Preliminary notices in Colorado
Colorado is one of the states with no general preliminary notice for subcontractors on commercial work in our summary. That doesn't mean you can skip paperwork: the lien itself still has a hard deadline, and the other notices below still apply.
Before recording, GCs, subcontractors and suppliers send a notice of intent to lien at least 10 days before the last day to record the lien. Because it counts back from the deadline, waiting until the last week can leave you too late to record at all.
Lien filing deadline in Colorado
If the GC hired you, you have 4 months after your last day furnishing labor or materials to record a mechanics lien in Colorado, about 32 days longer than the national median of 90 days (counted from last furnishing on a sample job). 40 of the 51 jurisdictions we track have a shorter lien deadline and 7 have a longer one.
Laborers paid by the day: 2 months.
The clock starts on your last day furnishing labor or materials under your contract. In many states, warranty visits and punch list work done mainly to extend the deadline don't restart it, so use your last day of real contract work.
Deadline to sue on the lien
To keep the lien alive you must sue to enforce it within 6 months after your last day furnishing labor or materials. That comes to about 183 days after your last day on the job, about 182 days shorter than the national median of 365 days. 6 of the 48 jurisdictions we track have a shorter overall time to sue and 39 have a longer one.
Colorado counts the suit deadline from last furnishing, not from recording, so recording late eats into the time left to sue.
Counted from completion of the work or your last furnishing.
How Colorado compares
Days are counted on a sample job with the lien recorded on its last allowed day, so states that count from recording or from completion can be compared with those that count from your last day on site. The median is across the jurisdictions with a dated rule on file.
- Record the lien (from last day)
- Colorado: 122 daysNational median: 90 days
- Sue to enforce (from last day)
- Colorado: 183 daysNational median: 365 days
Public and federal projects
Public property can't be liened, so subcontractors and suppliers on state and local public jobs in Colorado claim against the GC's payment bond instead. We haven't reduced Colorado's bond claim deadlines to one set of numbers, because they vary by agency and project. The governing law is Colo. Rev. Stat. §38-26-107. Verify the notice and suit deadlines with the statute and the bond itself before the job starts.
Federal jobs in Colorado follow the Miller Act instead of state law: those hired by a sub or supplier give the prime contractor notice within 90 days of their last furnishing, and suit is due within 1 year, in federal court. Prime contractors on federal work have no lien or bond claim.
Retainage and prompt payment in Colorado
On public work the cap is 5%, the most common cap among states that set one. Up to 5% of the total contract price.
On private work we have no statutory cap on file, so retainage is usually whatever the contract says. Read the retainage and release clauses before you sign.
Once the GC is paid, it has 7 days on public work to pay its subs. GC pays subs within 7 days of receiving payment.
| Public work | Private work | Federal work | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retainage cap | 5% | Verify | 10% |
| Release | With final settlement after the published notice of final settlement. | Verify with state statute | Released with final payment, or earlier once progress is satisfactory. |
| GC pays subs within | 7 days | Verify | 7 days |
| Late-payment interest | Verify | Verify | Treasury prompt payment rate (reset every January and July) |
Not legal advice. Retainage and prompt payment rules differ by agency, contract size and contract date, and change often. Confirm the rules with the current statute, your contract and a construction attorney before relying on them.
Worked example: a plumbing sub in Colorado
A plumbing subcontractor hired by the GC on a private elementary school addition in Colorado starts work on March 2, 2026 and last furnishes on July 17, 2026. The project is completed on August 28, 2026. Run through Colorado's rules, those dates give:
| Deadline | Date | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of intent to lien (10 days before recording) | November 7, 2026 Weekend | The lien deadline |
| Record the lien | November 17, 2026 | Last furnishing |
| Sue to enforce the lien | January 17, 2027 Weekend | Last furnishing |
The first deadline on the calendar is “Notice of intent to lien (10 days before recording)” on November 7, 2026.
2 dates land on a weekend (November 7, 2026, January 17, 2027). Not every state rolls a deadline to Monday, so the safe move is to record or serve by the Friday before.
Open the lien deadline calculator for Colorado and enter your own dates to get this table for your job, with countdowns and a PDF deadline calendar.
Check your own dates with the free tools
- Mechanics lien and notice deadline calculator (CO): every notice, lien and suit date for your role, tier and job type.
- Retainage and prompt payment rules (CO): check your contract's retainage against the cap and work out late-payment interest.
- Schedule of values and pay application builder: bill each period with retainage calculated, so what you're owed is documented.
- Cash flow and retainage forecaster: see what slow payment and held retainage do to your bank balance.
Statutes cited
- Colo. Rev. Stat. §38-22-101 to -133
- Colo. Rev. Stat. §38-26-107 (public)
- Colo. Rev. Stat. §24-91-103 (public)
- Colo. Rev. Stat. §38-26-107 (final settlement)
- Federal work in Colorado: 40 U.S.C. §3131 to §3134 (Miller Act)
Not legal advice. Lien and bond claim rules change and have exceptions for project type, contract terms and how notices are served. Confirm every deadline with the current statute or a construction attorney in the project's state before relying on it. Rules shown as "Verify with state statute" have exceptions or variations we could not reduce to one number.