Kentucky lien waiver requirements
Kentucky does not prescribe a routine statewide payment-stage lien-waiver form. KRS 371.405(2)(b) makes specified waiver provisions in a construction contract void and expressly excepts partial lien waivers supplied for progress payments. The statute does not expressly declare a separate payment-specific final waiver illegal. Statute: KRS 371.400, 371.405(2)(b), 371.425, 376.070(3).
Kentucky at a glance
- No form; rules at KRS 371.400(1)-(2), 371.405(2)(b), 371.425, and 376.070
- All four: conditional and unconditional, progress and finalConditional vs. unconditional →
- No notary stepNotarization by state →
- Typed e-signature, with an evidence record
By hand vs. with SubLien
Form, signature, reminders and filing in one place: no PDF editor, no separate e-signature tool, no inbox chase.
By hand
- Find or draft a waiver form for Kentucky
- Fill it in Word or a PDF editor
- Save it as a PDF
- Upload it to an e-signature tool such as DocuSign and place the fields
- Send it, then chase the sub by email
- File the signed copy against the pay application
With SubLien
- Pick the sub and the payment, or let a Procore pay app or QuickBooks bill start the draft
- SubLien fills in its Kentucky template; you review and send
- The sub signs from an email link, no account needed
- Up to three reminders go out on their own
- The signed PDF lands on the sub's record, next to their COI and W-9
E-signature is built in: no separate e-signature subscription, no per-envelope fees. Every plan includes unlimited lien waivers for your included vendors. See pricing
Kentucky lien waiver questions
Why are Finals available?
KRS 371.405(2)(b) expressly addresses provisions in a construction contract and does not expressly make a separate payment-specific Final illegal. KRS 376.070(3) recognizes written waivers.
Does the GC upload payment proof?
No. The document carries its own payment condition or acknowledgment, and the GC retains ordinary payment records.
Which Kentucky waiver types does SubLien offer?
All four ordinary choices: Conditional Partial, Unconditional Partial, Conditional Final, and Unconditional Final. SubLien asks no residential/nonresidential question and adds no payment rail, proof upload, receipt checkbox, witness, or notary.
Does SubLien need to know whether the project is residential?
No. The ordinary private-payment forms do not change based on that classification, so SubLien does not ask the question.
Is the free Kentucky PDF one I can use?
The free PDF is SubLien's own Kentucky template with the blanks left blank. It is not represented as statutory text. Your organization decides whether it fits the transaction; SubLien does not determine that a form is legally correct.
Full Kentucky rules, sources and sample
What Kentucky actually changes
Research summary
- Ordinary private project: CP, UP, CF, and UF.
- No residential/nonresidential project question.
- Conditional waits for actual receipt; Unconditional acknowledges receipt.
- Progress uses a nonfuture Through Date; Final reaches no furnishing after signing.
- No payment-proof upload, payment rail, extra receipt confirmation, witness, or notary.
State-specific workflow notes
Kentucky does not prescribe a routine statewide payment-stage lien-waiver form. SubLien therefore uses narrow claimant-specific authored forms for ordinary private-project payments and offers all four familiar choices: Conditional Partial, Unconditional Partial, Conditional Final, and Unconditional Final. It does not ask whether the project is residential or nonresidential because that answer does not select a different SubLien form.
KRS 371.405(2)(b) makes specified waiver provisions in a construction contract void and expressly excepts partial lien waivers supplied for progress payments. The statute does not expressly declare a separate payment-specific final waiver illegal. KRS 376.070(3) also recognizes written lien waivers. No located current Kentucky appellate decision squarely decides whether this exact post-2007 standalone final-payment instrument is enforceable in every dispute, so SubLien does not promise that result. It also does not turn that uncertainty into a Final-waiver ban or an extra project questionnaire.
Each form identifies one claimant and payment and reaches only already furnished work. Conditional forms have no effect until actual receipt of the identified payment. Unconditional forms acknowledge receipt and are used only after payment. Progress forms use a Through Date no later than today; Final forms use signing as the cutoff and never reach future furnishing. Every form preserves claimant-entered Exceptions. SubLien adds no payment rail, check number, proof upload, separate receipt confirmation, witness, or notary. Public work, bond claims, recorded-lien releases, settlements, historical transactions, and other special instruments remain outside this workflow.
How SubLien handles it now
SubLien offers Conditional Partial, Unconditional Partial, Conditional Final, and Unconditional Final for ordinary Kentucky private-project payments without a residential/nonresidential question. Each authored form is claimant-specific, payment-specific, limited to already furnished work, and preserves claimant-entered Exceptions. Conditional forms wait for actual receipt; unconditional forms acknowledge receipt.
Rules that change the workflow
- All four ordinary private-payment choices. CP, UP, CF, and UF are available without classifying the project as residential or nonresidential.
- Separate payment document, not an advance contract clause. The form identifies one claimant and payment and reaches only already furnished work; it does not waive future lien rights as an award-stage construction-contract term.
- Keep progress waivers narrow. CP and UP identify the payment, cover only work furnished through a nonfuture Through Date, and preserve claimant Exceptions.
- Keep Finals payment- and time-limited. CF waits for actual final receipt. UF acknowledges actual final receipt. Neither reaches furnishing after signing.
- No invented proof workflow. Do not ask for project class, payment rail, check number, proof upload, receipt confirmation, witness, or notary.
- Keep special instruments out. Public work, bond claims, recorded-lien releases, settlements, historical transactions, and other special instruments are not generated by this ordinary picker.
Primary sources
- KRS 371.400 — definitions for the Kentucky Fairness in Construction Act, including the broad construction-contract definition.
- KRS 371.405 — specified construction-contract provisions that are void and the express partial-progress-waiver exception.
- KRS 371.425 — application of the Act and listed exclusions, including residential construction.
- KRS 376.010 — principal private construction-lien right.
- KRS 376.070 — subsection (3)'s recognition of written lien waivers and the application-of-proceeds rule.
- Martin v. Pack's Inc., No. 2010-CA-001048-MR — enforced a final-payment waiver agreement, but the construction and waiver predated the 2007 Act and therefore do not resolve its application.
- Vanhook Enterprises, Inc. v. Kay & Kay Contracting, LLC, 543 S.W.3d 569 (Ky. 2018) — post-Act construction dispute whose record included a postcompletion full-and-final waiver; the Court did not decide a KRS 371.405 lien-waiver challenge.
- KRS 369.105, KRS 369.107, and KRS 369.109 — electronic transactions, signatures, and attribution.
- KRS 382.365 — separate release process for a satisfied recorded lien.
Source-by-source reference points
KRS 371.405(2)(b) is framed as a rule for specified provisions in a construction contract. KRS 371.400 defines construction contracts broadly, so the effect of a particular standalone waiver remains a fact- and drafting-specific legal question. The same subsection expressly recognizes partial progress waivers, while KRS 376.070(3) separately recognizes written waivers. KRS 371.425's residential exclusion describes the reach of the Fairness in Construction Act; it does not require SubLien to collect a project classification when all four forms stay available. Martin v. Pack's enforced a final-payment waiver agreement but arose from pre-Act facts. Vanhook involved a later postcompletion full-and-final waiver but did not decide KRS 371.405. KRS 376.010 supplies the underlying private lien right. Kentucky's electronic-transactions statutes support electronic records and signatures; none of the reviewed ordinary payment-stage provisions requires a witness or notarial certificate. KRS 382.365 remains the separate route for a satisfied recorded lien.
How SubLien handles Kentucky
SubLien fills known project fields in its current template for Kentucky; your team reviews the draft and sends it.
Waiver types SubLien records for Kentucky: Conditional Partial · Unconditional Partial · Conditional Final · Unconditional Final
The four waivers, and what each one says
Two questions decide which one you are sending: has the money actually arrived, and does this cover the whole job or just this pay period? These are the descriptions the industry uses — what a specific Kentucky document releases depends on its words, the transaction facts, and applicable law.
Takes effect only when the stated payment is actually received. Covers work through a stated date or payment, and typically reserves retainage and later work.
States the release outright after payment. Same scope as the conditional partial — this pay period, not the whole job.
Same condition as above — effective on receipt of the stated payment — but scoped to the job through completion rather than to one period.
The release stated outright after final payment, for the job through completion. This is the one that is expensive to sign early, which is why the order it goes out in matters.
Where they land in a pay cycle
This is how the paperwork tends to move, not a rule about Kentucky. What your subcontracts require, and when, is your organization’s decision.
- Sub bills you
The pay application arrives for the period.
- Conditional goes out
Requested with or ahead of the payment.
- You pay
The payment is sent and the money arrives.
- Unconditional follows
Requested once the money has actually landed.
Final payment repeats the pattern at the end of the job. The step that goes wrong in practice is the fourth one: the conditional went out, the money arrived, and nobody went back for the unconditional.
Where the statute lives
Kentucky’s mechanics’ and construction lien provisions are at Kentucky Revised Statutes Chapter 376 (KRS §§ 376.010 et seq.).
Read it on apps.legislature.ky.govWhat Kentucky’s lien chapter covers
Sections whose heading names a waiver or release: 376.100, 376.265. That is a match on the heading text, not a statement about what those sections say.
- Mechanics' and materialman's liens -- Filing of statement of amount claimed -- Extent of lien -- Notice to owner, agent, or lessee.
- Lien follows property if executory contract for sale is rescinded.
- Eviction of owner -- Rights of lienholder.
- Forfeiture or surrender of lease -- Removal of improvements.
- Mortgage for building or improvement purposes to state facts -- Misapplication of proceeds.
- Sale or mortgage of property subject to lien -- Proceeds to be applied to payment of lien.
- Contractor or architect to apply payments to claims -- Exception where lien waived.
- Engineers', architects', landscape architects', real estate brokers', and land surveyors' liens -- When lien not required of real estate broker -- Filing statement of amount claimed.
- Lien dissolved unless statement filed with county clerk and copy mailed to property owner -- Form of statement.
- Limitation on action to enforce lien -- Priority of lien.
- 376.100 Release of lien by execution of bond.
- Action to enforce lien -- Referred to master commissioner -- Special commissioner.
- Notice to parties of time and place of hearing by commissioner.
- Taking of depositions and hearing of evidence by the commissioner -- Auditing of accounts and report on claims.
- Lien on farm crop for service by custom operator.
- Lien on gas, oil or other mineral leasehold -- Provisions governing such a lien.
- Lien of employees on property of a mine, railroad, public improvement company, manufacturing establishment or other business -- Of persons furnishing supplies for operation of a railroad.
- Priority of liens -- Persons not deemed employees.
- Distribution of income when operation of property is continued.
- Lien attaches when business is transferred, suspended or attached -- Enforcement.
- Joinder of parties -- Limitation on action or filing of claim for lien.
- Definitions for KRS 376.195 and 376.210.
- Repealed, 1954.
- Repealed, 1966.
General conditional-progress template for Kentucky review
Kentucky questions, answered in full
Why are Finals available?
KRS 371.405(2)(b) expressly addresses provisions in a construction contract and does not expressly make a separate payment-specific Final illegal. KRS 376.070(3) recognizes written waivers. The forms remain limited to the identified payment and already furnished work, and SubLien does not guarantee their effect in a particular dispute.
Does Kentucky require notarization for these ordinary waivers?
The reviewed payment-stage provisions prescribe no witness or notarial certificate for these authored forms, so SubLien adds neither. A recorded-lien release is a separate instrument.