Short answer: Colorado has no general statute requiring a landlord to give advance notice before entering a rental unit. Your lease controls. That surprises most sellers, because a great many websites state a flat 24-hour rule that does not exist in Colorado law. What does exist is a set of newer rules on ending a tenancy, and a long-standing principle that a lease survives a sale — both of which matter far more to your sale than showings do.
Does Colorado require 24 hours’ notice before entering a rental?
No, not as a general matter. There is no Colorado statute setting a universal notice period for landlord entry. The one entry-notice requirement we can point to in statute is narrow: bed bug inspection or treatment requires at least 48 hours’ written or electronic notice. Emergencies and apparent abandonment allow entry without notice.
In practice, the notice requirement that binds you is whatever your lease says. Most Colorado residential leases include an entry clause, and many specify 24 hours precisely because it is a reasonable industry norm. Local ordinances may add requirements in some municipalities. Read your lease before you schedule anything, and follow it.
Practical version: give real notice in writing, be flexible about timing, and do not schedule showings around your convenience. A tenant who feels ambushed can make a listing genuinely difficult, and they do not have to do anything unlawful to do it.
Does the lease survive the sale?
Generally yes. A leasehold is an interest in real property, and a buyer ordinarily takes subject to an existing lease. This is a common law principle rather than a single Colorado statute, but Colorado statute assumes it: under CRS 38-12-103, when a landlord’s interest ends “by sale, assignment, death, appointment of a receiver, or otherwise,” the security deposit must be transferred to the successor and the tenant notified, and the transferee is then deemed to have all the rights and obligations of a landlord holding that deposit.
So the buyer inherits your tenant, your lease terms, and your deposit liability. That is not a problem — it is simply a fact that determines which buyers can realistically purchase your property.
Can I just end the tenancy so I can sell the house empty?
Not as easily as you could before 2024. Colorado’s HB24-1098, effective April 19, 2024 and codified at CRS 38-12-1301 and following, bars landlords from evicting or declining to renew without cause. Selling is a recognized no-fault ground — specifically, withdrawal of the residential premises from the rental market for the purpose of selling — but it is a defined ground with procedure attached, not a free pass. Non-renewal on a no-fault ground generally requires 90 days’ notice.
There are also exemptions from the for-cause rule, including short-term rentals, owner-occupied or owner-adjacent single-family, duplex and triplex properties, mobile home lots, employer-provided housing, and tenancies of under 12 months. Whether you fall inside or outside those exemptions is a question worth asking your attorney rather than assuming.
The practical consequence for most sellers: trying to empty the property first often costs you three months and creates legal exposure, when selling to a buyer willing to take the tenancy costs you neither.
What else stays your responsibility while you are selling?
- Habitability. Colorado’s warranty of habitability rules (SB 24-094, CRS 38-12-501 through 512) require remedial action to begin within 72 hours of notice, or 24 hours for emergencies. Those obligations do not pause because the house is on the market.
- The security deposit. It has to be transferred to the buyer and the tenant notified, or returned. Do not simply keep it.
- Fee rules. HB25-1090, effective January 1, 2026, requires residential landlords to fold mandatory, unavoidable costs into a single base rent and bans a range of separate fees. If you are still collecting anything separately, address it before a buyer’s attorney does.
- Disclosure. Selling as-is does not remove a Colorado seller’s duty to disclose known latent defects, and that applies to a tenant-occupied property the same as any other.
How to actually run showings without wrecking the relationship
- Tell the tenant early and in person that you are selling, before they see a sign or a listing photo of their bedroom.
- Put the notice arrangement in writing and honor it exactly, even if the lease is vague.
- Batch showings into windows rather than drip-feeding requests.
- Offer something real for the disruption. A rent credit for the month costs less than two weeks of extra market time.
- Do not ask the tenant to clean, stage or leave. They have no obligation to help you sell, and resentment is expensive.
- Never imply the tenancy is ending unless you have actually served a valid notice on a lawful ground.
The alternative: sell with the tenant in place
For a lot of Colorado landlords this is simply the better answer. A tenant-occupied property sold to an investor keeps the rent flowing, avoids the 90-day no-fault notice process entirely, requires no showings, no staging and no vacancy, and removes the risk that a financed retail buyer walks away because they wanted to move in themselves.
Grail Capital buys tenant-occupied houses across Northern Colorado and the Denver metro. We take over the lease on its existing terms, the deposit transfers to us, and the tenant keeps living there. There is no fee to find out what we would pay, and no obligation to accept.
This article is general information about Colorado law and is not legal advice. Landlord-tenant law in Colorado has changed substantially since 2024; talk to a Colorado attorney about your specific situation.
Selling a rental in Colorado? Grail Capital buys tenant-occupied property with the lease in place, so you do not have to end a tenancy in order to sell. See how our process works or get a no-obligation cash offer.
Published by Grail Capital, a Northern Colorado real estate investment company founded in 2016 by Luke Angerhofer, a former Colorado real estate appraiser who has worked in Colorado real estate since 2007. Grail Capital buys houses directly from homeowners across the Front Range. This article is general information about Colorado real estate and is not legal, tax or financial advice. More about us.