The 2025 legislative session is well underway in Colorado, and there’s no shortage of proposed bills aimed at addressing the state’s housing challenges. Some bills focus on tenant rights, others on the construction of affordable housing, and still others on the regulation of landlords. Here’s a look at some of the most noteworthy housing bills that have been proposed as of February 10th, 2025:
The Good
Reducing the Cost of Housing (SB25-131)
This bill would modify existing warranty of habitability laws and repeal provisions related to evictions of residential tenants. It would also require any provision of any energy code adopted by a county or municipality on or after January 1, 2026, to be cost-effective.
This is a valiant effort from Rep. Paul Lunden to undo the damage that bad policy has unleashed on the housing market in general, but especially when it pertains to landlord-tenant law. It has quite the uphill battle – but hopefully we’ll see at least some sensible provisions pass through this proposal.
This is one I’ll be watching very closely – and will update with a full write-up when the dust has settled.
Rent Increases (HB25-1092)
This bill would clarify that a rent increase in a new rental agreement is reasonable if the landlord increases rent in view of fair market rent, as evidenced by the rental amount of comparable properties.
As predicted the “No-Fault Eviction” law that was passed last year left it completely up to interpretation what constitutes a “reasonable” rent increase.
Common sense told me that the only way this could be decided would be by a judge on a case-by-case basis. This has proven true and plenty of landlords are finding themselves defending rent increases in court as part of “No-Fault Eviction” cases when tenants refuse to agree to any amount of increased rent.
With organizations like the Community Economic Defense Project (aka the Community Firm or CEDP) providing “free” (state funded) legal services to tenants – you can see why the author of that bill, Rep. Javier Mabrey (who also co-founded CEDP), and other supporters made it so ambiguous.
The Bad and The Ugly
Enforcement of Existing Landlord-Tenant Law (SB25-020)
This bill clarifies the authority of the Attorney General, counties, cities, and municipalities to enforce existing landlord-tenant laws. It also establishes a receivership mechanism for multifamily residential properties that violate applicable laws and regulations.
This one is pretty dense and another one I’ll be watching closely.
No Pricing Coordination Between Landlords (HB25-1004)
This bill would prohibit landlords from using coordinators to facilitate agreements that reduce competition between landlords. It would also prohibit two or more landlords from engaging in consciously parallel pricing coordination.
This might sound innocent enough – until you realize that it could very well make it illegal for landlords to look up rent estimates on sites like Zillow or for property managers to use comps and provide opinions on what rents should be based on market data.
As in…they want you to just guess what rents should be and set your rents that way.
This is just a recycled version of HB24-1057 Prohibit Algorithmic Devices Used for Rent Setting that got defeated last year, but don’t let your guard down. Ultimately it’s just more ammo for tenant attorneys to fire at landlords in court proceedings…
It’s still early in the legislative session, and these bills may change significantly before they are voted on. However, they provide a snapshot of the housing issues that are top-of-mind for Colorado lawmakers in 2025. Stay tuned for updates on these and other housing bills as the session progresses.
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