Pet Policy Clause
in Your Lease
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
- Your pet deposit in Denver can't exceed $300, and it has to be refundable - Colorado doesn't permit nonrefundable pet fees.
- Pet rent is capped at $35 per month or 1.5% of your monthly rent, whichever is greater.
- Denver adds nothing of its own; the statewide caps are the entire rulebook from Sloan's Lake to Green Valley Ranch.
- Colorado is unusually strict here - Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Tennessee set no pet deposit cap at all.
- Service and assistance animals aren't pets, so no pet deposit and no pet rent may be charged for them.
Understanding the Pet Policy Clause
A pet policy clause decides which animals you're allowed to keep - species, weight, breed, headcount - and what each one costs you. In Colorado the money half of that clause is capped by statute: $300 for the deposit, and it has to come back to you.
That matters in Denver because most large buildings run national lease templates written for states that cap nothing. A nonrefundable pet fee is ordinary language in a Texas or Florida lease and simply isn't permitted here.
What renters assume
Renters assume the pet charges printed in the lease are just the price of bringing a dog into a tight Denver market. Sign it or lose the unit.
What is actually true
Colorado caps the pet deposit at $300 and pet rent at $35 or 1.5% of rent, whichever is greater. A clause charging more doesn't become enforceable because you signed it.
Colorado is the outlier that actually named a number. Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Tennessee cap nothing, California and New York just fold pet money into a one-month security ceiling, and Seattle uses a percentage instead. Colorado is also the only state here that caps the monthly pet rent on top of the deposit.
Plain English Version
Think of the pet deposit as a refundable damage bond, not a cover charge - Colorado lets your landlord hold up to $300 while your dog lives there, then hand it back if nothing got wrecked. Pet rent is the separate monthly line, and Colorado put a ceiling on that one too.
Pet 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.
PETS. NO PETS ARE PERMITTED. IF THERE ARE PETS, LESSEE(S) AGREES TO PAY AN ADDITIONAL $10 PER MONTH PER CAT OR DOG UNDER 40 POUNDS AND $20 PER MONTH PER DOG OVER 40 POUNDS. ONE DOG PERMITTED, NO ADDITIONAL FEE.
Quoted from the published opinion in Oldendick v. Crocker, 2016-Ohio-5621, 70 N.E.3d 1033 (Ohio Ct. App. 8th Dist.). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“NO PETS ARE PERMITTED”
Still lawful - Colorado caps what pets cost, not whether a landlord may refuse them. The caps only start mattering once the answer is yes. So the negotiation in Denver is not about the price, which the statute already fixes, but about getting the permission at all and getting it in writing.
“AN ADDITIONAL $10 PER MONTH”
A monthly pet charge is pet rent, and Colorado caps it: C.R.S. § 38-12-106 allows no more than $35 per month or 1.5% of monthly rent, whichever is greater. At $2,000 rent that is $35 (1.5% is $30, so the flat figure wins); at $3,000 it is $45. $10 a month, as here, would be comfortably lawful. A $75 or a $100 monthly pet charge would not be, at either of those rent levels.
“PER CAT OR DOG UNDER 40 POUNDS”
Weight banding is legal; the total is what is capped, not the method of getting there. But note what the cap does to a clause like this one: it is per month, not per animal. Two dogs in different weight bands do not produce two allowances - the ceiling applies to the pet rent you pay, full stop.
“ONE DOG PERMITTED”
A free allowance buried after a ban and a price list. Get it into the addendum by name and description, because “one dog” and “the dog I moved in with” are not the same thing when the first one dies and you get another. And whatever the count says, service and assistance animals sit outside it entirely - excluded from the deposit, the pet rent and the head count.
The court called it what it is - an “internally inconsistent pet clause”. It bans pets and prices them in the same breath, so the court refused to read the rent out of it at all and used the parties' own stipulation instead. The tenant then won the part that matters: because the pet fee paid for pet-related risk, and the next tenant had no pet, the landlord suffered no actual loss and had no business keeping that money out of her deposit. She recovered the $640 balance plus $640 more in statutory double damages - $1,280 - under Ohio's deposit statute.
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 Pet Policy Clause
- A refundable pet deposit may not exceed $300.
- Pet rent is capped at $35 per month or 1.5 percent of monthly rent, whichever is greater.
- Nonrefundable pet fees are not permitted; the pet deposit must be refundable to the tenant.
- Service animals and assistance animals are excluded, so no pet deposit or pet rent may be charged for them.
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-12-106 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Colorado wrote the actual numbers into law. A refundable pet deposit can't exceed $300, and monthly pet rent is limited to $35 or 1.5% of your rent, whichever is greater. On most Denver rents the $35 figure is the higher of the two, so that's the ceiling you're working with.
Compare that to Texas or Florida, where a property manager can charge any pet deposit and any nonrefundable pet fee they want. Even California, protective in other ways, leaves monthly pet rent completely uncapped - it only blocks a separate pet deposit by squeezing all security into a one-month limit. Colorado is the rare state that capped both the deposit and the recurring charge.
Colorado Tenant Protections
A refundable pet deposit cannot exceed $300 under Colorado law, whatever the lease template calls the charge. Nonrefundable pet fees are not permitted, so pet money you hand over at move-in is money you can get back minus documented damage. Service animals and assistance animals are excluded from the pet clause entirely, so no pet deposit and no pet rent may be charged for them.
What's Specific to Denver
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.
Denver adds nothing. The $300 deposit ceiling and the pet-rent cap in C.R.S. 38-12-106 are the whole story, and a RiNo lease-up plays by the same numbers as a Baker fourplex. A small city pilot helps some District 10 residents cover pet deposits, but it doesn't change what a landlord may charge you.
What Denver does add is a flood of out-of-state paperwork. Institutional owners in Cherry Creek, Five Points, and Central Park run leases drafted for portfolios that include Texas and Florida, so a line reading "pet fee, nonrefundable" turns up constantly. Denver also licenses its residential landlords, which gives a property manager more reason to fix a bad clause than your email alone.
Colorado caps a refundable pet deposit at $300. Anything above that line isn't enforceable just because it's printed in your lease.
Pet deposit money in Colorado has to be refundable. If the lease won't say plainly that you get it back minus damage, ask why in writing before signing.
Nonrefundable pet fees aren't permitted in Colorado. Seeing one usually means an out-of-state template, and the rest of the pet clause deserves a hard read.
Pet rent can't exceed $35 a month or 1.5% of your rent, whichever is greater. A flat $75 monthly pet charge is over the line on most Denver rents.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-12-106, read on colorado.public.law. Colorado publishes its official statutes through LexisNexis; there is no free government edition.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Nonrefundable pet fee at signing
Colorado doesn't permit nonrefundable pet fees - the pet deposit has to be refundable. A "pet fee, nonrefundable" line is the most common defect in Denver leases.
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Pet deposit over $300
A refundable pet deposit may not exceed $300 in Colorado. A $500 or $750 pet deposit is over the statutory ceiling no matter how the lease labels it.
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Pet rent above the cap
Monthly pet rent is limited to $35 or 1.5% of rent, whichever is greater. Watch for it buried in an "additional monthly charges" schedule instead of the pet clause.
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Charges for a service animal
Service and assistance animals aren't pets, so a pet deposit or pet rent for them is never allowed - whatever the clause says about weight or breed.
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Pet charges under a new name
An "animal amenity fee" or "pet privilege charge" is still pet money. Ask in writing whether it's the $300 deposit or pet rent, because it has to be one of them.
Your Rights as a Denver Tenant
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Your $300 comes back
The pet deposit is refundable in Colorado, minus documented damage. Nonrefundable pet fees aren't permitted, so there's no version of this money you simply forfeit.
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A hard ceiling on pet rent
Pet rent can't run past $35 monthly or 1.5% of your rent, whichever is greater - unlike California, where pet rent has no cap at all.
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Assistance animals cost nothing
No pet deposit and no pet rent may be charged for a service or assistance animal. It's not a pet under fair-housing law, whatever the lease calls it.
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A signature doesn't waive the caps
A term above the $300 deposit limit isn't enforceable just because you initialed the page. The statutory caps outrank the paperwork.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find every pet line first
Deposit, fee, monthly pet rent, breed and weight limits - they're usually scattered across three pages of the lease plus a separate pet addendum.
Add up the pet money
Total the one-time charges and check them against $300. Then check the monthly line against $35 or 1.5% of rent, whichever is greater.
Flag any nonrefundable wording
Colorado doesn't permit nonrefundable pet fees. Circle the word and ask the property manager to relabel the charge as a refundable deposit.
Ask for the fix in writing
Email naming the specific charge and the correction you want. Keep the thread - it becomes your evidence if the deposit doesn't come back.
Photograph everything at move-in
Time-stamped photos of floors, trim, baseboards, and carpet are what get a refundable pet deposit returned when you move out.
Escalate outside the building
No movement? Contact Colorado Legal Services, report a licensed landlord to Denver Excise and Licenses, or file in Denver County small claims.