The four types
There are two questions, not four forms. Is the release conditioned on the payment arriving? And does it cover one payment cycle or the last one? Cross them and you get the four types SubLien records:
Progress-payment form with a payment condition. Review the exact form and facts before use.
Unconditional progress-payment form. Review the exact form and payment facts before use.
Final-payment form with a payment condition. Review the exact form and facts before use.
Unconditional final-payment form. Review the exact form and legal effect before use.
Partial/final is scope. A partial — usually called a progress waiver — covers one payment cycle; a final covers the final payment. Several prescribed progress forms — Tex. Prop. Code §53.284(b)/(c) and A.R.S. §33-1008(D)(1)/(2) among them — reserve unpaid retention, pending modifications and changes, and other items furnished. What each reserves differs: California's §8132 form reaches rights based on fully executed written change orders unless listed as an exception, so read the one in front of you. Conditional/unconditional is timing: is the release switched on by the payment, or by the signature?
Where each one sits in a payment run
On monthly pay applications: before sending payment, the GC asks the sub for a conditional partial waiver for that amount — the document states that its release remains contingent until the identified payment is made. Once the payment has arrived, the GC asks for the unconditional partial for the same amount: the document that states the sub has been paid. Repeat each cycle.
- 1Pay app approved
The sub bills for the period and the amount is agreed.
- 2Conditional partial
Requested before the payment is sent, for that amount.
- 3Payment arrives
The identified payment is made in good and sufficient funds.
- 4Unconditional partial
Requested for the same amount, once the money has landed.
The last cycle uses the final pair; retainage usually rides on the final form. On signing an unconditional waiver before the money has moved, the clearest statement is the notice several legislatures print on the form itself — quoted next.
What the states themselves print on the form
Each block is one state's prescribed notice text as recorded in SubLien's dated reference, with its citation — a quotation, not a statement of general law and not a legal determination about your document.
NOTICE: THIS DOCUMENT WAIVES THE CLAIMANT'S LIEN, STOP PAYMENT NOTICE, AND PAYMENT BOND RIGHTS EFFECTIVE ON RECEIPT OF PAYMENT. A PERSON SHOULD NOT RELY ON THIS DOCUMENT UNLESS SATISFIED THAT THE CLAIMANT HAS RECEIVED PAYMENT.
NOTICE TO CLAIMANT: THIS DOCUMENT WAIVES AND RELEASES LIEN, STOP PAYMENT NOTICE, AND PAYMENT BOND RIGHTS UNCONDITIONALLY AND STATES THAT YOU HAVE BEEN PAID FOR GIVING UP THOSE RIGHTS. THIS DOCUMENT IS ENFORCEABLE AGAINST YOU IF YOU SIGN IT, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAID. IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAID, USE A CONDITIONAL WAIVER AND RELEASE FORM.
NOTICE: This document waives rights unconditionally and states that you have been paid for giving up those rights. It is prohibited for a person to require you to sign this document if you have not been paid the payment amount set forth below. If you have not been paid, use a conditional release form.
Notice: This document waives rights unconditionally and states that you have been paid for giving up those rights. This document is enforceable against you if you sign it, even if you have not been paid. If you have not been paid, use a conditional release form.
Notice: This document waives rights unconditionally and states that you have been paid for giving up those rights. This document is enforceable against you if you sign it to the extent of the Payment Amount or the amount received. If you have not been paid, use a conditional release form.
Notice: This document waives rights unconditionally and states that you have been paid for giving up those rights. This document is enforceable against you if you sign it, even if you have not been paid. If you have not been paid, use a conditional release form.
The exact effect still depends on the document's words, the transaction facts, and applicable law — review the current form with qualified counsel.
What each document contains
Contents vary by state, and where a state prescribes the form its fields are the ones that matter. Across the forms SubLien's reference tracks, these recur:
- Identifying information — claimant, customer, owner, job location or property, job or contract number, and on progress forms the payment application the release is scoped to.
- The switch — on a conditional form, the identified payment condition; on an unconditional form, a statement that the signer has been paid.
- The through date on progress forms, after which nothing is covered.
- The carve-outs — retainage, pending change orders, disputed claims. Some schemes carve these out in prose; others print a line for the claimant to state an amount. Massachusetts itemises all three as schedule lines that its clause carves out only “as stated above.”
- A payment warranty — most prescribed forms have the signer warrant they have paid, or will use the payment to pay, their own laborers and suppliers.
- The signature block, plus — in 2 of the states SubLien tracks — a notarial certificate completed by a notary rather than by either party.
Some states prescribe the form — and some prescribe no unconditional one
SubLien's reference, compiled 2026-08-31, flags 17 states for a statutory form or state-specific handling:
Arizona · California · Colorado · Florida · Georgia · Illinois · Kentucky · Massachusetts · Michigan · Mississippi · Missouri · Nevada · New York · Rhode Island · Texas · Utah · Wyoming
The conditional/unconditional split is not universal. In 2 of those schemes the legislature wrote no unconditional form at all — both prescribed forms are conditioned on payment on their face. SubLien does not record a waiver under a type its reference says the state does not prescribe, and it cites the statute when it declines:
- Georgia — O.C.G.A. §44-14-366(d)-(e) prescribes a progress form and a final form, each conditioned on payment on its face, and no unconditional form.
- Mississippi — Miss. Code §85-7-433(1)-(2) prescribes a progress form and a final form, each conditioned on payment on its face, and no unconditional form.
A different shape again: one prescribed paid-to-date body. Conditional forms are unavailable, while the same enacted body serves the two paid payment stages:
- Wyoming — Wyo. Stat. §29-10-101(b) prescribes one lien waiver body acknowledging payment received to date. SubLien offers that body as Paid Progress and Paid Final and declines both conditional labels. The completed retainage and unpaid-amount blanks—not a second form face—carry the transaction-specific reservations.
1 more state-specific scheme has a different shape, where some familiar four-form labels have no legally supported system waiver behind them:
- Massachusetts — M.G.L. c.254 §32 supplies no supported unconditional partial or conditional final or unconditional final form, so SubLien does not record one there.
The blanks the claimant fills in — not you
A prescribed form has two kinds of blank, and confusing them is a real hazard. SubLien's reference states the rule this way:
Anything whose sentence identifies the transaction: parties, owner, job location, property, contract or job number, payment application number, period, amount and the instrument tendered. SubLien merges these from your project record before the document is sent.
Anything the claimant states about their own claims, or about what they are not releasing — disputed claims for extras, prior conditional waivers that went unpaid, retainage reserved. On the Cal. Civ. Code §8136/§8138 and A.R.S. §33-1008(D)(3)/(4) forms the exceptions line is itself a claimant statement, which is why SubLien never prefills one. What a blank line means on a signed document is a question for qualified counsel.
Witness lines, jurats, acknowledgments and every notary name, commission and seal are completed by a third person. They stay ruled lines, and SubLien must never appear to have filled one.
How SubLien handles it
SubLien presents the current internally source-reviewed template for the project state and type, fills the sender-side fields from your project record, records the exact template version and hash, and sends a signing link the sub opens from their phone — no account needed. Where the prescribed form carries a notarial certificate there is no typed signature: the sub signs on paper before a notary and the completed document comes back as an upload for your team to review. The signed PDF, consent and signing events, hashes and audit trail stay together on the record.
What SubLien does not do is decide. It does not determine that a form is legally correct, sufficient, valid or enforceable, and it does not determine that you should release a payment. Those stay with your organization and qualified counsel.
Sample forms
Two plain samples to read alongside this page, free on request. Neither is published by any state. For a state that prescribes its own form, start from that state's page in the requirements guide instead.
Have your own counsel review any form before you use it on a project. These files are provided for that review — SubLien is not a law firm and does not determine that a form is correct, sufficient, or enforceable for your transaction.
Request the sample waiver formsCommon questions
What is the difference between a conditional and an unconditional lien waiver?
A conditional waiver states that its release takes effect only when the payment it names actually arrives. An unconditional waiver states that the signer has already been paid and should follow that payment. SubLien records the type and the source document; it does not determine the legal effect of either.
Should a subcontractor sign an unconditional lien waiver before being paid?
That is not SubLien's call, and this page is not a legal determination. What SubLien's dated reference records, compiled 2026-08-31, is that the unconditional forms prescribed in California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada each print a notice instructing the signer to use a conditional release form if they have not been paid — and the Texas notice adds that it is prohibited to require the signer to sign it unpaid. Read the notice on the actual form, and take the question to qualified counsel.
When does a conditional lien waiver become effective?
On the terms the document itself states. A signature records agreement to the payment condition; it does not state that payment has already happened. Read the exact current form for the project state before use.
What is the difference between a partial (progress) waiver and a final waiver?
A partial or progress waiver covers one payment cycle — scoped to a payment application or to work furnished through a stated date; a final waiver covers the final payment. Several prescribed progress forms, among them Tex. Prop. Code §53.284(b)/(c) and A.R.S. §33-1008(D)(1)/(2), reserve unpaid retention, pending modifications and changes, and other items furnished; what each form reserves differs, so read the one in front of you. Crossing that axis with conditional and unconditional gives the four types SubLien records.
Do all states prescribe a specific lien waiver form?
No. SubLien's reference, compiled 2026-08-31, flags 17 states for a statutory form or state-specific handling; elsewhere SubLien offers a general template for your organization to review. The absence of a flag is not a determination that a general form is appropriate, and statutes change — confirm the current rules with qualified counsel.
Who fills in the disputed-claims blank on a lien waiver?
The claimant who signs, not the party sending. SubLien treats a blank as the signer's whenever its sentence states the claimant's own claims or what the claimant is not releasing, and it never prefills or guesses at one — a prefilled reservation would assert the claimant's claim on the claimant's behalf.