If you are using the specific time of “midnight” on your demand forms in El Paso County, you will need to revise them to state an actual time, such as 11:59 PM or 12:00 AM instead. The County Magistrate recently made a ruling that demands using “midnight” are invalid, as midnight does not meet the current legal requirement of a specific date and time that demands expire.
If you use 12:00 AM, please ensure you have built in enough time for the 10- or 30-day demand after posting, as 12:00 AM can easily be argued to mean the next day. To use an easy example, a 10-day rent demand was posted on 9/30. Day 1 of the cure period is 10/1, 2, 3… until the 10 days are up, 10/10. You can act on that demand on 10/11. If you allow only 10 days between a proper serve or post, there may be an argument that 12:00 AM on 10/10 means that the demand expires in the morning on the 10th, not that night.
As always, for specific legal advice, please reach out to your attorney directly.
