Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>For Colorado liens, does the 10 days for the Notice of Intent to Lien start at the time you send the doc certified mail, or at the time of their receipt of the certified mail? Also, if I sent a Notice of Intent, but now my boss has changed the amount to a smaller amount, do I need to send a new Notice of Intent? I haven't filed the Statement of Lien yet, but don't know if I can file an amount different (less) than what was sent on the Notice of Intent.

For Colorado liens, does the 10 days for the Notice of Intent to Lien start at the time you send the doc certified mail, or at the time of their receipt of the certified mail? Also, if I sent a Notice of Intent, but now my boss has changed the amount to a smaller amount, do I need to send a new Notice of Intent? I haven't filed the Statement of Lien yet, but don't know if I can file an amount different (less) than what was sent on the Notice of Intent.

In December I sent a Notice of Intent to Lien with an amount given to me by one boss (they're husband & wife). Today I was going to fed ex the Statement of Lien to the county recorder's office (in another state, CO) for filing, but was told by my other boss that the amount is different. It's a smaller amount. Since I hadn't filed the actual Statement of Lien yet, the amount I file will be correct, but do I need to serve the owner a new Notice of Intent to Lien with the smaller amount? Also, does the 10 days for the Notice of Intent to Lien start at the time of mailing, or upon their receipt of it? Thank you

1 reply

Jan 23, 2019

These are good questions! First, let's look at the timing of the Notice of Intent. According to strong case law in Colorado, service of the notice of intent to lien is effected "when the notice is property addressed, registered, and mailed." There is no requirement in the statute (or in case law) that the notice be actually received in order for it to be effective. See 6S Corp. v. Martinez, 831 P.2d 509 (Colo. App. 1992). Keep in mind - it's does pay off to play it a little conservative when timing out the notice of intent and the lien claim though - it'd be incredibly frustrating for a lien to be invalidated due to jumping the gun after sending a Notice of Intent. Regarding differences between the Notice of Intent to Lien and the actual amount liened - a Colorado Notice of Intent to Lien does include a copy of the statement of lien that will be filed. However, Colorado statute does not specifically mandate that there can be no differences between a Notice of Intent to Lien and the lien claim that is filed. In a situation where the filed lien is far in excess of a Notice of Intent to Lien previously sent, it's not hard to imagine how that discrepancy could cause a lot of problems. However, when the liened amount is actually reduced from the time a Notice of Intent to Lien is sent, such a reduction would be unlikely to cause problems. For more on Colorado lien and notice rules: Colorado Lien & Notice FAQs. For more on filing a Colorado lien in general, this article may help: How to File a Colorado Lien.

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