Colorado Payment Bond Claim — There Is No 90-Day Notice, the Deadline Is Someone Else's Published Final Settlement Date, and You Have 90 Days After It to Sue (C.R.S. § 38-26-107, 2026)
✓ Verified against Colorado statutes · Reviewed September 2026 · By Michael Evan — Founder · 50 states · 799 rules
Colorado mechanics lien deadlines at a glance
Preliminary Notice
10 days — Notice of Intent before filing
Mechanics Lien
4 months — From last date of furnishing
Enforcement
6 months — From filing
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Colorado Is Not Shaped Like the Other Forty-Nine
On a private Colorado job, an unpaid subcontractor or supplier records a mechanics lien statement against the property under Article 22. A Colorado Department of Transportation interchange, a Denver school district renovation, a Regional Transportation District rail project, or a special district water treatment plant is different. Public property generally cannot be liened, so Colorado substituted two overlapping protections: a penal bond under C.R.S. § 38-26-106 , and a claim against retained contract funds under C.R.S. § 38-26-107 . It is the second one that makes Colorado unusual, and that defeats the muscle memory a multistate contractor brings to the state. In most Little Miller Act jurisdictions the claimant’s obligation is a written notice, sent to the prime contractor and often the surety, within a fixed number of days measured from the claimant’s own last labor or materials. Colorado asks for something else: a verified statement of the amount due and unpaid , filed with the public entity that awarded the contract , on a clock that is set by final settlement rather than by anything in the claimant’s records. The Mechanics Lien Management Method treats a Colorado public job as a two-date file where the claimant controls neither date . The filing cutoff is final settlement, and the suit deadline is ninety days after the date fixed for final settlement as published. Both…
What § 38-26-107 Actually Requires
Three features of that subsection decide most Colorado claims. The first is the recipient . The verified statement goes to the contracting body — the city, county, school district, special district, or state agency that let the contract. Not the surety. Not the prime. Colorado is one of the states where a claimant who mails a careful demand to the surety’s claims department, and only there, has done nothing the statute recognizes. The second is the deadline’s shape . There is no number of days here. The claimant may file at any time up to and including the time of final settlement, which means the window is generously long on a job that drags and abruptly closed on a job that wraps quickly. Two claimants with identical last-furnishing dates on different projects can have deadlines months apart. The third is what the filing does . Under § 38-26-107(2), once the verified statement is filed the contracting body shall withhold from all payments to the contractor sufficient funds to insure the payment of the claims until they are resolved. That is the leverage. The filing does not merely preserve a right to sue later; it reaches into the payment stream and stops money that was about to move, which is why a properly filed verified statement so often produces a phone call within the week.
The Ten-Day Publication Is the Whole Problem
If the filing deadline is final settlement, everything depends on knowing when final settlement is. Section 38-26-107(1) answers that with a publication requirement: on contracts exceeding $150,000 , the contracting body must publish a notice of the final settlement at least twice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the work was contracted for or performed, or in an approved electronic medium, no later than ten days before the final settlement is made . Read that as a claimant rather than as a drafter. The statute’s guarantee of warning is ten days , delivered through legal notices in a county newspaper. No subcontractor’s collections process monitors that channel, and no supplier’s credit department is going to catch a two-line advertisement about a project it invoiced eight months ago. A claimant that decides to wait and watch for the notice is relying on a warning system that was designed to satisfy due process, not to reach accounts receivable. The defense costs one email. When the job reaches substantial completion, write to the project manager and the procurement or finance office and ask, in writing, for the scheduled date of final settlement and for a copy of the published notice when it issues. Ask again every few weeks until a date comes back. On a contract at or below the $150,000 publication threshold there may be no advertisement at all,…
Every Colorado Public-Work Claim Deadline in One Table
The Mechanics Lien Management State System tracks a Colorado public job from the award date rather than from last furnishing, because the operative dates are the contracting body’s. Private-work rules are on the Colorado lien statutes page, with the calculator on the Colorado mechanics lien hub . The last two rows matter along the Front Range, where federal work is concentrated — Buckley Space Force Base, Peterson and Schriever, the Air Force Academy, the Denver Federal Center, and the national laboratories. A prime contract with a federal agency is Miller Act work under 40 U.S.C. § 3133, and the federal scheme looks nothing like § 38-26-107: written notice to the prime within 90 days of last furnishing, suit in U.S. District Court no sooner than 90 days and no later than one year after last furnishing. A claimant working both a municipal job and a base project in the same quarter is running two entirely different calendars.
Wadsworth Reopened What You Can Put in the Claim
On April 6, 2026 , the Colorado Supreme Court decided Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Co., LLC v. Regional Rail Partners , 2026 CO 19, arising out of the Regional Transportation District’s North Metro Rail Line. Wadsworth had filed a verified statement of claim covering roughly $12.8 million in unpaid costs that included delay and disruption damages. The court of appeals held that including unliquidated delay damages made the claim excessive and forfeited recovery. The Supreme Court reversed , holding that a claimant may include disputed or unliquidated amounts in a verified statement of claim when they represent labor, materials, sustenance, rental machinery, tools, equipment, or other supplies used in the work — and that delay and disruption costs can fall inside those categories. Purely consequential damages, such as lost profits on other work, remain outside the statute. The Colorado legislature followed with HB26-074 confirming that direction; a claimant relying on the amendment should read the enacted text for its own effective date before building a claim on it. The practical effect is significant and bounded in the same breath. A subcontractor whose loss is largely impact and inefficiency no longer has to strip those numbers out to keep the claim safe. What it does have to do is tie each number to a statutory cost category with documentation — crew hours, equipment on…
Ninety Days After Settlement, the Money Goes Back
Section 38-26-107(3) is the provision that turns a filing into a case or into nothing. Any person whose claims have not been paid may commence an action to recover the same within ninety days following the date fixed for final settlement as published . After that period, the contracting body pays over to the contractor the moneys and funds that are not the subject of suit and lis pendens notices , retaining only what is required to satisfy a potential judgment. This is where good-faith negotiation quietly destroys claims. The verified statement gets filed, the withholding takes effect, and the prime becomes attentive because its own money is frozen. Numbers move. Nobody wants to pay a filing fee. And then the ninetieth day after final settlement arrives, the withholding releases, the retained funds flow to the contractor, and the claimant’s leverage evaporates on a Tuesday that nobody had marked. Treat the two dates as one calendar entry. The day you learn the final settlement date, set the filing cutoff and the ninety-day suit date together, and decide affirmatively what happens at day seventy-five if no agreement has landed. Letting the ninety days run is sometimes the right business call on a small balance. It should be a call, made with the date in front of you, rather than something you discover afterward.
Generate the Colorado Verified Statement From One Project Record
Colorado Public Works Claim Generator Produce the § 38-26-107(1) verified statement of the amount due and unpaid, addressed to the board, officer, or contracting body that awarded the contract — with a calendar carrying the final settlement filing cutoff, the publication watch, and the 90-day suit date measured from the published settlement date. Pair it with the property search tool to confirm the awarding public body, the bond claim hub to compare Colorado with other Little Miller Act states, mechanics lien vs. bond claim for choosing the remedy early, the mechanics lien deadlines by state pillar, and the preliminary notice center for the private-work analogue. When the contracting body disputes the filing or the withholding is released early, connect with a Colorado construction attorney through the Mechanics Lien Management network.
Track the Colorado Settlement and Suit Clocks Automatically
The Mechanics Lien Management lien generator produces the § 38-26-107(1) verified statement from one project record. The Mechanics Lien Management deadline calculator carries the final settlement filing cutoff and the 90-day suit date together. Miss the deadline and you lose your claim rights entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the deadline for a Colorado payment bond claim?
Colorado sets the deadline by an event the public entity controls rather than by a fixed number of days from your last work. Under C.R.S. § 38-26-107(1) an unpaid claimant files a verified statement of the amount due and unpaid with the board, officer, person, or other contracting body by whom the contract was awarded, at any time up to and including the time of final settlement for the work contracted to be done. Section 38-26-107(3) then allows the claimant ninety days following the date fixed for final settlement as published to commence an action. There is no 90-day notice running from last furnishing the way most Little Miller Act states write it, so a Colorado claimant who calendars from its own last ticket is calendaring the wrong event entirely.
Who do you file a Colorado verified statement of claim with?
The contracting body, not the surety and not the prime contractor. Section 38-26-107(1) directs the verified statement to the board, officer, person, or other contracting body by whom the contract was awarded — the city, county, school district, special district, or state agency that let the job. That filing is what triggers the statutory withholding: under § 38-26-107(2) the contracting body must withhold from all payments to the contractor sufficient funds to insure the payment of the filed claims. Sending a demand letter to the surety's claims department accomplishes nothing under the statute, because the surety is not the recipient the statute names and a letter to it does not cause a dollar to be withheld.
How do you find out when final settlement is in Colorado?
You watch for the published notice, and you ask the contracting body directly rather than waiting to see it. Section 38-26-107(1) requires that on contracts exceeding $150,000 the contracting body publish a notice of the final settlement at least twice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, or in an approved electronic medium, no later than ten days before the final settlement is made. Ten days before is the statutory floor, which means a claimant relying solely on spotting the legal notices may have very little runway. The practical answer is to email the project manager or procurement office when the job winds down and ask for the scheduled final settlement date in writing.
Can you include delay and disruption damages in a Colorado verified statement of claim?
Yes, within limits the Colorado Supreme Court drew in 2026. In Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Co. v. Regional Rail Partners, 2026 CO 19, decided April 6, 2026, the court reversed the court of appeals and held that a claimant may include disputed or unliquidated amounts in a verified statement of claim under the Public Works Act when those amounts represent labor, materials, sustenance, rental machinery, tools, equipment, or other supplies used in the work. Delay and disruption costs qualify when they are made up of those categories. Purely consequential items such as lost profits on other work do not. The court did not license inflated claims, and a claimant that files an amount it knows is not reasonably supportable takes on cost and fee exposure.
Does every Colorado public construction contract have a payment bond?
No, and the thresholds differ by who is letting the work. Under C.R.S. § 38-26-106 a contractor must execute and file a penal bond with the contracting body before beginning work, in a penal sum not less than one-half of the total amount payable under the contract, and the surety answers when the contractor or a subcontractor fails to pay for labor, materials, rental machinery, provisions, or other supplies used in the work. The requirement attaches above $50,000 for local government public works and above $150,000 for state public works. Below those figures there may be no bond, and because Colorado public property generally cannot be liened, the verified statement filed against retained funds may be the only security on the job.
What happens to the withheld funds if you do not sue within 90 days?
They are released to the contractor and the leverage the filing created disappears. Section 38-26-107(3) allows the claimant ninety days following the date fixed for final settlement as published to commence an action to recover on the claim, and after that period runs the contracting body pays over to the contractor the moneys and funds that are not the subject of suit and lis pendens notices, retaining only what is needed to satisfy a potential judgment. A verified statement of claim is therefore a holding mechanism rather than a resolution. It freezes money while the parties negotiate, and if the ninety days expires without an action on file, the freeze thaws.
Can a supplier to a subcontractor file a Colorado verified statement of claim?
The statute is written broadly enough to reach well down the chain. Section 38-26-107(1) extends to any person that has furnished labor, materials, sustenance, or other supplies used or consumed by a contractor or subcontractor in the performance of the work, and to a person that supplies laborers, rental machinery, tools, or equipment to the extent used in the prosecution of the work. That language turns on whether what you furnished went into the job, not on how many contracts sit between you and the public entity. Colorado is meaningfully friendlier on tier than states that limit recovery to first and second-tier claimants, though a remote claimant should still expect its documentation of what was consumed on this project to be examined closely.