robinsonandhenry.com

Terminating lease for Uninhabitability due to Catastrophe Location: Colorado, USA Good morning, having a multi-faceted shit sandwich of an issue but wanted to make sure about one key component of it. We had an extra house on our property across from our main house that was rented out to tenants as of Sep 2025 with a 1 year lease. The house burned down and became uninhabitable as of last week, the morning of Thursday April 23rd; the fire marshal declared it so immediately and marked it with "Unsafe to Occupy" and other such designations and we have begun the insurance\claims process. My question is more specific to the terms of the lease itself. Obviously not expecting tenants who do not have a place to live to continue paying rent, so I was planning to unilaterally end the lease as of April 23rd. This would include returning the prepaid rent for the last week of April, though not the security deposit (regardless of the investigation regarding specifics of the cause of the fire, the tenants owed more than the security deposit amount in unpaid utility bills, which from [this](https://www.robinsonandhenry.com/blog/real-estate/security-deposit-laws/) I believe we are within our rights to do provided we provide them with a formal declaration. Based on my reading of [this](https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2018/title-38/tenants-and-landlords/article-12/part-5/section-38-12-503/), under Colorado law, we should be able to do so based on this component: > (1) In every rental agreement, the landlord is deemed to warrant that the residential premises is fit for human habitation. > (5) Except as set forth in this part 5, any agreement waiving or modifying the warranty of habitability shall be void as contrary to public policy. > **(6) Nothing in this part 5 shall: > (a) Prevent a landlord from terminating a rental agreement as a result of a casualty or catastrophe to the dwelling unit without further liability to the landlord or tenant** With this in mind, my plan