Central Park Landlords: 3 Big Law Changes for 2025–2026 (And What They Mean for You)

Owning a rental property in Denver has always come with responsibilities—but the latest wave of laws hitting in late 2025 and early 2026 dramatically raises the stakes for small and midsize landlords.

Rather than rant about how hard these changes make it, our goal at Focus Real Estate is to educate landlords and be there to help if they want to offload the management! We find that most of these laws are well intentioned, raising the “floor” on landlords that are not providing clean, safe and transparent housing for their tenants.

These latest changes affect how you advertise, screen tenants, handle security deposits, and even how you charge fees. If you own a rental in or around Denver’s Central Park neighborhood, staying ahead of this shift is essential—and partnering with a professional property manager can make it much easier.

Below is an educational overview of the 3 most important changes, with plain‑English explanations and suggestions on what to do next. For deeper reading, you can click through the convenient links to the official house bill numbers mentioned throughout this post.

If you decide you’d like help managing your property let’s set up a discovery call to chat. You can self-select a time convenient for you.

1. Universal Voucher Acceptance is Now Mandatory

In 2025, Colorado removed the old “small landlord” exemptions around housing subsidies. Every residential landlord in the state—whether you own one townhouse or a whole portfolio—must now accept applications from renters using housing vouchers and other subsidies. This shift is rooted in a 2025 law commonly cited in legal summaries as expanding protections for tenants with housing subsidies, eliminating prior exemptions for owners of just a few units.​

What this means in practice:

• You cannot refuse an applicant simply because they use a Section 8 voucher or other rental assistance.​ 
• You must cooperate with the voucher process, including paperwork and inspections, and follow extra notice rules when ending a tenancy for someone with a subsidy.​

If your advertising or screening criteria still say “no Section 8” or similar, those materials now create real legal risk and should be updated immediately.

Want details? Here is House Bill 25-1240

2. Fee and “Junk Fee” Rules (Pricing Transparency)

Several new laws take effect at the start of 2026 that reshape leases, fees, and security deposits statewide. We’ll focus here on the two most impactful changes in our opinion; increased fee transparency and tighter rules around security deposits.

A 2025 bill often referenced as HB25‑1090 focuses on making rental pricing transparent and limiting surprise or hidden fees. I can see why this exists, because I think many property management companies were (and likely still are!) forcing tenants to pay add on junk fees that aren’t disclosed well upfront. Commentaries explain that, starting January 1, 2026, landlords must clearly disclose mandatory charges—such as admin fees, trash, pest, parking, or other recurring costs—up front in advertising and leasing documents.​

Key takeaways:

• The total mandatory monthly cost of renting (not just base rent) should be clear in your ads and your lease.​
• Certain broad “admin” or pass‑through fees (like generic common area maintenance (“CAM” fees), tax add‑ons, or vague processing fees) may be restricted or unenforceable if not properly structured and disclosed.​

If you’ve relied on miscellaneous lease fees to boost revenue as a landlord, those line items should be reviewed with a Colorado real estate attorney or experienced property manager before 2026. 

3. Tougher Security Deposit Rules

Another 2025 law, commonly summarized as a “tenant security deposit protection” bill (HB25 -1249), tightens deadlines and penalties around deposits beginning January 1, 2026. Summaries from landlord‑tenant attorneys and property management firms consistently point to three big shifts: a shorter deadline to return deposits, narrower allowable deductions, and stronger documentation requirements when you do withhold any funds from a tenant’s security deposit.​

Highlights:

• The standard deadline to return a security deposit will be 30 days (unless a shorter period applies), with increased penalties for wrongful withholding.​ You cannot adjust this period to be longer by changing it in your lease.
• You cannot charge tenants for pre‑existing conditions or normal wear and tear, and blanket “cleaning fees” baked into the lease are likely unenforceable.​
• Tenants gain clearer rights to see the proof behind your deductions—photos, invoices, inspection reports—and may request a move‑out walkthrough.​

For landlords, this means move‑in and move‑out documentation will matter more than ever. A few casual photos on move‑out won’t cut it if a tenant challenges your deductions. (FYI we take this very seriously and we spend several hours doing a detailed photo inspection of each property before tenant move in to protect your property!)

Need help with Property Management? We’ve Got You Covered!

If you own a rental home in or around Denver’s Central Park neighborhood, these laws can turn what used to be a fairly simple “DIY” landlord operation into a high‑compliance business. Between voucher rules, fee disclosures, deposit deadlines, and habitability standards, it’s easy to feel like one missed detail could become a problem.

That’s exactly where a good property management company makes a difference.

At Focus Real Estate, property management and brokerage in and around Central Park are what we do every day. We stay on top of Denver’s evolving landlord‑tenant laws, adjust leases and policies as the rules change, and build systems around documentation, deadlines, and communication—so you don’t have to live in the weeds of every statute update. If you’d like to spend more time enjoying your investment and less time worrying about compliance, we’d be glad to talk about managing your Central Park–area rental and taking these headaches off your plate.  Set up a time to chat here.

One easy way we can help, even if you don’t call us, is to help you get in compliance with the requirement to have a Denver Rental License. Here is a helpful blog post we wrote on our blog, the Central Park Scoop, so you can get it off your “to do” list!

Think you’d like help from a property manager and want to see if we’re a good fit? This blog post will help you figure that out in just minutes.

This post is for general educational purposes and is not legal advice. For specific questions about your property, it is wise to consult a Colorado landlord‑tenant attorney.