Colorado gives departing HOA managers 45 days to hand back the records — or pay $250 a day
Colorado gives departing HOA managers 45 days to hand back the records — or pay $250 a day
2026-09-10 · Colorado · Compliance
A Colorado management company that is fired, or whose contract is not renewed, now has forty-five days to deliver everything it holds for the association — and the statute names account passwords and keys specifically. Miss the deadline and the company owes the association $250 for every business day of delay. If a court finds the violation willful, it owes treble the association's actual damages plus attorney fees and costs.1
The provision is new subsection (9) of C.R.S. 38-33.3-317, added by HB26-1099, signed April 13, 2026 and effective August 12, 2026. It is the direct answer to the most familiar complaint in Colorado community association practice: the old manager will not give us the books.
What has to be handed over
The trigger is an association — other than a self-managed one that never retained a management company — terminating or failing to renew its management agreement. Within forty-five days, the former company must deliver to the new company or to the association, in the statute's words, “at no charge to the association,” all association property. The enumerated list is long and deliberately mundane:
money; financial accounts; account books; financial records; insurance policies; contracts; business documents; invoices; receipts; subscriptions; account information; account passwords; keys; and any other property or records of the association, or information concerning the association.
“At no charge” is doing work in that sentence. It ends the records-release and transition fees that some agreements have carried.
The software carve-out
Subsection (9)(a)(II) gives the outgoing manager one thing to keep. It need not hand over “any proprietary software or computer programs” — but only “so long as the association's data or records within the proprietary software or computer program is submitted to the association.” The platform stays with the vendor. The data in it does not.
Keep reading with the Colorado State Pass
The rest of this analysis — what an association can actually do, the recent bills and rulings, and how Colorado compares nationally — is for subscribers. $49/month for every Colorado topic on HOA Weekly.
$49/month, $449/year, or a $19.99 day pass.
What you unlock
- How the penalties actually work
- The sentence that decides whether any of this applies to you
- Where boards and managers stand
and 1 more section in detail
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Recurring monthly subscription · Cancel anytime · Need help?
Related Colorado HOA Topics
- HB26-1099 final act text, new C.R.S. 38-33.3-317(9) (source of the quoted statutory language) ↩
- HB26-1099 bill page, status and vote history, Colorado General Assembly ↩
- HB26-1099 summary, Colorado Division of Real Estate, HOA Information and Resource Center ↩
- 2025 HOA Information & Resource Center Annual Report, Colorado Division of Real Estate (complaint counts) ↩
Stay on top of Colorado HOA law
Every week: new Colorado legislation, court rulings, and regulatory developments affecting condos, planned communities, and property managers. Free.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.