Colorado Seller Disclosure Requirements: What Home Sellers Must Reveal
Colorado’s disclosure article, C.R.S. 38-35.7, is a set of single-topic rules: radon, meth labs, water source, metro districts. The whole-house form is the Real Estate Commission’s Seller’s Property Disclosure, due by the contract’s own deadline. A seller who hides a known latent defect answers in fraud under Cohen v. Vivian (1960).
Where a Colorado seller’s duty actually comes from
Three layers stack on top of each other, and they have different owners.
- Case law. In Cohen v. Vivian, 349 P.2d 366 (Colo. 1960), the buyers’ house sat on filled ground that the sellers knew about. The Colorado Supreme Court held: “A latent soil defect, known to the seller of a house built on such soil, creates a duty of disclosure in the seller. His failure to disclose amounts to concealment, making him vulnerable to a suit based upon fraud.” The same opinion added that “caveat emptor in such case is a pervious shield affording no protection to the seller,” and that a buyer’s own inspection that misses the defect does not excuse the seller.
- Statute. Title 38, article 35.7 (“Disclosures Required in Connection with Conveyances of Residential Real Property”) lists specific items, each with its own trigger. They are set out in the table below.
- Commission forms. The Division of Real Estate states that “real estate brokers are required to use Commission approved contracts and forms.” The Seller’s Property Disclosure (form SPD19) and the Contract to Buy and Sell (CBS1) are those forms. They bind the parties because the contract says so.
A buyer who claims fraud, misrepresentation or concealment has three years to sue (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(c)). The clock starts when the fraud “is discovered or should have been discovered by the exercise of reasonable diligence” (13-80-108(3)), not at closing.
SPD19 and contract section 10: the deadline the parties write in
The current residential form, SPD19, was adopted August 5, 2025, and has been mandatory since January 1, 2026. Its standard is the seller’s “CURRENT ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE.” The advisory on its last page says that phrase excludes “constructive knowledge” and what the seller “should have known,” and that the seller “has no duty to investigate or inspect the Property.” Knowledge still has to go on the page, though: “If Seller has knowledge of an adverse material fact affecting the Property or occupants, it must be disclosed whether there is a specific item on this SPD or not.” The form also states it “is not a warranty or guarantee of any kind.”
The form runs from A to R: building conditions, roof, appliances, electrical and telecommunications, mechanical, ventilation and heat, water, source of water, sewer and septic, flooding and drainage, other improvements, use/zoning/legal issues, access and parking, environmental conditions, radon, common interest community, metropolitan district, and general disclosures.
The SPD’s timing comes from CBS1. Section 10.1: “On or before Seller’s Property Disclosure Deadline, Seller agrees to deliver to Buyer the most current version of the applicable Colorado Real Estate Commission’s Seller’s Property Disclosure form.” The date is a blank the parties fill in. Section 10.2 then requires the seller to disclose in writing “any adverse material facts actually known by Seller as of the date of this Contract,” and to disclose later discoveries “timely.” After a new disclosure, the buyer has the right to terminate “on the earlier of Closing or five days after Buyer’s receipt of the new disclosure.” Separately, section 10.3 lets the buyer terminate or object over an unsatisfactory inspection by the Inspection Termination and Inspection Objection Deadlines.
A sale written on some other contract carries whatever that contract says about the SPD. The article 35.7 items and the Cohen rule still apply.
Statutory items in C.R.S. 38-35.7 that reach an ordinary resale
| Section | What the seller must give | Consequence or condition in the text |
|---|---|---|
| 38-35.7-101 | Bold notice in every residential sale contract that special taxing districts may carry general obligation debt | On failure, the buyer has “a claim for relief against the seller for all damages … plus court costs” |
| 38-35.7-102 | Bold notice when the home is in a common interest community; on request, the association’s governing and financial documents | “Actual damages directly and proximately caused” plus court costs; buyer’s actual or constructive knowledge is an affirmative defense; time share units excluded |
| 38-35.7-103 | Written statement whether the seller knows the home was used as a methamphetamine lab | Not required if the property was remediated and certificates of compliance issued; see the meth paragraph below |
| 38-35.7-104 | Source of potable water (well, named provider, or other); a copy of the current well permit “if one is available” | A complying seller faces no claim under this section over an inadequate water source; other remedies are preserved. A mobile or manufactured home counts only if “permanently affixed to a foundation” |
| 38-35.7-105 | Disclosure on the Commission’s Seller’s Property Disclosure of “any proposed or existing transportation project that affects or is expected to affect” the property | Imposed through a Real Estate Commission rule for property under the Commission’s jurisdiction; SPD19 carries the question |
| 38-35.7-108 | Notice that the mineral estate may be owned separately and that oil and gas activity may occur on or near the property | Creates no new “duty to investigate or disclose” |
| 38-35.7-110 and -111 | For homes in a metropolitan district organized on or after January 1, 2000: the district’s electors notice, service plan, debt and mill-levy statements, a tax estimate, the treasurer’s tax certificate, and the district’s official website | Due “concurrently with or prior to the execution of a contract”; good-faith estimates satisfy the section |
| 38-35.7-112 | Bold radon statement in the contract; the seller’s knowledge of tests, latest reports, levels found, mitigation; CDPHE’s radon brochure | “Residential real property” is defined to include single-family, manufactured and mobile homes, condos, apartments, townhomes and duplexes, and a home sold by the owner, a financial institution or HUD |
Section 110 once covered only newly built homes. House Bill 25-1219 removed that limit effective August 6, 2025, so any owner selling inside a post-2000 metro district now owes the package. A buyer who has not seen it by the time the contract is ready to sign should ask for it.
Meth: a test right and a three-year claim
Under 38-35.7-103 the buyer may have the home tested by an industrial hygienist. If the results show contamination that has not been remediated to state health board standards, the buyer gives prompt written notice “and the buyer may terminate the contract”; the contract cannot take that right away. The seller then has 30 days to run a second independent test. A seller who knew of meth production and did not disclose “at or before the time of sale” is liable for remediation costs, costs of health-related injuries to later residents, and “reasonable attorney fees for collection.” The buyer must sue “within three years after the date on which the buyer closed.”
What Colorado says is not a material fact
C.R.S. 38-35.5-101(1) declares that facts or suspicions that could “psychologically impact or stigmatize” a property “are not material facts subject to a disclosure requirement in a real estate transaction.” The statute names two examples: an occupant’s HIV/AIDS or another disease “highly unlikely to be transmitted through the occupancy of a dwelling place,” and the property having been “the site of a homicide or other felony or of a suicide.” Subsection (2) bars suits against a broker who stays silent about such a circumstance.
The listing broker’s own duty
This one belongs to the broker, not the seller. Under C.R.S. 12-10-404(3)(a), a seller’s agent owes the buyer no duty except this one: subject to the stigma limits of 38-35.5-101, the agent must “disclose to any prospective buyer or tenant all adverse material facts actually known by the broker.” Those facts may concern the title and the physical condition of the property, material defects, and environmental hazards required by law to be disclosed. Subsection (3)(b) adds that the agent has no duty to inspect independently or to verify what the seller says. The Division’s guidance on the SPD tells brokers never to fill out the form for the seller.
Homes built before 1978: the federal lead rule
The lead-paint rule is federal. For a pre-1978 home, EPA’s regulation lists what must happen before any purchase contract binds the buyer: an approved lead hazard pamphlet, disclosure of known lead-based paint or hazards, and “any records or reports available” to the seller (40 CFR 745.107). Under 745.110 the seller must allow “a 10-day period (unless the parties mutually agree, in writing, upon a different period of time)” for a risk assessment or inspection; a buyer may waive it in writing. The rule skips foreclosure sales (745.101), and the definition of target housing leaves out housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities and 0-bedroom dwellings unless a child younger than 6 lives or is expected to live there (745.103). In the Colorado contract, CBS1 section 10.10.1 sets a Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Deadline and lets the buyer terminate if the signed form does not arrive by it.
Colorado seller and buyer questions
Can I sell as-is and skip the disclosure form?
No. CBS1 conveys the home “As Is,” “Where Is” and “With All Faults,” but that sentence sits inside section 10.2, the same section that requires written disclosure of known adverse material facts, and section 10.1 still requires the SPD by its deadline. Our seller resources cover listing a house that needs work.
I inherited the house and never lived in it. What do I write?
What you actually know. SPD19 asks whether the seller occupies the property and when the seller last did, and the standard stays current actual knowledge, with no duty to inspect. The Division’s advice to brokers is that “even if the seller lives out of state or has not been in the property, the seller usually knows something about the property,” and what the seller knows goes on the form.
We found a defect after closing. How long do we have?
For fraud or concealment, three years from the date you discovered it or reasonably should have (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(c), 13-80-108(3)). A meth claim under 38-35.7-103 runs three years from closing. Keep the signed SPD, the inspection report and any repair invoices.
Does the seller have to run a radon test?
The statute asks for knowledge, not a new test: whether tests were run, the most recent reports, levels found, and any mitigation system, plus the state’s brochure (C.R.S. 38-35.7-112(2)(b)). The contract’s bold notice says the health department “strongly recommends” that every buyer test before purchase. Our Denver relocation guide covers other Front Range due-diligence items.
More reading
- Home buying guide and closing cost overview
- Property tax calculator for comparing metro district mill levies
- Selling a home in an HOA
- Agent vs. for-sale-by-owner
- Neighboring states: Utah, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arizona