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# Something Broke Before Closing: Who Pays in Colorado?
- URL: https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/something-broke-before-closing-colorado/
- Published: 2026-10-06T09:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T20:41:13.000Z
- Description: Under Damage, Inclusions and Services, a furnace or water heater that fails between contract and closing or possession is the seller's to repair or replace: no objection to file, no inspection deadline to preserve. It's due by that same date, and it doesn't reach a defect that was there all along.
- Author: Daniel Hsieh
- Tags: Buyer Guide, Buying, Colorado Law

Colorado's standard residential contract describes your furnace twice, in nearly the same words, at opposite ends of the document. The first passage says **Buyer may**. The second says **Seller is liable**. What separates them is not the furnace. It's the date it stopped.

Only the first arrives with deadlines and a broker who calendars them. Nothing announces the second one: it has no deadline row of its own anywhere in the contract. Which is why a buyer whose water heater quits eight days out gets told the inspection window closed three weeks ago, and gets told correctly, and gets told half of it.

> **The short answer:** When an Inclusion or Service, meaning heating, plumbing, a utility or a communication service, **fails between the contract date and closing or possession, whichever is earlier**, the provision headed Damage, Inclusions and Services in Colorado's standard residential contract makes the **seller liable** to repair or replace it "with a unit of similar size, age and quality, or an equivalent credit." No objection to file, no inspection deadline to preserve: the duty arises by operation of the contract rather than by anyone asking. The repair itself still has to land by that same date, though, and a seller can't make one nobody has told them about, so put the failure in writing the day you find it, through your own broker to the listing broker. It doesn't buy an upgrade, it gives you nothing where an Association owns the maintenance, and it doesn't reach a defect that was there all along.

## In Colorado the seller is liable, and nobody has to ask

> **The short version:** One baseline, the condition the house was in on the day you signed, and Colorado's standard contract enforces it in two places. One of them gives you an option with a deadline. The other gives the seller an obligation with neither, and it's the one that never reaches a deadline row.

Section 18 of the Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate opens with the promise everything below it hangs on: "Except as otherwise provided in this Contract, the Property and Inclusions will be delivered in the condition existing as of the date of this Contract, ordinary wear and tear excepted." A standard about a date, not about quality. So the first question about your own furnace or water heater is a question about a date: what day did it stop?

The inspection provision, section 10.3, lists what you may object to, and its third item is "service to the Property (including utilities and communication services), systems and components of the Property (e.g., heating and plumbing)." If that is "unsatisfactory, in Buyer's sole subjective discretion," the word that follows is **may**: the buyer may terminate, or may object, each on a named deadline that expires.

Much later, in the general provisions, under Damage, Inclusions and Services, section 18.2 describes the same equipment in nearly the same phrase: "any Inclusion or service (including utilities and communication services), system, component or fixture of the Property (collectively Service) (e.g., heating or plumbing)." Then the verb changes. Where that Service fails or is damaged between the contract date and closing, "**Seller is liable** for the repair or replacement."

The two parentheticals differ by one conjunction, heating *and* plumbing against heating *or* plumbing, and the scope clauses around them differ by more: section 18.2 adds "any Inclusion or" at the front and "or fixture" to the list, both of which widen it, and gives the whole thing the defined name *Service*. What differs entirely is the effect: an option you must exercise on time, against an obligation that exists whether or not you know about it. No objection to file, no notice that switches it on, no inspection deadline to preserve.

![A dark green plate titled ‘The same equipment, described twice’, setting two passages of Colorado’s standard residential contract one above the other in two boxes of identical size and identical internal structure. The upper box is tagged section 10.3, Inspection, item (3), and quotes: service to the Property (including utilities and communication services), systems and components of the Property (e.g., heating and plumbing) … is unsatisfactory, in Buyer’s sole subjective discretion. The single word ‘and’ is marked in gold. Beneath the quotation, under a small heading reading ‘the operative words’, the phrase ‘Buyer may:’ is set large in copper, and a line below the box reads ‘An option, and each of its elections runs on a deadline that expires.’ The lower box is tagged section 18.2, Damage, Inclusions and Services, and quotes: Should any Inclusion or service (including utilities and communication services), system, component or fixture of the Property (collectively Service) (e.g., heating or plumbing), fail or be damaged between the date of this Contract and Closing or possession, whichever is earlier, then. Four phrases are marked in gold here — ‘any Inclusion or’, ‘or fixture’, ‘(collectively Service)’ and ‘or’ — and under the same ‘the operative words’ heading the phrase ‘Seller is liable’ is set large in cream, with ‘for the repair or replacement …’ in smaller dim type beneath it, and a line below the box reads ‘An obligation. No objection to file, no inspection deadline to preserve.’ A gold rule runs down the left of each quotation, enclosing the form’s own words and stopping short of the plain-language line beneath. Between the two boxes runs a horizontal line captioned ‘the date it failed decides’. Its right-hand stretch is drawn as a thick gold bar, beginning at a short tick labelled ‘the date of this Contract’ and ending at a much longer vertical post, headed ‘the window — the Service fails or is damaged in here’. The post carries its own label under a heading reading ‘the same date, twice’: ‘Closing or possession, whichever is earlier’. Below that label a second gold arrow runs rightwards and its head strikes the same post, captioned ‘the cure — and is repaired or replaced on or before the same date’, so the two things that end at that post are the window and the cure. The line’s left-hand stretch is a thin line that fades away with no tick at its end, headed ‘earlier, back to whenever — already in that condition on the day you signed’. A copper arrow rises from the faded left stretch into the upper box, marked ‘section 10.3, above’; a cream arrow drops from the gold bar into the lower box, marked ‘section 18.2, below’. Two footnotes follow the boxes, and a footer names the form CBS1 with its adoption and mandatory-use dates, notes that section numbering is not stable between revisions, carries a general-information-not-legal-advice line, and carries the True North Boulder and eXp Realty lockup.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7c/ec/7cec6ddd-8aeb-4e8c-923a-e353e04b082d/content/images/2026/09/something-broke-before-closing-colorado-infographic-v2.png) 

**The same equipment, described twice, and the date it stopped decides which passage you are in.** Colorado’s standard residential contract covers the same equipment in two places, in nearly the same words. Section 10.3, the inspection provision, item (3): “service to the Property (including utilities and communication services), systems and components of the Property (e.g., heating and plumbing)” — and where that “is unsatisfactory, in Buyer’s sole subjective discretion, Buyer may:” elect, each election running on a deadline that expires. Section 18.2, Damage, Inclusions and Services: “Should any Inclusion or service (including utilities and communication services), system, component or fixture of the Property (collectively Service) (e.g., heating or plumbing), fail or be damaged between the date of this Contract and Closing or possession, whichever is earlier, then Seller is liable for the repair or replacement.” The first is an option. The second is an obligation, with no objection to file and no inspection deadline to preserve. The two passages differ by one conjunction, heating *and* plumbing against heating *or* plumbing, and by three things section 18.2 adds, which make it the wider of the two: “any Inclusion or” at the front, “or fixture” to the list, and the defined name “(collectively Service)”. What selects between them is the date. A condition already there on the day you signed is reached by other provisions, on deadlines that expire. A Service that fails or is damaged inside the window, between the contract date and closing or possession, whichever is earlier, is the one section 18.2 speaks to. That date does a second job, which is why the plate draws two things ending on it. The provision sets a deadline for the cure as well as a bound on the failure, and it uses the same words for both: it turns on whether the failed Service “is not repaired or replaced on or before” closing or possession, whichever is earlier. So the date that shuts the window is also the date the repair or replacement has to land by. Quoted from the Colorado Real Estate Commission’s Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential), form CBS1, adoption date August 5, 2025, mandatory use January 1, 2026\. Section numbering is not stable between revisions of this form, which is why each provision is named as well as numbered; confirm the edition and the section against your own contract. Section 18.2 carries limits, and an election, that the plate does not reproduce, and the article carries both. General information, not legal advice.

Two neighboring problems aren't this one. A demand arriving from your lender rather than from the house is a [Lender Property Requirement](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/lender-required-repairs-before-closing-colorado/), a separate section with a very different default. Trouble the seller knew about before you signed is the adverse material facts provision, and [buying from an estate](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/buying-a-home-from-an-estate-colorado/) walks what actual knowledge means there.

One limit belongs up here with the duty, not three sections down with the carve-outs. "Seller is liable" states an obligation, not a right to pick the contractor or require a particular repair on a particular day. What the seller holds is the duty. What you hold, where it goes unmet by closing, is a choice between two remedies.

Which is the reason to move even though nothing makes you move. The duty arises on its own; your conduct shouldn't. A seller can't repair a furnace nobody has told them about, and the window to repair it shuts at closing or possession, whichever comes first, so put the failure in writing the day you learn of it. In a Colorado transaction that writing goes broker to broker: the message you send tonight is to your own broker, and it is theirs to put to the listing broker. Waiting preserves the duty and spends the remedy the duty was for.

## The break has to happen while you are under contract

> **The short version:** The trigger is failure inside the window, not discovery inside it. A defect already there on the day you signed belongs to other provisions with other deadlines, and taking it to your seller under Damage, Inclusions and Services is how a buyer loses, late.

Watch the verb. The Service has to "fail or be damaged between the date of this Contract and Closing or possession, whichever is earlier." Failure, in the window.

That decides who pays, and it's easy to get backwards, because both feel identical to the person living through them. A sewer line cracked for six years and scoped in week three did not fail while you were under contract. It was in that condition on the day you signed, and that day is the baseline. Your levers there are the inspection provisions and their deadlines, which the [Colorado contract deadline schedule](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-contract-deadlines-boulder/) lays out. Or, where the seller discovered something after you signed and disclosed it, the adverse material facts route in section 10.2, whose right to terminate runs on that new disclosure: the earlier of closing or five days after you receive it. Where the seller knew before you signed and said nothing instead, that is a different complaint under the same section, and which clock reaches it is not a question to answer from a guide. Work out with your broker where you actually stand before you act on any date. [The Commission's Seller's Property Disclosure form](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-seller-property-disclosure/) is a separate document answering separate questions, and not what this provision turns on.

The "As Is" language will feel like it defeats all of this. It doesn't. Section 10.2 has you acknowledge the property is conveyed "in an 'As Is' condition, 'Where Is' and 'With All Faults'", and it opens with the same clause the section 18 promise opens with: "Except as otherwise provided in this Contract." As-is fixes the baseline at the contract date; the section 18 promise requires delivery at it. As-is is not a license for the furnace to die in October.

The hard cases sit on the seam, and the seam is the date. Whether a particular breakdown happened inside the window, or whether the thing had been going for years and finally stopped where you could see it, is a question of fact about your equipment, and a guide can't settle it for you. Put it to your broker with what you know about the unit and its service history in front of you, and where real money turns on the answer, to a Colorado real-estate attorney before your deadlines run.

## The standard is a comparable unit, and the credit follows the standard

> **The short version:** The measure is a unit of similar size, age and quality, or a credit that stands in for one. The word doing the work is age: you're owed the thing you would have had, not the thing you would have chosen. But the credit is measured by what a comparable unit costs to put in, not by what the dead one was worth.

The duty carries its own yardstick: the seller is liable to repair or replace "with a unit of similar size, age and quality, or an equivalent credit." Size is obvious. Quality is arguable. Age is the ceiling, and it's the word buyers skip.

Take, by way of illustration, a furnace that had been in the house nineteen years. What you are owed is a unit of similar age. Not a new one, not the high-efficiency model you would have specified, not the upgrade a sudden replacement makes tempting at the moment you're least able to shop for it. You can buy the better unit; this credit is a contribution toward it, and it carries a ceiling of its own: it "must not exceed the Purchase Price."

Then read what the credit is equivalent *to*, because this is where buyers hand money back. The sentence offers it as the alternative to repairing or replacing, so it stands in for the cost of putting a comparable unit in, not for the resale value of the one that died, which is scrap. Age is what keeps you out of the high-efficiency upgrade; it isn't what shrinks the number. Get a contractor's bid on a comparable unit, same capacity and comparable tier, before anyone puts a figure in writing. You need the failed unit's size and age to price that, and neither of them is yours to read off a data plate in a house that isn't yours yet: your inspection report may already record the model and capacity, and where it doesn't, that is what your broker asks the listing agent for.

The word "Service" covers more ground than its two examples suggest, which is worth knowing before you decide this doesn't apply to you. The contract's own examples here are heating *or* plumbing, and its definition expressly takes in utilities and communication services. The furnace is inside it. So is the water heater, a common failure in the weeks when nobody is living in the house. On an unincorporated parcel around Niwot, Lyons or rural Berthoud, so is a well pump, and that one isn't the same size of problem as a furnace: a failed well or septic component can reach your lender's requirements and the county as well as your contract, so it goes to your broker and your loan officer the same day. A sewer line can be a Service too, though it's the weakest instance to build a claim on, because sewer lines deteriorate rather than fail on a date, which usually puts them on the other side of the line the section above draws.

## Where the duty runs out: the Association, and your own insurance check

> **The short version:** Two carve-outs sit inside the very sentence that creates the duty. Where an Association maintains the component, you get nothing against your seller, and insurance money you receive for the repair comes off what the seller owes.

Both limits are written into the same sentence as the duty, which is why they're so easy to read past.

The first is the Association. The seller is liable "but only to the extent that the maintenance or replacement of such Inclusion or Service is not the responsibility of the Association, if any." On an attached dwelling that's frequently the whole answer: where the declaration makes the component the Association's to maintain, this provision hands you nothing to use against your seller. Which components fall on which side is a question about that specific community's declaration, and it differs building to building. The contract returns to the boundary a few lines on: if you take a credit, "Seller's right for any claim against the Association, if any, will survive Closing."

The rule

On an attached dwelling, read the declaration first. Where the Association is responsible for maintaining or replacing the item that failed, the seller’s liability does not reach it, and the question stops being when the item broke and becomes who owns its upkeep.

The second limit is your own insurance. The seller's liability runs "less any insurance proceeds received by Buyer covering such repair or replacement." That reads backwards on a first pass, and it's the form's actual wording. Section 18.1, which handles casualty rather than equipment failure, runs the other way, giving the buyer a credit for proceeds received by the seller. [Owning two homes during a move](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/owning-two-homes-during-a-move/) covers the rest of that provision — who carries the risk of loss before closing, and the damage threshold that lets a buyer terminate — rather than the proceeds credit itself. Whether a policy of yours would respond to a failed appliance is an insurance question, not a contract one. Ask your insurance agent, not your broker.

## You can terminate without them. The credit needs a signature.

> **The short version:** Unfixed by closing, Damage, Inclusions and Services gives you two remedies and the election is yours: terminate, or take a credit at closing. Terminating is the one you can do alone, on a written notice effective when the other side receives it, and a notice that never arrives is a waiver. A credit has to reach a signed amendment before it reaches the settlement statement.

This provision's remedy set is closed, and short. It opens where the failed Service "is not repaired or replaced on or before Closing or possession, whichever is earlier." Two elections follow, and inside this provision there are only those two. One is a Right to Terminate, "on or before Closing Date." The other belongs to you "at the option of Buyer": you are "entitled to a credit at Closing for the repair or replacement of such Inclusion or Service." Which one is right depends on the size of the failure against how much you want this house, on whether you can still close on time, and on facts nobody writing a guide has in front of them. Take that one to your broker with numbers attached.

Closed to this provision, though, is not the same as closed for good, and the difference shows up if you close without electing either one. Section 20.2.2 of the same contract, headed Seller's Failure to Perform, sits under If Seller is in Default, inside section 20, Time of Essence, Default and Remedies. It names a seller's "failure to perform any replacements or repairs required under this Contract" and says the seller "remains liable" for it "after Closing", with the buyer's rights to pursue that failure "reserved and survive Closing." Where it lives in the contract is the honest signal about what it is: something you'd be pursuing after closing, not something that fixes your problem before it. It isn't nothing, which is the impression two remedies can leave if you read the sentence quickly. But whether and what that is worth in a particular case is a question for a Colorado real-estate attorney and not for this page, and so is how it sits against the waiver rule below, because the same contract says a party whose Notice to Terminate is not received by the deadline "waives the Right to Terminate under such provision." One mechanical point belongs with it, because it is the one place this piece's own routing stops applying: the contract sends notices through the brokers while the deal is live and expressly stops once it has closed, so a notice or delivery after Closing "must be received by the party, not Broker or Brokerage Firm."

The credit also has paperwork, and it isn't a move you can complete on your own. A closing company builds the settlement statement from the contract and from signed amendments, so a credit reaches the table once it has been written into an amendment both sides have signed and the closer can work from. The contract creates the entitlement; the amendment is what makes it land. Walk in on closing day announcing an election with a figure the seller hasn't agreed to, and the first thing the closer asks is what the seller signed. The only move you can make at the table by yourself is the termination right, and it runs on a date, which is the other reason to raise the failure in writing the day you find it. Where the two sides are apart on the number, that is your broker's work, and where real money turns on it, an attorney's. Take the contract to that conversation, along with the bid, and take the date with you: the deadline that runs on this election is your Closing Date, which your contract names in its dates and deadlines table.

Terminating has machinery, and the machinery is where deals get lost. The termination "is effective upon the other party's receipt of a written notice to terminate", so sending it is not doing it. The contract also writes down the consequence of silence: if the notice "is not received on or before the specified deadline", the party holding the right "accepts the specified matter, document or condition as satisfactory and waives the Right to Terminate." One delivered late "is ineffective and does not terminate this Contract." On a termination the earnest money "must be timely returned to Buyer", subject to two named sections, and [what puts earnest money at risk](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-earnest-money-when-at-risk/) walks those carve-outs.

Three clocks run inside this one provision, and on an ordinary deal all three land on the same day.

| What the clock governs             | The contract's words                                           | Where it lands on an ordinary deal |
| ---------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| When the failure must occur        | contract date to "Closing or possession, whichever is earlier" | Closing                            |
| When the seller must have cured it | "on or before Closing or possession, whichever is earlier"     | Closing                            |
| When you must terminate            | "on or before Closing Date"                                    | Closing                            |

They come apart only where you take possession before closing, which is rare and which a lender or an insurer will often refuse, so treat early possession as a warning rather than a menu item. They also come apart against you: the seller's window to be liable and to cure both shut at possession, while your deadline to terminate runs on to the Closing Date.

A post-closing occupancy agreement doesn't do this, since it pushes possession out rather than pulling it in. Possession is in the formula at all because the contract treats it as a term of its own, with its own date and time under section 17, where a seller who holds over past closing is handled, [from the seller's side of it](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/selling-a-tenant-occupied-home-colorado/). And an escrow holdback is not a third remedy: this provision offers two, and a holdback is neither. It's something the parties can separately agree to, and whether your lender permits it is a question about your loan.

Two other instruments get used here, and both sit on that same agree-to-it side of the line rather than inside the provision. In practice a price reduction written into an amendment is commonly the resolution that gets signed. Extending the Closing Date by amendment gives the seller room to cure, and, per the table above, moves the cure deadline and your own election deadline along with it. Separately, the form itself notes at section 2.5.4 that pre-owned home warranty programs exist and "may cover the repair or replacement of certain Inclusions." If somebody bought one for this transaction it is often the fastest route to a working furnace, and it changes nothing about who is liable under 18.2\. Whether it covers this particular failure is between you and the warranty company.

There is also a ceiling on the credit that section 18.2 says nothing about, and it belongs to your lender. A seller credit at closing is an interested-party contribution, which lenders cap, and the cap is not one number: on a conventional loan it moves with your loan-to-value, and a second ceiling is set by the size of your own closing costs. [What a seller can and can't pay toward your side](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/seller-buyer-agent-compensation-colorado/) has both, and makes the point that matters here, which is that an inspection-style credit draws on the same allowance as everything else your seller is paying toward. The contract decides what you are owed. Your lender decides how much of it can arrive as a credit at the table. Ask your loan officer, in writing, the day you elect it rather than on the day you close. That answer and the contractor's bid are the pair: the bid tells you what number to ask for, the loan officer tells you how much of it can arrive as a credit at all, and neither one is much use without the other.

## The walk-through tests the contract date, not the house

> **The short version:** The walk-through verifies that the property "complies with this Contract", and what the contract requires is the condition the house was in on the day you signed. So it's a comparison against a date, not a second inspection.

You have the right, "upon reasonable notice", to "walk through the Property prior to Closing to verify that the physical condition of the Property and Inclusions complies with this Contract."

That last phrase carries all the weight, and most buyers read it as something else. Compliance with this contract means the condition existing as of the contract date, ordinary wear and tear excepted, because that's what section 18 promises. The walk-through is 18.4, sitting under the same heading as the promise it measures against: the standard and the test are one section. So the walk-through measures the house against one day, and it isn't the place to build a punch list of things you would now like fixed. [What conveys with a Colorado home](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/what-conveys-colorado-home-inclusions/) covers what that walk confirms about the inclusions themselves; the standard it measures them against is the one above.

So pick the timing of that walk deliberately. It is how a failure like this gets found. By default it happens the morning of closing, in an emptied house, with a truck booked and a wire already sent. If the heat's been off since the sellers left in the first cold week of October, nobody was there to notice, and you learn about it at the hour your remedies are worth least.

So use "reasonable notice" for what it gives you. It's a right to walk through on notice, not a standing right to come and go, which means the walk you do take should be spent where it does the most good. Go earlier than the day of closing, early enough that a seller could still cure, and run the systems instead of admiring the rooms.

First make sure there is anything to run. In an emptied house in October the utilities may already be off, and a cold house with the gas shut off looks exactly like a dead furnace, which is the same ambiguity this whole section turns on. Ask whether the power, gas and water are still on before you book the walk. Then run the systems:

- Heat on, and left on.
- Hot water at a tap.
- Every faucet, and the disposal.
- The garage opener.
- The sump.

Buying from out of state, send somebody who will run that list, not somebody who will send you photographs. [Our Boulder County buying guide](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/buying-a-home-in-boulder-county/) calls the final walk-through a narrower test than most buyers expect, and where the season has closed something off entirely, [what cannot be inspected in a Colorado winter](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/what-cant-be-inspected-in-winter-colorado/) is the companion problem.

And you aren't always the one who finds it. Often the seller or the listing agent does, and then your job at the walk changes: you aren't looking for a failure, you're verifying a cure. Ask for the invoice with the model and capacity on it, and ask for the permit. A replacement done in the last week of a deal commonly skips the mechanical permit, and the work is still there after closing, which makes it yours to explain to the next buyer. You don't have to take the seller's word on whether one was pulled, either. Start with the city or county the house sits in, which issues building permits locally; where the work was plumbing or electrical — a water heater, say — Colorado's State Plumbing and Electrical Boards issue and inspect permits in state-inspected areas, so if the local office has no record, ask before concluding none was pulled. Whether and what the seller still owes you for a repair done badly, or done without a permit, goes to your broker, and to a Colorado real-estate attorney if the cost is significant. What the seller had to disclose about that work is a separate question, and it lands on [the seller's property disclosure](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-seller-property-disclosure/) rather than on this provision.

You were told your window shut when the inspection deadline passed. It did. What this provision gives you was never on that schedule to begin with, which is why it never came up on that call, and why it is still there now. So make tonight's call the one to your own broker, with the date it stopped written down.

*Section 19 of the contract is headed "RECOMMENDATION OF LEGAL AND TAX COUNSEL", and by signing it both parties acknowledge their respective broker recommended consulting legal and tax counsel, timely, because the contract "has strict time limits, including deadlines." This page is general information about a Commission-approved form. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and it is not an opinion about your contract, your dates or your equipment. Where money turns on the answer, ask a Colorado real-estate attorney before your deadlines run.*

*True North Boulder is a real-estate team with eXp Realty.*

Common questions

## Frequently asked

Can I make the seller replace a broken furnace with a new one?+ 

No. The standard written into Colorado's contract is a unit of similar size, age and quality, or an equivalent credit. The word doing the work is age. If the unit that failed had been in the house for years, what you're owed is a comparable unit, not the newer or higher-efficiency model a sudden replacement makes tempting. You can buy the better one, and the credit is a contribution toward it. Read what the credit is equivalent to, though, because this is where buyers hand money back. It stands in for the repair or replacement, so the figure it is measured against is what a comparable unit costs to put in, not what the failed unit would have fetched, which is nothing. Get a contractor's bid on a comparable unit, same capacity and comparable tier, before anyone writes a number down. The provision states its own ceiling too: the credit must not exceed the Purchase Price. Notice what the sentence doesn't give you, either. It makes the seller liable, which is an obligation, not a right to choose the contractor or to require a particular repair on a particular day.

What if it was already broken and I only just found out?+ 

Then Damage, Inclusions and Services isn't your provision, and the distinction decides who pays. The contract's trigger is that the Inclusion or Service fail or be damaged between the date of the contract and closing or possession, whichever is earlier. A cracked sewer line that's been cracked for years did not fail inside that window. It was in that condition on the day you signed, and the day you signed is the baseline the contract sets. Your levers there are the inspection provisions and the deadlines that run with them, or section 10.2, the adverse material facts provision. Read its clock carefully. The five-day right runs from a new disclosure, meaning something the seller discovered after the contract date and then told you about, and it ends on the earlier of closing or five days after you receive it. Where the seller knew before you signed and said nothing instead, you are in a different complaint under the same section, and the clock is not the part to assume. Ask your broker which of these you're in before anyone sends anything.

What if it is the water heater in a condo or townhome?+ 

Read the declaration before you rely on any of this, and you probably already have it: it comes in the association documents delivered earlier in the transaction, in the packet most buyers skim once and file. The seller's liability under section 18.2 runs only to the extent that maintaining or replacing the item is not the responsibility of the Association, if any. Where the declaration makes that component the Association's to maintain, the provision gives you nothing to use against your seller, and which components fall on which side differs from community to community. The contract touches the same boundary again further on: if you take a credit, the seller's right to any claim against the Association survives closing. So the question to put to your broker is not whether the item broke in the window. It's who the declaration says owns its upkeep.

Do I have to send the seller a notice before the seller's repair duty applies?+ 

Not for the duty. The provision states that the seller is liable, and nothing in it requires an objection, a notice or a deadline to be met for that to be true. Send it anyway, the day you find out, and send it the way this transaction sends its writing: through your own broker to the listing broker, rather than to the seller direct. A seller can't repair a furnace nobody has told them about, and their window to do it closes at closing or possession, whichever is earlier. Where you take possession early, that is sooner than your own deadline to terminate, which stays on the Closing Date. Terminating is the opposite. If the item is not repaired or replaced by closing and you choose to terminate rather than take a credit, you're exercising a Right to Terminate, and the contract is explicit about how that works: termination is effective upon the other party's receipt of a written notice, not upon your sending it, and a notice not received by the deadline means the party holding the right accepts the condition as satisfactory and waives it. One delivered late is ineffective and does not terminate the contract. Silence is a decision here, and it's the one that keeps you in the deal.

Is the seller still responsible for repairs after closing in Colorado?+ 

Not under the provision that created the duty. Its two remedies are elections, and they run out at closing; this is the question of what happens if you close without making one. A separate provision does reach it. Section 20.2.2 of the same contract, headed Seller's Failure to Perform, sits under If Seller is in Default, and it names a seller's "failure to perform any replacements or repairs required under this Contract", says the seller "remains liable" for it "after Closing", and reserves your rights to pursue that failure so that they "survive Closing." Where it sits in the contract is the honest signal about what it is: something you would be pursuing after closing rather than something that fixes your problem before it. Whether it is worth anything in a particular case, and how it sits against the rule that a Notice to Terminate not received by its deadline waives the Right to Terminate, is a question for a Colorado real-estate attorney and not for this page. One mechanical point if you ever get there: the contract routes notices through the brokers while the deal is live and expressly stops once it has closed — a notice or delivery after Closing "must be received by the party, not Broker or Brokerage Firm."

Sources & notes 
- **The provision itself.** Colorado Real Estate Commission, [Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential)](https://dre.colorado.gov/real-estate-broker-contracts-and-forms?ref=truenorthboulder.com), form CBS1, adoption date August 5, 2025, mandatory use January 1, 2026, twenty pages. The duty sits at § 18.2, *Damage, Inclusions and Services*, within § 18, *Causes of Loss, Insurance; Damage to Inclusions and Services; Condemnation; and Walk-Through*. Quoted from the promulgated form: the trigger (“Should any Inclusion or service (including utilities and communication services), system, component or fixture of the Property (collectively Service) (e.g., heating or plumbing), fail or be damaged between the date of this Contract and Closing or possession, whichever is earlier”), the duty and its two limits (“then Seller is liable for the repair or replacement of such Inclusion or Service with a unit of similar size, age and quality, or an equivalent credit, but only to the extent that the maintenance or replacement of such Inclusion or Service is not the responsibility of the Association, if any, less any insurance proceeds received by Buyer covering such repair or replacement”), the two remedies, the Purchase Price ceiling on the credit, and the survival sentence. **“Received by Buyer” is the form’s own wording and is quoted as written.**
- **The baseline.** Same form, § 18 chapeau: “Except as otherwise provided in this Contract, the Property and Inclusions will be delivered in the condition existing as of the date of this Contract, ordinary wear and tear excepted.”
- **The contrast that makes the claim.** Same form, § 10.3, *Inspection*, item (3): “service to the Property (including utilities and communication services), systems and components of the Property (e.g., heating and plumbing)”, followed by the five-item list’s operative words, “is unsatisfactory, in Buyer’s sole subjective discretion, Buyer may:” and the two elections that follow at §§ 10.3.1 (Inspection Termination) and 10.3.2 (Inspection Objection). § 10.3.3 (Inspection Resolution) is named here for completeness and is **not a third election**: it is the consequence rule that follows an objection. The inspection regime itself is worked in the deadline schedule linked in the body, not on this page. The two parentheticals differ by one conjunction, *and* against *or*; the scope clauses around them differ in three further respects: § 18.2 adds *any Inclusion or* and *or fixture*, both of which widen it, and gives the whole thing the defined name *Service*. Both were read side by side from the promulgated form rather than from any summary of it.
- **As Is, and the pre-existing defect.** Same form, § 10.2, *Disclosure of Adverse Material Facts; Subsequent Disclosure; Present Condition*: the seller’s duty to disclose adverse material facts “actually known by Seller as of the date of this Contract”, the buyer’s Right to Terminate on a new disclosure “on the earlier of Closing or five days after Buyer’s receipt of the new disclosure”, and the as-is acknowledgment, which opens with the same “Except as otherwise provided in this Contract” as the § 18 chapeau.
- **Termination mechanics.** Same form, § 24.1, *Right to Terminate* (effective on the other party’s receipt; a notice not received by the deadline means the holder “accepts the specified matter, document or condition as satisfactory and waives the Right to Terminate under such provision”; a late notice “is ineffective and does not terminate this Contract”) and § 24.2, *Effect of Termination* (earnest money “must be timely returned to Buyer … subject to §§ 10.4\. and 21.”). The carve-out is quoted because it is the difference between a direction and a release.
- **Possession, and the walk-through.** Same form, § 17, *Possession* (Possession Date and Possession Time, with a Post-Closing Occupancy Agreement controlling both where the parties have executed one) and § 18.4, *Walk-Through and Verification of Condition*. The casualty provision quoted for contrast is § 18.1, *Causes of Loss, Insurance*.
- **What survives Closing, and the warranty note.** Same form, § 20.2.2, *Seller’s Failure to Perform*: a seller who fails to perform, “to include, but not limited to … failure to perform any replacements or repairs required under this Contract”, “remains liable for any such failures to perform under this Contract after Closing”, and the buyer’s rights to pursue that failure are “reserved and survive Closing.” **This is why the closed remedy set is stated of § 18.2 and never of the contract.** And § 2.5.4, *Home Warranty*: “Seller and Buyer are aware of the existence of pre-owned home warranty programs that may be purchased and may cover the repair or replacement of certain Inclusions.”
- **The advice recommendation.** Same form, § 19, *Recommendation of Legal and Tax Counsel*.
- **Retrieval.** The Division’s forms index blocks automated retrieval. The text quoted above is a full-text extraction of the Division’s PDF of this form, retrieved with a browser user agent on September 6, 2026, and every quotation on this page was read against it rather than against any summary of it. **Section numbering is not stable between revisions of this form**, which is why each provision above is named as well as numbered; the Commission adopts in August with mandatory use the following January 1\. Confirm the edition and the section against your own contract with your broker before relying on any of this.
- On a Colorado broker’s completion and interpretation of the Commission-approved forms, see the Commission’s rules regarding real estate brokers, [4 CCR 725-1, chapter 7](https://www.coloradosos.gov/CCR/DisplayRule.do?action=ruleinfo&ruleId=2307&deptID=18&agencyID=98&deptName=Department+of+Regulatory+Agencies&agencyName=Division+of+Real+Estate&seriesNum=4+CCR+725-1&ref=truenorthboulder.com).
- **Permit-issuing authority.** Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, [Electrical and Plumbing Permits](https://dpo.colorado.gov/ElectricalPlumbingPermits/Info?ref=truenorthboulder.com), retrieved with a browser user agent on September 19, 2026 (a plain automated fetch returns 403) and banked with this piece. It states that plumbing and electrical permits for *“all state inspected areas”* are issued and inspected by the State Plumbing and Electrical Boards, and that a homeowner obtains a permit *“with the State Plumbing Board or the local building department.”* ⚠️ We make no claim about how often either applies, and none about mechanical permits, which that page does not address.
- **Deliberately out of scope.** § 18.1 casualty and its ten percent threshold; § 18.3 condemnation; the availability and terms of an escrow holdback, which turn on the loan, the property and the lender, and which the body treats only as a boundary; how an eviction is commenced or how long one takes, which is a statutory process rather than anything in this form; whether a given home warranty covers a given failure, which is a question for the warranty company rather than a question about this form, though § 2.5.4 of the form itself notes that such programs exist and “may cover the repair or replacement of certain Inclusions”; whether any insurance policy would respond to a given failure, which is an insurance question; and the specific interested-party-contribution ceilings a lender applies to a seller credit, which are a lender rule rather than a term of this form, and which the guide linked in the body sources to Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide. No market figure, price, days-on-market or months-of-supply number appears on this page, because none of them bears on the provision.