Lease Acceleration Clause
in Your Lease
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Statutes verified against primary state sources
Every statute cited here was read in its published text before this page went live: on the state's own site where that site can be reached, otherwise on a republished copy of the code. Court decisions are quoted from the published opinion and linked to it, so you can read the original yourself.
Primary sourcesNot legal advice
Content verified against primary state statutes before publicationLast updated: October 2026
What it actually means, what Colorado law says, what's specific to Denver - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- No Colorado statute we read requires a residential landlord to re-rent after you break a lease.
- Colorado courts apply general contract mitigation principles, so a landlord who does nothing risks a reduced damages award.
- C.R.S. § 38-12-801 voids some lease terms, including penalties tied to an eviction notice and one-way attorney-fee clauses.
- Because the rule is judge-made, outcomes vary more than in states with a mitigation statute.
- Denver adds nothing on rent acceleration or mitigation. State law and Colorado case law control.
Step by step
How it plays out
- You leave earlyClause demands remaining rentAn acceleration clause can make every remaining month due at once. It is a claim, not a judgment.
- Unit sits emptyRe-renting effort gets weighedColorado courts apply general contract mitigation principles. A landlord who does nothing to re-rent risks a reduced damages award.
- Landlord suesA judge decides the amountThe clause does not collect itself. A landlord who wants that money has to sue and convince a Colorado judge.
Copy and send: When your landlord bills you for the remaining rent after you moved out early
Ask for an itemized statement
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
How Colorado compares
Landlord duty to mitigate after an early lease break, state by state
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See all 26 cities as a chart
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Understanding the Lease Acceleration Clause
This page is for Denver renters whose lease has an acceleration clause: the paragraph that makes all the remaining rent due at once if you leave early. The bill can look final, but it is a claim.
In Colorado, what a landlord can actually collect turns on case law and the facts of your move-out, including whether anyone tried to re-rent the unit. Check the current Colorado statutes and case law before you rely on any of it.
What renters assume
If my lease says all remaining rent is due when I leave early, I owe every month the day I hand back the keys.
What is actually true
Not by default. The clause is a claim, not a judgment. A Colorado court weighs whether the landlord tried to re-rent, and a landlord who did nothing risks a reduced award.
Colorado is the blank space on this chart. Washington, Illinois, Arizona, and New York all wrote the duty into statute; Florida wrote the opposite; Colorado wrote neither, which means outcomes here vary more than almost anywhere else on the list.
Rent Acceleration Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Denver, CO
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
The acceleration paragraph from the opinion. Read it as a partial paragraph: one more sentence, about late fees and interest on accelerated amounts, follows in the original and is not printed here:
If any monthly installment under this agreement is not paid when due and remains unpaid after a date specified by a notice to Tenant, the entire principal rent amount owed for the full lease term shall at once become due and payable at the option of the Landlord and judgment may be had for all said amounts due. The foregoing provision shall not relieve the Landlord of its obligation to mitigate damages. In the event the rental premises is re-rented to another for full value prior to expiration of the lease term, Landlord shall file Notice of Partial Satisfaction of any judgment entered to the extent of the third party rental agreement.
[…]
Quoted from the published opinion in Summers v. Crestview Apartments, 2010 MT 164, 357 Mont. 123, 236 P.3d 586 (No. DA 09-0489). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“under this agreement”
In Colorado the agreement carries more weight than it does in the states on this page that write the duty into their code. Texas and New York both do, and both void a lease term that waives it, so there the statute settles the question before the lease is opened. Our Colorado record identifies no such statute for residential tenancies. That leaves the paragraph you signed as the first document anyone reads, with general contract mitigation principles from Colorado's courts shaping it from outside - and check the current statutes before relying on it.
“The foregoing provision”
In Texas or New York this sentence is surplus, because the duty it concedes is statutory and cannot be waived there. In Colorado it is worth more, because it is a promise inside your contract rather than a restatement of a code section - and our Colorado record locates the mitigation rule in general contract principles and case law rather than in the landlord-tenant statutes. A lease that contains this sentence and a lease that omits it are not obviously in the same position here.
“for full value”
Nothing in the lease obliges the landlord to accept less than the old rent, and no Colorado statute in our record supplies that obligation. What our Colorado record does supply is the consequence of inaction: Colorado courts apply general contract mitigation principles, so a landlord who does nothing at all risks a reduced damages award. The argument is available. It is simply built out of case law rather than out of a section number you can point at.
See the example
“of any judgment entered”
Judgments are where Colorado does have a statute pointed at lease terms. C.R.S. § 38-12-801 voids several kinds of clause outright, including penalties tied to an eviction notice or an eviction action and one-way attorney-fee clauses - the terms that make the process itself expensive. Our Colorado record for that section is about those voided terms and does not reach the mitigation question, which is why the rest of this page rests on case law - but it is the provision to read next to anything in your lease that adds a charge because a filing happened.
The Montana Supreme Court struck this paragraph down, and its conclusion is one sentence: “Thus, we conclude that the accelerated rent provision is unconscionable and therefore unenforceable.” The tenants had moved out of their apartment on October 13, 2006, and Crestview answered with a Statement of Deductions from the Security Deposit charging rent through the end of the lease in June - $6,505.75 billed against a $2,170 deposit. Two reasons carried the court. Acceleration undermines the landlord's duty to mitigate and reduces the incentive to re-rent promptly, because a landlord already holding a judgment for the whole term has little reason to fill the unit. And Crestview drafted the lease while these tenants had no meaningful choice and no opportunity to negotiate any of it. The case was reversed and remanded, and two justices wrote separately - their objection being that the majority had gone as far as treating acceleration clauses as unenforceable in themselves. So read the holding narrowly, as the majority wrote it: this provision, in this residential lease, unconscionable and unenforceable. It is a Montana decision and it binds no other state's courts. What travels is the reasoning, and the reasoning is about mitigation - which is exactly the question the statute in your own city's decode answers.
How this state's law treats this clause
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Colorado Law on Lease Acceleration Clause
- No Colorado statute we read imposes an express duty to mitigate on a residential landlord after a tenant breaks a lease.
- Colorado courts apply general contract mitigation principles, so a landlord who does nothing risks a reduced damages award.
- C.R.S. § 38-12-801 separately voids several lease terms, including penalties tied to an eviction notice or action and one-way attorney-fee clauses.
- Because the rule is judge-made rather than statutory, outcomes vary more than in states with an express mitigation statute.
Verify the current text in your state's landlord-tenant statutes.
Colorado answers this question in court, not in a statute. No Colorado statute we read imposes an express duty to mitigate, meaning a duty to try to cut the loss by re-renting, on a residential landlord after a tenant breaks a lease.
- Case law. Colorado courts apply general contract mitigation principles. A landlord who does nothing to re-rent risks a reduced damages award.
- C.R.S. § 38-12-801. This section separately voids several lease terms, including penalties tied to an eviction notice or action and one-way attorney-fee clauses.
- Outcomes vary. Because the rule is judge-made rather than statutory, results vary more than in states with an express mitigation statute.
The Colorado sections we read set no formula for damages. Confirm the current Colorado statutes and case law before you rely on any of this.
What's Specific to Denver
Denver adds nothing on rent acceleration or mitigation. State law and Colorado case law control, whether you are leaving a Cap Hill walk-up or a new build in RiNo.
That leaves the lease you signed, and a judge's view of what happened after you left, as what shapes the bill. Read what your lease says about re-renting and how damages are calculated, and keep dated proof of your move-out.
A fair one shows the math and credits rent from a new tenant. The Colorado sections we read set no formula.
Good sign. That gives you a contract term to enforce, since no Colorado statute we read creates that duty.
Red flag. A demand on day one ignores re-renting, which Colorado judges weigh under general contract principles.
Push back if it is one-way. C.R.S. § 38-12-801 voids one-way attorney-fee clauses.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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All remaining rent due at once
The clause bills every unexpired month the day you hand over keys. Ask what was done to re-rent the unit before you treat that total as owed.
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No duty to re-rent language
Wording saying the owner need not look for a new tenant. In Colorado the re-rent question is argued under contract law, so show it to a lawyer.
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Acceleration stacked on re-letting fees
All remaining rent and a separate lease-break or re-letting charge. Ask in writing which amounts are credited against the other before paying.
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Charges tied to an eviction notice
A fee that fires when a notice is posted on your door. C.R.S. § 38-12-801 voids penalties tied to an eviction notice or action.
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Deposit kept plus accelerated rent
Your full deposit is kept and the balance still arrives. Ask for a written itemization showing exactly what was credited against what.
Your Rights as a Denver Tenant
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Mitigation still gets argued
If your landlord does nothing to re-rent, you can argue under contract mitigation principles that the damages award should be reduced.
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Some lease terms are void
C.R.S. § 38-12-801 voids penalties tied to an eviction notice or action and one-way attorney-fee clauses.
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A judge decides, not the lease
An acceleration clause does not collect itself. A landlord who wants that money has to sue and convince a Colorado judge.
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Proof, not a printed number
Ask for the re-rental date, the new rent and receipts before you treat the balance on a statement as owed.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find the acceleration paragraph
Search your lease for 'accelerate', 'all remaining rent' or 'balance of the term'. Copy the exact wording; that is where your landlord's number starts.
Give dated written notice
Email it and mail it, so your move-out date is one you can prove.
Photograph everything, return keys
Document each room and hand back keys on a date you can prove. Rent and damage disputes are settled from the same paper trail.
Track the relisting weekly
Check Zillow, Apartments.com and the building's own site. Screenshot the date and price the moment your old unit reappears.
Ask for an itemized statement
Ask in writing for the re-rental date, the new rent and receipts for actual costs. Do not pay a lump sum with no math behind it.
Get Colorado tenant help
Call Colorado Legal Services or the Colorado Poverty Law Project before signing a repayment plan. The rule here is judge-made, so early advice helps.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Lease Acceleration rules near Colorado
The same clause in the nearest states we cover.
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