Florida Lien Waivers: Statutory Forms, Required Content, and Exchange

A Florida lien waiver is a signed document in which a contractor, subcontractor, or supplier gives up the right to file a construction lien against a property in exchange for payment. Florida Statutes Section 713.20 sets out two standard forms, one for progress payments and one for final payment, and nobody can require a lienor to sign anything materially different.¹ Used correctly, a waiver protects the paying party from double-payment risk and gives the signer a clean paper trail that they were paid.

The Two Statutory Forms

Section 713.20 provides a progress payment waiver and a final payment waiver, and the statute says each must be in “substantially the following form.”¹ You can adjust formatting, but not substance.

The progress payment waiver covers labor, services, or materials furnished through a specific “through date.” It explicitly does not cover retainage or anything furnished after that date.¹ On jobs where the owner holds back a percentage of each draw, that carve-out is what keeps a subcontractor from accidentally releasing the withheld amount every time they sign off on a monthly pay application.

The final payment waiver is broader. It releases all lien rights on the project in exchange for the final payment. There is no retainage exclusion and no through date, because the waiver covers everything on the job. Once signed, your lien rights on that property are gone, so signing a final waiver before the final payment has actually cleared is a serious mistake.

Conditional vs. Unconditional Waivers

Florida does not provide separate conditional and unconditional template forms. Instead, Section 713.20(7) allows any lienor who signs a waiver in exchange for a check to condition that waiver on the check actually clearing.¹ Conditional language is added to either the progress or final form, stating that the release takes effect only once payment is received.

With no conditional language, the waiver is unconditional. It takes effect the moment it is signed, whether or not the money ever arrives. If a check bounces or a wire gets reversed after an unconditional waiver has been signed, the signer has released their lien rights with nothing to show for it, and the only remaining remedy is a breach-of-contract suit.

The practical rule is simple. Sign conditional when the funds have not yet cleared. Sign unconditional only after the money is verified and available. On jobs with no payment bond protecting the owner, the owner may withhold from the contractor the amount of any check that has not yet cleared.¹

What the Form Needs to Contain

The statutory forms call for a handful of specific fields:

The customer’s name — the party who hired the signing lienor, which for a subcontractor is usually the general contractor.
The property owner’s name, which may differ from the customer.
A description sufficient to identify the real property, typically the street address or legal description.
The exact payment amount being released, matching the invoice or pay application.
On progress waivers, the through date that defines the cutoff for covered work.

The through date causes the most trouble in practice. Set it too far forward and you release rights for work you have not been paid for. Set it too far back and the paying party does not get the coverage they are paying for. The date should match the billing period on the pay application exactly, and it is worth checking against the application before signing.¹

Whoever signs needs authority to bind the company. For a sole proprietor, that is the owner. For a corporation or LLC, it should be an officer, manager, or someone with documented signing authority. A waiver signed by a field supervisor without that authority can be challenged later.

Advance Waivers Are Void

A lien right cannot be waived in advance, and any attempt to do so is unenforceable.¹ A lienor may only waive rights to the extent of labor, services, or materials actually furnished.

This matters because some subcontracts still include blanket waiver clauses signed at the start of the project. If you signed one, it has no legal effect in Florida. You still hold lien rights for work you actually perform, no matter what the contract says.

Notarization and Custom Forms

Florida does not require a lien waiver to be notarized. The statutory forms contain no notary block, and nothing in Section 713.20 conditions validity on notarization.² A signed waiver stands on its own. Parties sometimes notarize anyway for extra comfort, but it is not required.

If a general contractor or owner hands over a custom waiver with broader language than the statutory form, the lienor can refuse it and insist on the statutory version.¹ A custom waiver that is voluntarily signed, however, is enforceable by its own terms, which is where problems arise. Non-standard forms often release more than lien rights, sometimes reaching into delay claims, change orders, or breach-of-contract claims that the statutory form leaves untouched. Read anything that is not the Section 713.20 form carefully before signing.

Why Owners Collect Waivers

Florida construction lien law creates a situation that surprises many property owners: paying the general contractor in full does not necessarily settle anyone else. If the general contractor fails to pass money down to subcontractors and suppliers, those parties can still lien the property for amounts they are owed. The owner can end up paying twice.

Collecting a signed waiver from every contractor, subcontractor, and supplier each time a payment goes out is the main defense against that outcome. The waivers prove the money reached the right hands. One boundary worth knowing: a subcontractor who never served a Notice to Owner within 45 days of first furnishing work has no lien rights to waive in the first place under Section 713.06.³ The real risk comes from parties who did serve proper notice and remain unpaid, which is where waivers do their work.

Exchange and Recordkeeping

The common pattern is “waiver for check.” The signed waiver changes hands at the same time the payment does, often in person at the job site or project office. On progress payments, this tracks the monthly pay application cycle.

Electronic exchange is standard on larger jobs. A subcontractor emails a scanned conditional waiver or uploads it through construction management software, and an unconditional version follows once the funds clear. Whether paper or digital, keep copies organized by pay period. If a dispute surfaces months later, a well-organized waiver file is the first line of defense.

If a Waived Lien Gets Filed Anyway

Sometimes a dispute escalates and a lien gets recorded for amounts already released by a signed waiver. Under Section 713.31, a lien is fraudulent if the lienor willfully exaggerated the amount, included charges for work not performed, or compiled the claim with gross negligence amounting to willful exaggeration.⁴ A minor math error or a good-faith disagreement over the amount owed is not fraud.

If a lien is found fraudulent, it becomes unenforceable and the lienor forfeits all lien rights on the property. The owner or anyone else harmed can recover actual damages, attorney’s fees, court costs, bond premium costs, and punitive damages up to the difference between the amount claimed and the amount actually owed.⁴ Willfully filing a fraudulent lien is also a third-degree felony. For an owner facing a lien that should have been covered by a waiver, that waiver becomes direct evidence that the lien, at least in part, is fraudulent.

An owner can also force the issue on timing. Recording a Notice of Contest of Lien shortens the lienor’s enforcement window to 60 days from service; if the lienor does not file suit within that window, the lien is automatically extinguished.⁵ For an owner holding a signed waiver, the Notice of Contest puts the lienor to a choice: sue and face the waiver as a defense, or lose the lien.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 713.20 – Waiver or Release of Liens
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 713.20 – Waiver or Release of Liens
3
Justia Law. Florida Code 713.06 – Liens of Persons Not in Privity
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 713.31 – Remedies in Case of Fraud or Collusion
5
Justia Law. Florida Code 713.22 – Duration of Lien