Colorado Mechanics Lien Deadlines: The Notice of Intent to Lien and the Four-Month Filing Window

Colorado does not allow a claimant to walk into the county recorder's office and file a mechanics lien without warning. Before a lien statement can be recorded, the claimant must serve a Notice of Intent to Lien on the owner and the prime contractor at least 10 days in advance — and then record, together with the lien statement, an affidavit proving that the notice was served. Skip the Notice of Intent, or file the lien statement before the 10 days have run, and the lien is invalid.

The framework lives in the Colorado Revised Statutes Title 38, Article 22 (the General Mechanics' Lien statute, §§ 38-22-101 through 38-22-133). Beyond the Notice of Intent, two features define Colorado practice: the lien statement is generally due within four months after last furnishing, compressed to two months for those who furnish only day or piece labor; and Colorado penalizes a claimant who knowingly files an excessive lien. Verify the current text of Article 22 before relying on any specific date — the Notice of Intent timing and the four-month-versus-two-month split are exactly where claimants lose rights.

Who Can Claim a Lien

Article 22 grants lien rights broadly to those who furnish labor, materials, machinery, or tools used in the construction, alteration, or repair of a structure or improvement, but the procedure each claimant follows turns on what the claimant supplied:

Two lines drive Colorado practice. The first is that the Notice of Intent to Lien is required of everyone, prime contractor included — there is no direct-contractor exemption from the notice. The second is the labor distinction: a claimant who furnished only day or piece labor works against a two-month filing deadline, while everyone else has four months.

The Notice of Intent to Lien

The Notice of Intent to Lien is Colorado's mandatory pre-filing step under C.R.S. § 38-22-109. To preserve any lien, the claimant must serve a Notice of Intent to Lien on the owner or reputed owner (or the owner's agent) and on the prime contractor (or the prime contractor's agent) at least 10 days before the lien statement is filed with the county clerk and recorder.

Service must be by personal service or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the last known address of each required recipient. The statute then requires a distinctive proof step: an affidavit of that service or mailing — establishing that the Notice of Intent was served at least 10 days before the lien statement is filed — must be recorded with the lien statement itself. The affidavit is what tells the record that the 10-day notice requirement was met.

Serving the Notice of Intent also has a strategic payoff beyond compliance: under the statute, recording the related notice can operate to extend the time for filing the lien statement in defined circumstances. But the core function of the Notice of Intent is the 10-day warning to the owner and prime contractor, and a claimant should treat the 10 days as a fixed, non-compressible part of the timeline.

The Four-Month Filing Deadline

The core payload is the deadline to file the lien statement, and Colorado splits it by what the claimant furnished:

The two-month rule for day or piece labor is a genuine trap. A laborer or labor-only crew that assumes the general four-month window applies will file two months late. Confirm whether the claimant furnished materials or only labor, because that single fact halves the available window.

"Last furnishing" or "completion" anchors the clock, and trivial follow-up work generally does not extend it — Colorado courts look to the last substantive furnishing or genuine completion, not minor corrective visits. Because the four-month and two-month windows are fixed day-counts, count from the documented triggering date and calendar both the filing deadline and the 10-day Notice of Intent step that has to precede it.

Where to File

The lien statement is filed with the county clerk and recorder of the county in which the improved property is located. Under C.R.S. § 38-22-109, the lien statement must contain the statutorily required content: the name of the owner or reputed owner of the property (or a statement that the name is unknown); the name of the person claiming the lien; the name of the person who furnished the laborers or materials or performed the labor for which the lien is claimed; a description of the property sufficient to identify it; and a statement of the amount due or owing to the claimant. The lien statement must be signed and verified by the claimant or someone acting on the claimant's behalf.

The affidavit of service of the Notice of Intent to Lien is filed for record together with the lien statement and serves as the proof that the 10-day notice was given. Treat the lien statement and the affidavit as a single recording package — recording the lien statement without the affidavit leaves the lien exposed to challenge.

Lien Priority

Colorado mechanics liens take priority by relation back to the commencement of work. All mechanics liens on a project generally relate back to, and take priority as of, the time the labor was commenced or the materials were first furnished for the project — and they share that common date. A claimant who joined the project in its final month can share the priority position of the contractor who did the earthwork on day one.

Relation-back priority is why a construction lender's deed of trust recorded before any work commenced generally has priority over the mechanics liens, while a deed of trust recorded after commencement is generally subordinate. Colorado's statute also addresses ranking among lien claimants — laborers occupy a favored position in the distribution of foreclosure proceeds relative to other claimants. The relation-back date fixes the liens' priority as a class; the statutory ranking governs how they share when proceeds are short.

The Excessive Lien Penalty and the Disclosure Statement

Colorado discourages inflated liens with a real penalty. Under C.R.S. § 38-22-128, a person who files a lien statement for an amount greater than is due, knowing it to be excessive, forfeits all lien rights and can be liable to the property owner for the costs and reasonable attorneys' fees the owner incurs in defending against the excessive portion. A claimant should file for the amount genuinely owed after just credits and offsets — padding the number is not a free option in Colorado.

Colorado also has a disclosure mechanism that lets an owner or other interested party demand from a contractor a statement identifying the subcontractors and suppliers and the amounts owed to them. A claimant on a project should be aware that the owner has tools to verify lien amounts against the disclosed contract picture, which is another reason the recorded lien amount should be accurate and defensible.

Enforcing the Lien

Filing the lien statement perfects the lien; it does not collect the money. To enforce, the claimant must commence a foreclosure action. Colorado provides that an action to enforce a mechanics lien must be commenced within six months after the completion of the building, structure, or other improvement, or within six months after the last work or labor is performed or laborers or materials are furnished — and the claimant must file a notice of lis pendens within the same period for the lien to remain enforceable.

The six-month enforcement clock and the four-month filing clock both run from completion or last furnishing, which means a claimant who uses most of the four months to file has only a short remaining window to bring the foreclosure suit. A successful foreclosure produces a judgment and an order of sale; in practice most Colorado lien claims resolve through payment to clear title. Verify the current six-month enforcement period and the lis pendens requirement before calendaring, because the filing and enforcement deadlines must be tracked together.

Lien Waivers

Colorado does not prescribe a single mandatory statutory lien-waiver form the way some states do, and lien waivers in Colorado are largely a matter of contract. That makes the precise wording of any waiver important: a waiver is read for what it actually says, so a claimant should know whether a given document waives lien rights only for amounts already paid or purports to waive future rights as well.

Waivers exchanged in connection with actual progress or final payment — releasing the lien for amounts that have been paid — are routine and generally effective. The exposure is the unconditional release signed before payment has cleared, which can discharge lien rights with no money received, and the broad up-front waiver that tries to surrender lien rights before they arise. A subcontractor asked to sign a sweeping or unconditional waiver in Colorado should read it closely and, for anything beyond a routine paid-to-date release, confirm its effect with counsel before signing.

Practical Timing Strategy

For a Colorado subcontractor or supplier, the workable sequence is built around the Notice of Intent and the four-month window:

The key insight is that Colorado's 10-day Notice of Intent has to fit inside the filing window. A claimant cannot wait until the last day of the four months and then serve the notice — the 10-day waiting period would push the lien statement past the deadline. Plan to serve the Notice of Intent comfortably before the four-month mark.

Bottom Line

Colorado mechanics lien rights under Colorado Revised Statutes Article 38-22 begin with a mandatory step: a Notice of Intent to Lien served on the owner and prime contractor at least 10 days before the lien statement is filed, proved by an affidavit recorded with the lien statement. The lien statement is generally due within four months of last furnishing — two months for those furnishing only day or piece labor — and is filed with the county clerk and recorder. The foreclosure action and a lis pendens must follow within six months of completion or last furnishing. A knowingly excessive lien forfeits lien rights and exposes the claimant to the owner's fees. Because the Notice of Intent timing, the four-month-versus-two-month split, and the overlapping enforcement clock all interact, verify the current Article 22 requirements against the project's facts rather than applying another state's framework. For significant claims, the precision Colorado demands makes experienced Colorado construction counsel a worthwhile investment.