I have a friend who says he was wrongly evicted from a low-income apartment he shared with his sister whom he was a caregiver for. He never saw an eviction paper. They just came and kicked him out without warning. Is this legal? What should my friend do?

Thank you for reaching out. In Colorado, it is illegal for a landlord to evict a tenant without proper notice or going through the court process unless one of the following instances has occurred:

• the landlord and tenant agree to end the tenancy,

• the tenant has abandoned the unit, or

• the property is unsafe due to an illegal drug lab.

Generally, C.R.S. 38-12-510 prohibits landlords from removing tenants from a dwelling unit without the court’s involvement. There are exceptions, but even those require compliance with all relevant Colorado statutes. 

For most residential tenancies, the notice period is 10 days under C.R.S. 13-40-104, and the landlord is required to make two separate attempts to serve notice to the tenant in person before posting the notice on the tenant’s door. Because your friend was evicted from a low-income apartment, the federal CARES Act may apply. The CARES Act requires landlords to provide tenants between 30 and 90 days' notice depending on how long they’ve lived at the property and the reason for the eviction. Failure to comply with these notice requirements can render the eviction unlawful, and tenants may assert this as a defense in court under C.R.S. 38-12-1306 and C.R.S. 13-40-113.

Based on the details you’ve provided, it sounds like your friend may have been evicted illegally. I recommend they book a consultation with a member of our Eviction & Landlord team. There have been a lot of changes to landlord-tenant law in the state, and our eviction attorneys are up-to-speed on all of them, so that your friend gets the legal guidance they need to protect their rights here. I hope this helps!