The National Weather Service ranks the May 8, 2017 Denver hailstorm as Colorado’s most expensive insured catastrophe, and the state Division of Insurance says the hail season is getting longer. Denver requires a license and a third-party inspection to rent out a residence. Colorado’s habitability law can put a hotel bill on the landlord within a day. Send me the roof details, the license and inspection checklist, and the rent roll.
What underwriters ask about a Denver apartment building
- RoofAge, material, condition and prior hail claims by building. This decides more than any other single item.
- Wind and hail deductibleOften a percentage instead of a flat amount, and sometimes paired with a limit on how an older roof is valued.
- Rental licenseDenver requires a residential rental property license, backed by a passing inspection, for any residence rented for 30 days or more.
- Habitability responseColorado law sets short clocks for a landlord to act on unsafe conditions and can require temporary housing for the tenant.
- Freeze protectionHeat in vacant units, pipe locations and sprinkler lines in unheated spaces.
The coverage parts do not change with the city (how an apartment program is put together). What changes is which of them gets the hard questions.
Hail, roofs and the wind and hail deductible
The National Weather Service office in Boulder describes the storm of May 8, 2017 this way: a supercell formed in the foothills west of Denver and crossed the western and northern suburbs with hail up to baseball size, and the swath of golf-ball-and-larger hail was nine miles wide. It lists the storm as Colorado’s most expensive insured catastrophe. One shopping mall in Lakewood, flooded through broken skylights, stayed closed until November of that year, which is a fair picture of what hail does to rental income as well as to roofs.
It was not a one-off. After another storm crossed the metro area on May 30, 2024, the Division of Insurance wrote that the season for strong hail is stretching over longer periods and producing more severe storms, and reminded policyholders that many homeowners policies carry wind and hail deductibles set as a percentage of coverage. Commercial policies on apartment buildings are commonly written the same way, with the percentage applied to the building limit, so on a large building the deductible is a real number to plan for. How a wind and hail deductible works.
- Know the percentage and what it applies to: each building, or the whole location.
- Check how the roof is valued. Some policies pay an older roof on a depreciated basis or exclude cosmetic damage to metal. Replacement cost and actual cash value compared.
- Ask about impact-resistant roofing. The Insurance Commissioner has encouraged owners replacing a roof to ask what premium or deductible savings hail-resistant material may bring.
- Be careful with deductible offers. Colorado’s roofing statute (C.R.S. 6-22-105) bars a roofer from promising to pay, waive or rebate an insurance deductible, but its definition of residential property centers on one- and two-family dwellings and excludes most structures of attached dwellings unless an owners’ association maintains the roof. A rental apartment building generally falls outside it, so the protection is your own contract and your policy’s terms.
Denver’s rental license and inspection
Denver City Council passed the residential rental property license ordinance on May 3, 2021. It applies to anyone offering, providing or operating a residential rental property in the City and County of Denver, meaning any building, structure or accessory dwelling unit rented as a residence for 30 days or more at a time.
- Inspection firstA passing inspection by a certified private inspector is required, and the application must be made within 90 days of it.
- Ten percent of unitsAt a multiunit property the inspector randomly selects 10 percent of the units, at least one, and also checks shared utilities and building-wide items on the city checklist.
- Four-year termThe license is good for four years unless ownership changes, so a sale means a new license.
- FailuresA failed item is a life-safety or critical health issue. Repairs to structural, mechanical, electrical or plumbing systems need permits before re-inspection.
For insurance, the license and the completed checklist are evidence that someone independent looked at smoke alarms, heat, wiring and exits. An unlicensed building, or one with open failed items, is harder to place and gives a plaintiff an easy exhibit after an injury.
Habitability, displaced tenants and loss of rents
Colorado’s warranty of habitability (C.R.S. 38-12-503) was rewritten by Senate Bill 24-094 in 2024. As enacted, it works on short clocks:
- Start within 24 or 72 hours. After notice, a landlord must begin remedial action within 24 hours where a condition materially interferes with the tenant’s life, health or safety, and within 72 hours for other uninhabitable conditions.
- Presumption after 7 or 14 days. If the condition continues seven calendar days after notice in the first case, or fourteen in the second, the tenant gains a rebuttable presumption that the landlord failed to fix it.
- Temporary housing on request. Where life, health or safety is affected, the tenant can ask for a comparable dwelling unit or a hotel room at no cost, and the landlord must provide it within 24 hours, generally within five miles, with a kitchen or a daily meal allowance after 48 hours.
- Sixty-day limit on hotels. If the condition cannot be fixed within sixty consecutive days for reasons outside the landlord’s reasonable control, the hotel obligation runs only up to sixty days, with written notice and return of the security deposit.
- Rent continues. A relocated tenant remains responsible for rent during a temporary relocation.
That last point matters for insurance. Loss of rents coverage replaces rent you stop collecting after a covered loss. If the tenant is still paying while you pay for a hotel, the cost on your side is an extra expense, and whether a policy pays it depends on its extra expense wording and on what caused the condition. Read that section before a pipe bursts. How income coverage works. How these duties apply after a fire or storm is a legal question, and statutes get amended; check the current text with counsel.
Freeze losses
Denver’s cold arrives fast. The National Weather Service’s climate summary for December 2022 records an Arctic front on the afternoon of December 21 that dropped the temperature at Denver International Airport 37 degrees in one hour, with a low of 24 below zero the next morning; December 22 was the second-coldest day in Denver’s weather history.
Burst pipes follow nights like that, and a single break on an upper floor damages every unit below it. Underwriters ask how heat is kept on in vacant units, where supply lines run through exterior walls, attics or garages, and whether sprinkler piping in unheated spaces is protected. Many property policies condition freeze coverage on maintaining heat or draining the system, and buildings with high vacancy face added restrictions. How vacancy changes coverage.
Wildfire and the Colorado FAIR Plan
Most of Denver is not wildland, but the Marshall Fire changed how underwriters read the metro edge. On December 30, 2021 it swept through Louisville, Superior and unincorporated Boulder County; the county counts more than 1,000 homes and more than 30 commercial structures destroyed or damaged. Those were suburban streets, and buildings near open space or grassland along the Front Range are now reviewed with that in mind.
When the standard and surplus lines markets will not write a building, Colorado has an insurer of last resort. The Colorado FAIR Plan was created by House Bill 23-1288, signed May 12, 2023, and it does write commercial property; its published class codes include apartments. What it offers is narrow:
- Limit: up to five million dollars per location for building, business personal property and additional coverages combined. Buildings less than 100 feet apart count as one location.
- Valuation: actual cash value, not replacement cost.
- Perils: fire, lightning, wildfire, explosion and smoke are included. Windstorm or hail is an optional group, and so is vandalism.
- Not on its coverage list: rental income and liability, which have to be found elsewhere.
- Eligibility: proof that three insurers declined the property, an application through a registered agent, and an interior and exterior inspection.
A well-documented roof usually keeps the building in the regular commercial property market.
What to send me
- Address, year built, stories and unit count, with construction type, for each building.
- Roof facts by building: age, material, last replacement, any impact-resistant rating, and photos if you have them.
- Hail and wind claim history, including what was replaced and what was only repaired.
- The Denver rental license and the completed inspection checklist, with any failed items and their repairs.
- The current rent roll, vacancy by building, and a recent operating statement.
- Current declarations pages, showing the wind and hail deductible and how the roof is valued.
- Five years of loss runs, with freeze and water claims explained.
- System updates with years: plumbing, electrical, heating, and freeze protection for sprinkler lines.
Common questions
Why did my apartment building insurance go up in Denver?
Hail is the usual reason. The National Weather Service lists the May 2017 Denver hailstorm as Colorado’s most expensive insured catastrophe, and the Division of Insurance says the hail season is lengthening, so roof age and prior hail claims weigh heavily at renewal.
What is a wind and hail deductible on an apartment building?
It is a separate deductible for wind and hail losses, often a percentage of the building limit instead of a flat amount. Check whether it applies per building or per location, because on a multi-building property that changes the out-of-pocket figure.
Can a roofer cover my hail deductible on an apartment building in Colorado?
Colorado’s statute barring roofers from paying or waiving deductibles is written for residential property as it defines the term, which generally leaves out rental apartment buildings. Your policy still makes the deductible yours, and an invoice that hides it can cause trouble with the claim.
Do I need a license to rent out apartments in Denver?
Yes. Denver requires a residential rental property license for any residence rented for 30 days or more, with a passing third-party inspection covering 10 percent of the units at a multiunit property. The license runs four years unless ownership changes.
Do I have to pay for a tenant’s hotel if a unit becomes unlivable in Colorado?
Under C.R.S. 38-12-503 as amended in 2024, when a condition materially interferes with life, health or safety the tenant can request a comparable unit or a hotel room at no cost, and the landlord must provide it within 24 hours. The tenant remains responsible for rent during a temporary relocation.
Does the Colorado FAIR Plan cover apartment buildings?
It writes commercial property and lists apartment class codes, but only after three insurers decline, at actual cash value, up to five million dollars per location. Windstorm or hail is optional, and rental income and liability are not on its coverage list.
Are frozen pipes covered on a Denver apartment building?
Sudden pipe breaks are commonly covered, but many policies require that heat be maintained or the system drained, and vacancy can restrict coverage. Tell me how vacant units are heated and where sprinkler lines run.
General information about insuring apartment buildings in the City and County of Denver as of November 2026, not legal advice. Rental licensing is set by Denver ordinance and the warranty of habitability by Colorado statute, and both change; confirm your duties with the city and with counsel, and read your own policy for deductibles and valuation. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.