The following summaries of either recent cases or cases of particular interest in creditor's rights areas are presented by Bruce R. Wyatt Attorney, PC subject to the below disclaimer:
Issue: Waiver in Colorado Landlord/Tenant cases.
- Hepp v. Deahl, 125 P. 491, (Colo. S. Ct., 1912)
A consent by a landlord to a subletting of a portion of the premises is not an annulment of the lease covenant not to sublet without the landlord's consent and the landlord may later insist on a forfeiture of the lease for a subletting to another without his consent. The landlord did not waive the right to forfeit the lease for the tenant's subletting without consent where the landlord accepted rent without notice of the subletting.
- Werner v. Baker, 693 P.2d 385, (Colo.Ct.App. 1984).
Landlord accepted rent from the tenant after the breach of an anti-assignment clause, with knowledge of the breach, and this is a waiver of the right to terminate the lease for breach of that clause. Generally, an act by the landlord that recognizes the existence of the lease, after the landlord's knowledge of the breach, constitutes a waiver of the landlord's right to terminate.
Issue: Abandonment by Tenant under Colorado law.
- Martinez v. Steinbaum, 623 P.2d 49 (Colo. S.Ct. 1981).
The 2 elements of abandonment are the act of abandonment and an intent by the tenant to relinquish the premises. If an abandonment can be inferred, the landlord may reenter the premises and take possession without legal process. Here, the tenant left for a stated 2 day period, returned 8 weeks later, did not pay rent or give notice of termination.
- C.R.S. §42-4-2103 Abandonment of motor vehicles - private property. This statute sets out the procedure for the landlord to have the tenant's abandoned 1969 Chrysler New Yorker towed and impounded by an operator (licensed towing co.).
Issue: Landlord's liens under Colorado law.
- C.R.S. §38-20-102 gives residential landlords a lien on the tenant's personal property in the premises for unpaid rent. The statute does NOT apply to commercial landlords. But commercial and residential landlords may contract in the lease for a lien on the tenant's personal property. Beneficial Finance Co. of Colo. v. Bach, 665 P.2d 1034 (Colo.App. 1983). A commercial landlord who takes possession of a tenant's personal property WITHOUT a contractual lien has committed conversion of the property and is liable to the tenant for damages. Hughes v. Coors, 33 P. 77 (Colo.App. 1893).
