Construction Lien Waivers - Conditional Release Upon Progress #1

When you submit an invoice for a project, chances are that you'll be required to supply a lien release form, from your supplier(s), and from you. These release forms (aka lien waivers) protect the general contractor, and the owner of the project, from having to pay twice for materials, labor, etc.

When you submit an invoice ( aka payment request ) for a partial payment ( meaning you are not billing for the entire amount of your contract ), you'll use the release form titled, " Conditional Waiver and Release Upon Progress Payment " (aka " #1 lien release ").

On this #1 release , you'll include a release thru date. I know, I know, what the heck is a release thru date ... ? Well, typically, this type of invoicing ( aka progress billing ) runs on a monthly basis so, let's say you've got a job running from January 1 through February 28....

In February, you'll submit an invoice for work completed through the end of January. Along with that invoice, you'll submit a Conditional Release Upon Progress Payment form that will have a " release thru date " of January 31 (the “ release thru date “ corresponds with the invoice you're submitting for work completed through the end of January).

This #1 lien waiver form will also include the dollar amount that you are invoicing for, as well as the customer's name, and the project title and address.

Once you receive the payment from your customer ( which should be for the dollar amount on your invoice and release form ), your customer is going to want another release form from you, this one being the Unconditional Waiver and Release Upon Progress Payment (commonly known as the " #2 lien waiver and release ").

Do NOT provide that #2 lien waiver form to your customer until your customer's check has cleared both your bank account and your customer's bank account!

Before you deposit the payment check in your bank account, first photocopy the check or scan it or write down the info from the front of the check.

You'll need your customer's company name as it appears on the check, the $ amount and check number, and all the numbers running along the bottom of the check. Also write down the name and location of the bank that the check is drawn on. Now you can deposit the check. :)

The industry standard for how long to wait for a check to clear completely is usually 10 days. You can wait those 10 days or you can call the customer's bank (which is why you made note of the info from the front of your customer's check), before the 10 days are up to see if the funds for the check have been sent from his account to your account.

Once you've got confirmation that the check has cleared your account and his account, then you can issue the #2 release . [continued]

Info on Release #1 | Info on Release #2
Info on Release #3 | Info on Release #4