Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>Lien Law in Colorado for a General Contractor. We are contracted direct with a developer for a retail site. How long do we have to file a lien. We completed the job several months ago, but they are finding issues with the parking lot, which are getting to a point of unrealistic. As we are continuing to provide labor/materials to suffice, does this extend our window? What is considered remedial work?

Lien Law in Colorado for a General Contractor. We are contracted direct with a developer for a retail site. How long do we have to file a lien. We completed the job several months ago, but they are finding issues with the parking lot, which are getting to a point of unrealistic. As we are continuing to provide labor/materials to suffice, does this extend our window? What is considered remedial work?

Retail site we put up 3 retail buildings and their parking lots. Job has been complete for several months, but now owner (developer) has issues with the lot from paving, dirty, etc. to a point of being ridiculous. They have paid us all of the contract, but have withheld a value that is too large for the reasons they keep giving as issues. Can we file a lien?

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Jan 2, 2018

Unfortunately, this can be a grey area of lien law and consulting a local construction attorney may be helpful in determining what type of work is remedial. Colorado statute doesn't make things much clearer. Under § 38-22-109(7) of the Colorado mechanics lien statute, "No trivial imperfection in or omission from the said work or in the construction of any building, improvement, or structure, or of the alteration, addition to, or repair thereof, shall be deemed a lack of completion, nor shall such imperfection or omission prevent the filing of any lien statement or filing of or giving notice, nor postpone the running of any time limit within which any lien statement shall be filed..." So, if the issues are truly "trivial", a lien deadline will not be extended by the extra work required, but to determine what is "trivial" in Colorado will be an undertaking in and of itself. The safest bet will be to proceed as if the deadline will not be extended. In Colorado, the deadline to file a mechanics lien will typically be 4 months from the last date on which labor and/or materials were provided (though for parties who only provide labor, this deadline will be 2 months - for more on the deadline differences, take a look at this article). Keep in mind, though, Notice of Intent to Lien must be filed 10 days before a lien may be filed, and the Notice of Intent will not extend the lien deadline.

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