An important legal ruling was issued on May 15th by the Colorado Supreme Court: it confirmed that the CARES Act 30-day “Notice to Vacate” requirement remains in effect for all “Covered Properties.” In the Supreme Court opinion, it said that the notice provision [ Section 4024 (c ) of the CARES ACT] did not include an expiration date and that the Court could not “ insert an expiration date where Congress omitted one.”
What does this mean? This means that owners and operators in Colorado will be required to continue the practice of giving residents in Covered Properties who fail to pay their rent a minimum of 30 days’ notice before seeking to evict.
More importantly, though, the Court noted that this is the FOURTH State in which this same conclusion has been reached, stating that “Courts in Washington, Oklahoma, and Connecticut (the only other jurisdictions that we are aware of to consider this issue) have come to the same conclusion.” Amid this mounting collection of adverse judicial rulings, then, it would be unwise to listen to anyone who tells you that the CARES Act 30 day NTV requirement somehow no longer applies. There is simply no judicial support for that conclusion, and there are now four different High Courts that say the opposite: unless your Property’s mortgage loan is NOT “Federally Backed”, then a 30-day Notice to Vacate is still mandatory.
Note: In 2022, The National Apartment Association succeeded in getting certain members of Congress to try and correct the drafting error, and their Bill has been re-introduced and is still pending in the U.S. House of Representatives.
