Chapter 6 - § 6.3 ORDER, JUDGMENT AND DECREE OF FORECLOSURE

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 6.3 ORDER, JUDGMENT AND DECREE OF FORECLOSURE

In order to initiate the sheriff's sale under the mortgage process, it is essential that the proper wording be included in the order, judgment and decree of foreclosure to allow such a sale. The sheriff will follow the instructions set out in the decree.

C.R.S. § 38-22-113(2) provides a general description of the requirements for entry of a judgment and states:

Judgments shall be rendered according to the rights of the parties. The various rights of all lien claimants and other parties to any such action shall be determined and incorporated in one judgment or decree. Each party who establishes his claim under this article shall have a judgment against the party personally liable to him for the amount of his claim so established, and shall have a lien established and determined in said decree upon the property to which his lien has attached to the extent stated in this section.

C.R.S. § 38-22-108 describes how the court is to rank each of the approved liens or encumbrances in its judgment. This statute states as follows:

(1) Every person given a lien by this article whose contract, either express or implied, is with the owner or reputed owner or owner's agent or other representative, is a principal contractor and all others are subcontractors; and in every case in which different liens are claimed against the same property, the rank of each lien, or class of liens, as between the different lien claimants, shall be declared and ordered to be satisfied in the decree or judgment in the following order named:

(a) The liens of all those who were laborers or mechanics working by the day or piece, but without furnishing material therefor, either as principal or subcontractors;
(b) The liens of all other subcontractors and of all materialmen whose claims are either entirely or principally for laborers, materials, machinery, or other fixtures, furnished either as principal contractors or subcontractors;
(c) The liens of all other principal contractors and all moneys realized in any actions for the satisfaction of liens against the same improvements or structures shall be paid out in the order above designated.

To proceed as a lien foreclosure sale and to avoid the result of the sale being construed as one that must be conducted under levy and execution procedures, the order needs to state that the sale initiated by the decree is done in the nature of a writ...