Georgia lien waiver forms and the affidavit of nonpayment, free
Georgia has the harshest waiver rule in the country and almost nobody outside the state knows about it. Sign a Georgia waiver and ninety days later it is conclusively effective, whether the money ever arrived or not, unless you filed an affidavit of nonpayment first.
A Georgia waiver becomes conclusively effective ninety days after you sign it, even if you were never paid, unless before that ninety days is up you file an affidavit of nonpayment in the county where the property is located. O.C.G.A. 44-14-366(g)(2)(C).
Read the law: O.C.G.A. section 44-14-366codes.findlaw.com
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Which of the Georgia forms you need
- Waiver and Release of Lien and Payment Bond Rights Upon Interim Payment. Use this for any payment that is not final. Georgia calls it an interim payment rather than a progress payment.
- Waiver and Release of Lien and Payment Bond Rights Upon Final Payment. Use this for the last payment on the job. It releases everything, including retainage, so it is the one to read twice.
- Affidavit of Nonpayment. This is not a waiver. It is what you file when the payment a waiver was signed for never turned up.
Not signing a waiver yet? A waiver only matters while the lien it releases is still alive, and in Georgia, if you do not have privity of contract with the contractor, section 44-14-361.5(a) says a written notice to contractor is what makes that lien good. It is due within 30 days and you can fill that one in here too.
The ninety day clock
Subsection (g)(2) lists three events and the waiver becomes conclusively binding on the earliest of them. Two are obvious: you actually receive the funds, or you give a separate written acknowledgment that you were paid in full. The third is the one that catches people. Ninety days after the date you executed the waiver, it binds you anyway.
The only escape is written into (g)(2)(C) itself. File an affidavit of nonpayment in the county where the property is located before the ninety days runs out and the clock stops. That affidavit is the third form on this page, and it is why it belongs here rather than somewhere else on the site.
Then there is a second deadline hiding inside the first. Within seven days of filing the affidavit, a copy has to be sent by registered mail, certified mail or statutory overnight delivery. Diary both dates the day you sign a Georgia waiver, not the day you start worrying about payment.
Twelve point type is in the statute
Georgia says the form shall be in at least 12 point font. It is one of the few states that legislates the point size, and every PDF this page produces is set at 12 point for that reason.
The statute also says the form need not be in boldface capital letters even though the published text prints it that way. Capitals are the convention, not the requirement.
Interim, not progress
Georgia calls the non final form a waiver and release upon interim payment. It behaves like a progress waiver everywhere else, and it carries a quiet benefit: the priority of the claimant's lien rights, retention aside, runs from the day after the date specified in the interim form.
No advance waiver is possible. Subsection (b) makes any purported waiver executed before the labor or materials were furnished null, void and unenforceable.
Questions people ask
What happens if I sign a Georgia lien waiver and never get paid?
Ninety days after you signed it the waiver is conclusively binding and your lien is gone, unless you filed an affidavit of nonpayment in the county where the property is located before that ninety days ran out. This is O.C.G.A. 44-14-366(g)(2)(C) and it applies even though you were never paid a cent.
Where do I file the affidavit of nonpayment?
In the county where the property is located. Then send a copy within seven days by registered mail, certified mail or statutory overnight delivery.
Does Georgia have conditional and unconditional waivers?
Not as separate forms. Georgia has one interim form and one final form. The conditional behavior is built in through subsection (c), which says a waiver only binds if it is on the prescribed form and the claimant has received payment.
Does the Georgia waiver have to be notarized?
The waiver forms carry a signature under seal and a witness line, not a notary block. The affidavit of nonpayment does carry a notary line, because it is sworn.
Working outside Georgia? The general lien waiver forms cover the states that prescribe no wording, and conditional vs unconditional lien waiver explains which of the two to sign.