pay tenants’ r elocation costs in some circumstances. Duran, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, joined as a cosponsor, and House Speaker Julie McCluskie declared that the policy was a priority of the chamber during her openingday remarks in January.
Still, supporters had to fend off opposition from landlord groups and legislative Republicans, as well as a late attempt by some Senate Democrats to hijack the bill.
“We did everything we possibly could to make sure we could get this to the finish line, so that our members and our working families and our renters who are ( from minority groups), who are impacted b y the evictions and displacements, c ould h ave these protections,” Cesiah Guadarrama Trejo, co- chair of Colorado Homes for All, the coalition backing the bill, said after the vote.
What’s this law supposed to stop?
Proponents’ g oal is t o reduce displacement of renters. T he r ight of first refusal offered by the for- cause protections is important, those supporters argue, because land lords can use expiring leases to displace tenants for a variety of nefarious reasons, including for discriminatory purposes or if a tenant has complained about an apartment’s condition. Mabrey, an eviction defense attorney, has said he represented a tenant who faced explicit racial discrimination and was displaced by her landlord.
An on renewal then requires tenants to pay the upfront costs of re locating, like deposits, application fees or moving costs.
Meanwhile, land lords and property owners who have opposed the bill have argued that an expiring lease lets them move on from“problem” tenants they can’t otherwise evict.
Are there exemptions?
Yep. The law gives property owners and landlords various reasons to pull the plug on a lease renewal. Those exemptions include if the property owner is planning to demolish or substantially renovate the unit, if they or a family member want to move into the unit themselves or if they intend to take it off the long- term rental market.
Other exemptions include the tenant refusing to sign a new lease or if the tenant has a history of not paying rent.
The bill does prevent property owners from increasing rent to retaliate against a tenant or otherwise get around the law’s protections.