July 2018

Colorado Legal Requirements for Handling Unclaimed Security Deposits
THS Senior Partner Inducted into AAMD Hall of Fame
Splish! Splash! It’s Summer Pool Time at Apartment Communities

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COLORADO LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR HANDLING

UNCLAIMED SECURITY DEPOSITS

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If you report annually, you should calendar sending out

required notice every year after July 4th. You should also

calendar that reports are due on or before November 1 of

each year.

You are only required to send written notice if

you have no information that a tenant’s last known address

is inaccurate,

the tenant’s

claim to the security

deposit is

not barred by the

statute of limitations,

and the

security deposit

is fifty dollars

or greater. Under the SDA, after a tenant has vacated, a

landlord must send a Move-Out Statement (MOS) and a

check if a refund is due. A MOS is sometimes referred to

as a SODA (Statement of Deposit Account) or a FAS (Final

Account Statement). If the tenant’s MOS and refund

check were returned as undeliverable, you do not have

to send the written notice because you have information

showing the tenant’s last known address is inaccurate.

When a landlord receives information indicating

an address is inaccurate, this information should be

added to a spreadsheet or database as discussed later on

in best practices. The statute of limitations for a tenant

to file a security deposit claim is six years or one year

greater than the five-year turn over requirement under

the UPA. While theoretically possible, based on reporting

deadlines, it is not very likely that a tenant’s claim will be

barred by the statute of limitations at the time a landlord

is required to report and turn over an unclaimed security

deposit. Thus, landlords shouldn’t take the position that

they don’t have to send the required written notice because

the tenant’s claim is barred by the statute of limitations.

The most onerous UPA requirement is reporting.

Landlords are required to report if they hold unclaimed

security deposits, unless they meet the small business

exception. Reports are

due on or before November

1st of any given

year for the previous

reporting period. A

reporting period runs

from July 1st to June

30th. Thus, a landlord

must report on or

after July 1st but before

November 1st any security deposit that was abandoned in

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SPLISH! SPLASH!

IT’S SUMMER POOL TIME AT

APARTMENT COMMUNITIES

It is hot in Colorado and that means many community

pools are quite popular this time of year. If pools

are busy, there are bound to be situations that will develop.

We get to hear about people behaving poorly, from

unsupervised children to trespassers. Pools’ presence are

a valuable amenity for communities, however pools also

attract bad behavior.

One of the biggest challenges is trying to make

sure the people using the community pool are people in

your community. Many leases

or community policies will require

that a resident accompany

any guest. If the community

does not have secured access,

it may be easy for trespassers

to take a quick dip in the

pool. Confronting trespassers

and informing them that they

need to leave or the police will

be contacted is a direct approach that is often effective.

The police do respond to trespassers, however it is not

always easy to tell who is authorized to be in the pool. It

is important to confront the trespassers before jumping

to calling the police; you want to make sure that you are

really dealing with non-residents.

Every pool comes with rules, and rules it seems

for some are made to be broken. Residents that choose to

ignore pool rules are violating their lease. Some residents

will respond to a verbal warning that their behavior needs

to change. When they continue to misbehave and if it is

disruptive, a resident can be told to leave the pool area.

This behavior can be challenging if there is alcohol being

consumed in the pool area. If the resident refuses to leave

the pool, the police could be contacted to assist with the

situation, if the resident is creating a disturbance. If the

resident is violating

the rules and ignoring

staff, then their behavior

could be grounds

for being served with

an eviction demand

for compliance.

Compliance demands

inform the resident

that they need to abide by the rules or face an eviction if

there are continued violations. For more information

about demands for compliance, be sure to sign up for one

of our Eviction Workshop at thslawfirm.com/events.

Sometimes it is not the behavior of the residents

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Landlord News JULY 2018 Page 3