Inside Real Estate: Water in Colorado, part 1

One complicated topic in real estate is water rights. Everybody needs water, but not everyone can own water. And, certainly in Colorado, people cannot do whatever they want with water.

A long time ago, when Colorado became a state in 1876, the founders placed water issues directly into their state Constitution. If you want to see, there is a copy of the Colorado Constitution held in the archives. If you look on page 42, you will see Article 16, Section 5 states: "The water of every natural stream, not heretofore appropriated, within the state of Colorado, is hereby declared to be the property of the public, and the same is dedicated to the use of the people of the state, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided."

What this means is that the State of Colorado governs the use of water in the state. Section 5 essentially states that any water not already claimed and being used, was owned by the public and the state would make decisions about it. The next section, Section 6, states that if someone wants to use unclaimed water for beneficial reasons, there is a priority about that use. When there isn't enough water for all uses, domestic use has first priority. After that, agricultural use is second, and manufacturing use is third and last.

This makes good sense, as long as farmland isn't condemned and replaced by subdivisions, making us lose too much of our food source. However, it seems that the court cases since then have been interested in paying farmers for their water rights.

Inside Real Estate: Leases in Colorado, part 2

My last post talked about two types of leases. Now I'll describe the other two types of leases, and ways that leases can end.

There's also "tenancy at will," which is when a landlord and tenant have an informal arrangement that exists until one party isn't interested any more or some event takes place. For example, this could happen when a property is for sale and the agreement exists until it is sold. Only 3 days notice is needed in a tenancy at will. That isn't much notice, but often the people involved know what's going on before the official notice is needed. These are friendly leases.

Finally, there is also something called "tenancy at sufferance." This happens when the tenant stays after a lease has ended. The landlord can decide to renew the lease, accept rent and/or change the rental terms, or evict the tenant. For eviction, the landlord needs to give notice. Obviously the tenant wouldn't give an eviction notice.

Now we've talked about leases expiring and the tenant getting evicted. Two other ways to end a lease are "surrender and acceptance," which is when both the landlord and tenant agree to end the arrangement, and "breach of conditions," which is when either the landlord or the tenant agreed to do certain things and it just didn't happen. Depending on what happened, the wronged party may walk away from the lease.

If you need other information, there is information at the Colorado Division of Housing.

Inside Real Estate: Leases in Colorado, part 1

Let's discuss leases in Colorado. A lease is an agreement between a landlord/owner/lessor (whatever word you want to use) and a tenant/renter/lessee (again, whatever word you want to use). Because of the statute of frauds, a lease for longer than one year has to be in writing to be effective. However, it's always best to get a written lease because the written paper reminds people what the arrangements are.

There are four kinds of leases. There is a lease called a "tenancy for years." It's a lease for a definite time period, which could be for 1 day, 6 weeks, 4 months, 1 year, or 50 years. Because it's clear when the lease ends, no one needs to "give notice" unless he/she wants to change the length of time.

Another kind of lease is called a "periodic tenancy." This is a lease that is for a time that constantly renews. If it's a weekly or monthly lease, it continues until either the landlord or tenant gives the other party notice that he/she doesn't want it to continue. For this change, it needs to be written notice and here are some guidelines according to Colorado statutes 13-40-107:

1 year, or longer, lease—3 months notice

6 months up to 1 year lease—1 month notice

1 month up to 6 months lease—10 days

1 week up to 1 month lease—3 days

I'll describe the other two kinds of leases on Wednesday.