Conditional vs. unconditional lien waivers

Not every state prescribes all four. See states that break the pattern.

1. 01
   Pay app approved

   The sub bills for the period and the amount is agreed.

2. 02
   Conditional partial

   Requested before the payment is sent, for that amount. It states that its release remains contingent until the identified payment is made.

3. 03
   Payment arrives

   The identified payment is made in good and sufficient funds.

4. 04
   Unconditional partial

   Requested for the same amount once the money has landed: the document that states the sub has been paid.

The last cycle uses the final pair; retainage usually rides on the final form.

• California

  Conditional · progress and final

  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.

  Unconditional · progress and final

  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.

• Texas

  Unconditional · progress and final

  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.

• Arizona

  Unconditional · progress and final

  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.

• Nevada

  Unconditional · progress

  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.

  Unconditional · final

  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.

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.

Payment condition or statement

On a conditional form, the identified payment condition; on an unconditional form, a statement that the signer has been paid.

Through date

On progress forms, the date after which nothing is covered.

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.”

Payment warranty

Most prescribed forms have the signer warrant they have paid, or will use the payment to pay, their own laborers and suppliers.

Signature block

The signer's signature; in 2 of the states SubLien tracks, also a notarial certificate completed by a notary rather than by either party (which states, and where a witness is needed instead).

• Georgia
  No unconditional form

  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.

• Massachusetts
  Some types unsupported

  M.G.L. c.254 §32 supplies no supported unconditional partial, conditional final or unconditional final form, so SubLien does not record one there.

• Mississippi
  No unconditional form

  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.

• Wyoming
  One paid-to-date form

  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.

• Sender

  Your blanks

  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.

• Signer

  The claimant's blanks

  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.

• Third person

  The notary's or witness's

  Witness lines, jurats, acknowledgments and every notary name, commission and seal are completed by a third person. They stay ruled lines for that person to fill in.

Have your legal counsel review the form before you use it. SubLien doesn't give legal advice, and the form is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Review the form against the applicable requirements and your project facts before use. SubLien is not a law firm and does not determine that a form is correct, sufficient, or enforceable for your transaction.