The Colorado Supreme Court upheld a pandemic-era rule Monday, requiring landlords to provide tenants in federally-subsidized housing 30 days notice before eviction.
The initial mandate was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2020 through the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES. Justices in the Colorado Supreme Court debated whether the CARES Act specified an end date to the requirement after Ana Garate was given a 23-day eviction notice from her apartment in Arvada. A Jefferson County Court judge ruled against Garate’s initial complaint, which led her to bring an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court.
“If Congress made a mistake and intended to include an expiration date for the entirety of section 9058, then it should amend the statute. We are not empowered to ‘rescue Congress from its drafting errors, and to provide for what we might think . . . is the preferred result,’” Justice Melissa Hart wrote in the opinion.
Section 9058 of the CARES Act also included a moratorium on evictions which expired after 120 days, but did not include a similar provision for the 30-day eviction notice mandate.
Under Colorado law, landlords must provide a 10-day notice before evicting a tenant. Hart wrote in the opinion that the provision stipulated in the CARES Act preempts state law. Courts in Washington, Oklahoma and Connecticut have also come to the same conclusion.
Colorado lawmakers attempted to pass a bill protecting tenants against eviction even after a lease ends. While the measure passed the House, it ultimately lost steam in the final hours of this year’s session.
