Colorado Mechanics' Lien Filing Deadlines

Three numbers control whether a Colorado mechanic's lien is timely: ten days, two-or-four months, and six months. Each one attaches to a different procedural step. Each one runs from a different trigger event. And missing any of them — even by a day — is fatal to the lien, regardless of how much money is actually owed.

I get asked the deadline question often, usually in one of two postures. A contractor or supplier wants to know whether it is too late to file. A homeowner wants to know whether a lien already on title can still be enforced or has aged past the point of being a real threat. The analysis is the same in either direction; the answer depends entirely on which trigger event has occurred and when.

Here is how the timeline works.

Trigger event: the last day of labor or materials

Every Colorado lien deadline runs from one of two events: the date the lien claimant last performed labor or furnished materials on the project, or the date the structure or improvement was completed. The statute uses both formulations and treats them as functionally equivalent for most purposes.

That trigger date is almost never the same as the day the homeowner moved in, the day the certificate of occupancy was issued, or the day the contract was supposed to end. It is the last day the lien claimant himself was on the job. A subcontractor who finished his rough-in in February but whose general contractor did not close out the project until June has a February clock, not a June one. Getting this date wrong is the single most common reason lien claimants miss their deadline.

There is one important exception, set out in C.R.S. § 38-22-109(7): if a contractor or supplier abandons the project — meaning discontinues all labor and materials for a three-month period — the abandonment is deemed equivalent to completion. The lien-filing clock then runs from the end of that three-month abandonment window rather than from the original last day on site.

With that trigger in mind, the three deadlines fall into place.

Ten days: the notice of intent

Before any lien statement is recorded, the claimant must serve a notice of intent to file on the property owner and on the principal or prime contractor. Under § 38-22-109(3), the notice must be served by personal service or by registered or certified mail with return receipt, and the recording of the lien statement cannot occur until at least ten days after that service is complete. An affidavit of service must be filed with the lien statement itself.

The ten days are not a suggestion. They are a precondition to recording, and the lien is defective if the statement hits the county clerk's office before the ten days have run.

A subcontractor who serves the notice on the owner but forgets the prime contractor has not satisfied the statute. A claimant who relies on first-class mail rather than certified mail has not satisfied the statute. These are the procedural defects that get liens released on motion in the first ninety days of litigation.

Two or four months: the lien statement itself

The recording deadline for the lien statement depends on which kind of claimant is filing.

Two months under § 38-22-109(4) for claimants who performed labor by the day or by the piece without furnishing laborers or materials of their own. This is the narrow rule. It typically applies to individual tradespeople billing pure labor, with no crew under them and no materials provided.

Four months under § 38-22-109(5) for everyone else — general contractors, subcontractors who run crews or furnish materials, and material suppliers. This is the rule that applies to the large majority of lien claimants.

Both deadlines run from the trigger date discussed above: the claimant's last day of labor or materials on the project. A contractor who finished his work on March 15 and is filing as a non-principal claimant has until July 15 to record. The same contractor counted from the wrong trigger — say, the certificate of occupancy in May — would think he has until September. The mistake is invisible until the lien is challenged, and then it is fatal.

A useful provision for claimants who need flexibility is the extension notice under § 38-22-109(10). A lien claimant entitled to file under § 38-22-101 may record a notice (with the legal description of the property and the claimant's contact information) that extends the lien-filing window to the earlier of (a) four months after completion of the structure, or (b) six months after the notice is filed. This is most useful on long-running projects where the four-month clock might otherwise expire before the claimant has a clear final number. The notice is not a substitute for the lien statement itself — it is a placeholder that buys time.

Six months: the foreclosure action

Once the lien statement is recorded, the clock immediately starts on the most-missed deadline of the three.

Under C.R.S. § 38-22-110, a recorded lien holds the property only for six months after the last labor or materials, or after completion of the improvement (whichever the trigger was for the lien statement itself). Within that six-month window, the lien claimant must do two things:

1. Commence a foreclosure action in district court to enforce the lien, and

2. Record a notice that the action has been commenced with the county clerk in the county where the property sits.

If either step is missing on the day the six months expire, the lien terminates automatically as against the owner and anyone primarily liable for the debt. The lien claimant retains his contract or quantum meruit claims against the contracting party, but the lien itself — the leverage against the property — is gone.

This is the deadline I see contractors miss most often, because the recording of the lien statement feels like the finish line. It is not. It is the starting line of a six-month sprint.

One year: the annual affidavit (for long projects only)

There is a fourth deadline that comes up rarely but is worth knowing about. Under § 38-22-109(8), if a foreclosure action has not yet been commenced and the project is still incomplete at the one-year anniversary of the lien filing, an annual affidavit stating that the improvements remain incomplete must be filed within thirty days of the anniversary. Most lien claimants will have foreclosed (or settled) well before a year is out, so this provision rarely controls, but on multi-phase projects with long incompletion timelines it can be the difference between a live lien and a dead one.

The calendar I keep on my desk

When I take on a lien matter — whether I am filing one or fighting one — the first thing I do is calendar four dates on a single sheet of paper:

1. Claimant's last day of labor or materials on the project

2. The earliest the lien statement can be recorded after serving the notice of intent to file lien

3. The deadline to record the lien statement (depending on claimant type)

4. The deadline to commence foreclosure and record notice of commencement.

If the project was abandoned rather than completed, (A) is the end of the three-month abandonment window under § 38-22-109(7), not the day the contractor stopped showing up.

That single sheet, prepared the first time anyone calls me about a Colorado lien, prevents the great majority of timing problems I see. It is also the analytical tool I use on the defense side: if any of the four dates is past, the homeowner has a procedural answer to the lien that does not require litigating the merits at all.

If you are a contractor or supplier holding an unpaid invoice and worried about your window, the first action item is to write down date (A) and work the other three out from there. If you are a homeowner staring at a lien that was recorded against your property, the first action item is the same — only in the second case the question is whether any of the deadlines have already lapsed.