day’s notice in writing has been duly served upon the tenant or lessee holding over, requiring in the
alternative the payment of the rent or possession of the premises.” Tenant is defined as “one who
leases premises from an owner (landlord) or from a previous tenant, thereby becoming a subtenant”
and tenement is defined as “any house, building or structure attached to land and also any kind of
human habitation or dwelling inhabited by a tenant.” (Barron’s Law Dictionary, 2
nd
Ed.).
The Unlawful Detainer Statute indicates a specific process that the owner must go through to evict a
tenant from a property. (See page 13 of this Handbook, The Eviction Process). While the statute does
not specifically indicate that the owner of a hotel, motel, inn, boarding house of other rental of
temporary shelter to transient guests must follow the statutory eviction process, Colorado case law
supports the need for legal eviction when removing a transient guest from a rental.
The Landlord’s Lien Statute (C.R.S. §38-20-102(3)(a) thru (c))
The Landlord’s Lien Statute states, “Any person who rents furnished or unfurnished rooms or
apartments . . . as well as the keeper of a trailer court . . . shall have a lien upon the tenant’s personal
property . . . on or in the rental premises. The value of the lien shall be for the unpaid board, lodging or
rent, and for reasonable costs incurred in enforcing the lien, not including attorney fees.” A Landlord
Lien is defined by Barron’s Law Dictionary as the landlord’s “right to levy upon the goods of a tenant
in the satisfaction of unpaid rents.” Under the statute, a landlord may seize property in a reasonable
and peaceful manner. Section 1 of the Statute defines the rental of temporary shelter or temporary
trailer space as “shelter or trailer space which is rented for a fee for a period of time not exceeding one
month, but excluding month to month tenancies which have been in effect for at least four months.”
Legal precedent indicates that the Landlord’s Lien is a pre-judgment remedy, while eviction is a post-
judgment remedy. Thus, it might be assumed that a landlord cannot use the statutory procedure to
assert a lien against the tenant’s property and also lock the tenant out of the property.
The landlord cannot assert a lien against small kitchen appliances, cooking utensils, beds, bedding,
necessary wearing apparel and personal or business records and documents. Items covered by the lien
include household furniture, goods, appliances and other personal property of the tenant and
household members. This area of lien law is vague and a landlord should proceed extremely cautiously
when exercising lien rights. First, seizure of a tenant’s property might promote physical confrontation
between the landlord and tenant. Also, some lower courts have declared the law unconstitutional
because it gives landlords rights not given to other creditors and it may be seen as depriving a tenant of
due process and equal protection. To ensure that the landlord is proceeding in accordance with the law
and not putting themselves at risk of physical confrontation or of damage claims by the tenant, the
landlord should seek legal counsel. Tenants who have had property seized by a landlord should also
seek legal advice.
ABANDONED PROPERTY
Personal property is considered abandoned if:
1) The tenant has not contacted the landlord for at least 30 days, and
2) There is nothing to lead the landlord to believe that the tenant is not abandoning the
possessions.
If a former tenant leaves possessions behind, the landlord should make a reasonable effort to contact
that tenant. If the landlord is not able to contact the tenant, the landlord may proceed to sell or
dispose of the personal property. By law, the landlord must give the tenant at least 15 days written
notice by registered or certified mail, addressed to the tenant’s last known address, before selling or
disposing of the property. If the last know address is the landlord’s rental property, send the notice to
that address. If the tenant has not left a forwarding address and the notice is returned, the landlord