Colorado lien waiver: the statute tells you what has to be in the form, and most forms do not have it
Colorado does not void an advance waiver. What it does instead is rarer and easier to get wrong: it tells you what a waiver has to say. A waiver without that sentence is not the document the statute describes, and almost every free waiver form on the internet is missing it.
A Colorado agreement to waive lien rights binds only the parties to it, and it must contain a statement by the person waiving that all debts owed to third parties relating to the goods or services covered by the waiver have been paid or will be timely paid.
Read the law: C.R.S. section 38-22-119codes.findlaw.com
C.R.S. 38-22-119(2), the sentence your form needsFill it in online Type your details in and download it already filled in.An agreement to waive lien rights shall contain a statement, by the person waiving lien rights, providing in substance that all debts owed to any third party by the person waiving the lien rights and relating to the goods or services covered by the waiver of lien rights have been paid or will be timely paid.
In substance, not word for word, so there is no magic phrasing. But the statement has to be there, made by the person signing, and it has to cover the third party debts behind the work being released.
Download a blank Colorado lien waiver
Colorado prescribes no statutory wording, so this is the general conditional waiver on progress payment, the form that fits most draws. Print it and fill it in by hand, or use the builder below and get it back already filled in.
Free, no signup, no email, no watermark.
What the statement is actually for
When a subcontractor signs a waiver, the owner and the lender are relying on it to mean that the trades and suppliers under that subcontractor have been paid too. Otherwise the waiver clears one lien and leaves three behind it.
So Colorado makes the signer say it. The statement covers debts owed to any third party relating to the goods or services covered by the waiver, and it accepts either that they have been paid or that they will be timely paid.
Read the second half before you sign somebody else's form. Or will be timely paid is a promise about the future, made by you, about money you owe other people. It is a reasonable thing to sign when you intend to pay them out of this draw. It is not a reasonable thing to sign when you do not know whether you can.
A waiver binds only the parties who signed it
Subsection (1) says no agreement to waive, abandon or refrain from enforcing a lien is binding except as between the parties to that contract, and that the article is to receive a liberal construction in all cases.
That is the answer to a question subcontractors ask constantly. A waiver the general contractor signed with the owner does not reach down and waive your lien. You are not a party to it.
The liberal construction sentence is unusual and worth knowing. Colorado tells its courts to read the lien article generously, which is a thumb on the scale in favor of the person claiming the lien rather than the person resisting it.
What this means for the form you download
Check it for the statement. A generic four state waiver template, or a blank pulled off a search result, almost never carries a downstream payment sentence, because no other state requires one.
Neither the blank above nor the builder writes the sentence for you, because it is a statement you are making rather than boilerplate. Put it in the exceptions box on the builder, or type it onto the blank, in words like these: all debts owed by me to third parties relating to the goods or services covered by this waiver have been paid or will be timely paid.
Working in Colorado and signing waivers as well? The waiver rule is the one most out of state forms fail. notice of lien law says a Colorado waiver has to carry a statement by the person signing that the debts owed to third parties behind the work are paid or will be timely paid, and a form without that sentence is not the document the statute describes.
Which of the four to sign on a Colorado job
Colorado does not condition the waiver on payment, so the conditional form is doing that job on its own. Whichever of the four you use, it has to carry the downstream payment statement that C.R.S. 38-22-119(2) requires.
Questions people ask
Does Colorado allow a lien waiver signed before payment?
Nothing in C.R.S. 38-22-119 voids one. Colorado's rule is about who a waiver binds and what it must contain, not about when it may be signed, which makes the wording of the form the thing to get right.
What must a Colorado lien waiver contain?
Under C.R.S. 38-22-119(2), a statement by the person waiving lien rights, in substance, that all debts owed to any third party by that person relating to the goods or services covered by the waiver have been paid or will be timely paid.
Can my general contractor waive my Colorado lien for me?
No. C.R.S. 38-22-119(1) says an agreement to waive, abandon or refrain from enforcing a lien is not binding except as between the parties to that contract. If you did not sign it, it is not yours.
Is a generic lien waiver form valid in Colorado?
It may be missing the statement the statute requires, because no other state requires one. Add a line in substance covering your third party debts relating to the work being released, or use a form that already carries it.
Working in another state? The general lien waiver forms page covers all four waiver types, and conditional vs unconditional lien waiver explains which of the two to sign and when.
This page quotes C.R.S. section 38-22-119 and explains what it says. It is not legal advice, and a statute can be amended. Read the linked section before you rely on it.