Colorado's Junk Fee Ban: What Landlords Can No Longer Charge (HB25-1090)

Colorado’s late-fee cap gets most of the attention, but a separate 2026 law reaches further: HB25-1090 targets every fee that isn’t the late-fee clause — processing charges, “amenity” line items, maintenance passthroughs — and requires a single, honest price up front. It’s a general consumer-pricing law, not a landlord-tenant-specific one, which is exactly why it’s easy to miss when you’re only checking your lease against the usual Title 38 landlord-tenant statutes.

The core requirement: one total price, no fine print

Starting January 1, 2026, an advertisement or lease can’t show a base rent figure and then tack on mandatory fees as separate line items that obscure the real monthly cost. The law requires a single “total price” — described in the statute’s own language as “bold, obvious, prominent, primary, and displayed as a singular total with no asterisks, fine print, hidden fees, or omissions.” If your listing or lease shows “$1,800/mo + amenity fee + admin fee,” that structure is what the law is written to stop.

Fees that are now prohibited outright

• Payment-processing fees, unless a free payment method is also offered.
• Late fees on anything other than rent — a late charge on a pet fee or utility bill, for example.
• Fees for services not actually provided.
• Common-area-maintenance and property-tax passthroughs billed to tenants as a separate charge.

Fees that are restricted, not banned

Third-party service markups can still exist, but they’re capped at 2% of the landlord’s actual cost or $10 per month, whichever is less. Utilities are treated differently — actual usage costs aren’t subject to the total-price disclosure requirement, so a variable water or electric bill doesn’t have to be baked into the advertised rent.

The penalty is real

If a tenant sends a written demand and the landlord doesn’t fix the prohibited fee within 14 days, the exposure includes 18% annual interest, potential treble damages, and a statutory penalty in the $100–$1,000 per violation range, on top of general Colorado Consumer Protection Act enforcement. This isn’t a technical filing requirement — it’s a real dollar liability tied to how a lease is priced and worded.

What to check in your own lease

• Does the lease (or your listing) show rent plus separate mandatory fee line items, instead of one all-in price?
• Is there a payment-processing fee with no free alternative offered?
• Are late fees applied to anything other than rent itself?
• Is any common-area-maintenance or property-tax cost billed to the tenant as its own line item?
• If a third-party service fee survives, is it actually capped at 2% of cost or $10/month?

The bottom line

This is the fee change least likely to be on a landlord’s radar, because it isn’t in the landlord-tenant statute most templates get checked against. A Fee Compliance Check reviews your fee and pricing language against both the late-fee cap and this newer disclosure rule together, and returns corrected wording rather than a citation to go interpret yourself.

LeaseCheck for Landlords is an educational lease-compliance screening tool. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Colorado rental laws change; confirm specifics for your situation with a licensed attorney.