Colorado House Judiciary Committee To Consider Bill That Will Complicate Colorado’s Eviction Process

On March 24, 2026, the Colorado House Judiciary Committee is set to consider a bill that could significantly complicate and create delays in Colorado’s procedure for evicting commercial and residential tenants. HB 26-1106 would amend Colorado’s Forcible Entry and Detainer (“FED”) statute, which governs evictions, to permit a residential or commercial tenant to file an untimely answer. If the answer asserts that the tenant failed to file an answer to the complaint due to hospitalization, sickness, a lack of proper service, or a “court issue that was reasonably outside the control of the defendant,” the Court is required to vacate any judgment or writ of restitution that may have been issued.

Notably, this language is mandatory, and the Court would be obligated to vacate any prior default judgment irrespective of the time elapsed and without conducting a hearing into the veracity of the answer. The bill does not address situations in which the landlord has executed on that judgment for possession prior to the answer being filed, but, on its face, the bill would mandate vacating such a judgment, even where the landlord has leased the property to a new tenant.

Beyond attacking the finality of judgments, the bill also limits the number of evictions that Colorado’s county courts may schedule on any particular business day, regardless of the court’s capacity or case load. Each county court may schedule no more than 25, 45, or 65 FED actions for a hearing, depending on the number of such actions filed in that court in the preceding year.

Assuming 250 business days per year, that works out to a theoretical maximum of 16,250 eviction filings per year in Denver County Court. That non-adjustable cap is already close to the 14,584 eviction filings in Denver County Court in 2025 and will likely lead to significant delays because filings will not be evenly distributed.

The bill would also prohibit the execution of a writ of restitution in “Inclement Weather” as defined as a day wherein “the forecasted daily high is below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit or above ninety degrees Fahrenheit or substantial rain or snow is accumulating or projected.” In its present form, the bill leaves “substantial rain or snow” undefined.

The bill eliminates the requirement that a tenant post an appeal bond and pay past due rent into the registry of the court to appeal a judgment in favor of the landlord. The bill also extends the period after which a judgment is entered until a writ of restitution may issue in most eviction actions from 48 hours to 30 days in the case of a commercial tenancy and from 10 days to 30 days for residential tenants.