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Bond and Insurance Requirements

The Board adopts policies to set up criteria and guidelines for the State Land Board's strategies and goals. Policies include provisions indicating what the Board believes is important when establishing terms and conditions for lease evaluations and approvals. Staff uses Board adopted policies as a basis to create administrative procedures and guidelines.

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Q&A

The requirement for a bond will be specified in the lease, permit, or contract.  The amount of the bond, with the exception of Oil and Gas bonds, will also be specified in the lease, permit or contract.

The State Land Board accepts surety bonds, irrevocable letters of credit, and cash (check).  The State Land Board no longer accepts certificates of deposit (CDs) as a financial instrument.

With the exception of Oil and Gas activities, each lease, permit, or contract is evaluated for bonding individually.  Therefore, bonding amounts can differ.  Questions about how the bond amount was set on an individual lease, permit, or contract should be addressed to the Program Manager or District Manager for the specific type of lease, permit or contract.

For some leases, permits, or contracts, bonds are increased to match inflation periodically or are increased with enlargement of the project (i.e. addition of new wind turbine).  These files are audited to ensure compliance with bonding requirements and failure to maintain appropriate bonding levels can result in a default on the lease, permit, or contract.  Questions and concerns about these types of bonds should be addressed to the Program Manager or District Manager handling the lease, permit, or contract.

Oil and Gas bonding amounts can vary depending on the number of leases held by an entity.  Because of industry-specific requirements, see the Oil and Gas Bonding Information and FAQs for more information.

Yes, however the bond retention is handled differently with Rights-of-way because of the up-front payment involved with obtaining a right-of-way.  Since the State Land Board does not need to guarantee financial performance on the contract, the bond is held during the construction period of the right-of-way and is released after an inspection is completed by the appropriate field staff.  The State Land Board does not require that a bond be held for the life of the contract for rights-of-way.

The State Land Board has a standard Bond Form and Bond Form Instructions for submitting the financial assurance instrument.

To ensure your bond is submitted to the appropriate business unit, please address them accordingly and mail to Colorado State Land Board, 1127 Sherman Street, Denver, CO 80203:

  • Commercial leases / Attention: Michael McVaugh
  • Disposal Wells / Attention: Catie Stitt
  • Ecosystem Services / Attention: Mindy Gottsegen
  • Exploration Permits / Attention: Catie Stitt
  • Mineral leases / Attention: Catie Stitt
  • Oil and Gas leases / Attention: Catie Stitt
  • Renewable Energy / Attention: Aaron Hurlburt
  • Right-of-way contracts / Attention: Aaron Hurlburt
  • Surface Use Agreements / Attention: Catie Stitt
  • Tower leases / Attention:  Aaron Hurlburt

For all other leases, permits and contracts: submit bond documents to the appropriate District Office for the County listed in the lease, permit, or contract.

A replacement bond may be required to be in place with the State Land Board before the assignment will be approved. If the former lessee has a bond on file, that bond will not be released until the new lessee has a bond in place. To expedite approval of assignments, it is recommended that the assignee contact the State Land Board to get appropriate bonding in place before the assignment occurs.  The assignor should make it clear to the assignee that a bond is required for the lease in order to release of their bond in a timely fashion.

The lessee should make a request in writing to the Surety Specialist and Records Manager by US Mail (Colorado State Land Board, 1127 Sherman Street, Suite 300, Denver, CO 80203) or view our contact page.  The lessee should specify what type of bond (cash, letter of credit, surety) and the amount of the bond.  If the bond was submitted by an entity other than the current lessee, that information is required too.  For more information, contact the Surety Specialist and Records Manager directly at:  303.866.3454 x 3324.

The length of time it takes for a bond release can depend on several factors including volume of requests, State Land Board inspections, and the time of year.  If an inspection is required, the time of year the request is received affects the timing of releasing a bond. Inspectors need to determine the success of revegetation, therefore requests received in the late fall and winter are scheduled for the spring.  If an inspection is not required, the average time to process a bond release is four to six weeks and is processed in the order in which it was received. If the bond was submitted in cash, the refund comes from the State of Colorado’s treasurer’s office and may take additional time to process.

Questions about leases, permits, or contracts should be directed to the District Manager or Program Manager for the specific type of lease, permit, or contract.  If you are unsure of who this should be, please feel free to contact the Surety Specialist and Records Manager Claudia Baker at 303.866.3454 x 3339.  Please have your lease, permit, or contract number available as well as the County where it is located.

Unless subject to an exemption, any information provided to the State is subject to public release through the Colorado Open Records Act, § 24-72-201, C.R.S., et seq.  However, confidential financial information such as checking account information and internal bond identifiers (i.e. surety bond numbers and irrevocable letter of credit numbers) are not released to the public.