Iowa lien waiver: no statute voids one, and 572.33A makes you collect them
Search the whole of Iowa Code chapter 572 for the word waiver and you get two hits in thirty six live sections, and neither one is a ban. No Iowa section voids a waiver signed before payment, none prescribes the wording, and none limits what a waiver can release. What the chapter does instead is give the waiver a job: on commercial work 572.33A lets the owner hold the general contractor's money for ninety days after completion unless the general contractor produces receipts and waivers signed by everybody who furnished labor or material. On residential work it does not even do that, and the paperwork that decides the job is the registry.
No Iowa statute voids a lien waiver signed before payment, none prescribes what one has to say, and none requires notarization. The word appears in one operative sentence in the whole chapter: Iowa Code 572.33A says an owner is not required to pay the general contractor until ninety days after completion unless the general contractor furnishes receipts and waivers of claims for mechanics' liens signed by all persons who furnished material or performed labor, or a good and sufficient bond approved by the owner. That is commercial construction only. Everywhere else the nearest thing is 572.4, where security taken after completion does not affect the lien unless it is, by express agreement, given and received in lieu of the lien, and the real machinery is the mechanics notice and lien registry under 572.34.
Read the law: Iowa Code section 572.4legis.iowa.gov
Iowa Code 572.4, the rule against losing the lien by accidentFill it in online Type your details in and download it already filled in.After the completion of such work, the taking of security of any kind shall not affect the right to establish a mechanic's lien unless such new security shall, by express agreement, be given and received in lieu of such lien.
That is a rule against losing the lien by accident, and it sets the bar at express agreement. Iowa never wrote the matching rule for a waiver signed on purpose, which is why the document you put your name to is judged as an ordinary contract and nothing in the chapter softens it.
Download a blank Iowa lien waiver
Iowa prescribes no statutory waiver wording, so this is the general conditional waiver on progress payment, the form that fits most draws. Fill in the amount and the through date rather than leaving them blank, because no Iowa section limits a waiver that does not limit itself. Print it and fill it in by hand, or use the builder below and get it back already filled in.
Free, no signup, no email, no watermark.
The word appears twice in the chapter, and once it does something
Chapter 572 runs from the definitions at 572.1 to the registry at 572.34, taking in who is entitled to a lien, the extent of it, leaseholds, internal improvements, perfection, the ninety day posting clock, railways, the three notice sections, the owner's liability after paying the general, discharge by bond, priorities between mechanics and against other liens and garnishments, foreclosure, the record of claim, satisfaction, the action and its limitation, assignment, condominium housing, attorney fees, commercial notification and the registry itself.
Run the search across the whole chapter and the word turns up twice. Once inside the owner notice the state itself mails out under 572.13A, which tells an owner it is important to obtain lien waivers, and that is advice printed on a form rather than a rule binding anybody. Once in 572.33A, which is commercial only and is the section further down this page. There is no Iowa section declaring an advance waiver void as against public policy, none prescribing the wording, and none requiring notarization.
So an Iowa lien waiver is a contract, judged by what it says. The one shelter Iowa does give is in 572.4 and it is narrow: security taken after the work is done does not touch the lien unless the parties expressly agree it is given in lieu of the lien. Take a promissory note from a slow paying general and you have not lost the lien. Sign a document headed unconditional waiver and you have.
The registry is the thing Iowa built instead
Iowa Code 572.34 puts the whole system on one public internet site run by the secretary of state, and 572.13A starts the clock. A general contractor, or an owner builder who has contracted or will contract with a subcontractor, must post a notice of commencement of work to the registry no later than ten days after work commences. It is effective only as to labor, service, equipment or material furnished after it is posted, so a late posting does not reach backwards.
Nothing else can happen until that notice is up. A notice of commencement of work must be posted before preliminary notices under 572.13B may be posted, which means a subcontractor's ability to protect himself depends on somebody above him having done his paperwork. When the notice goes up the administrator assigns a registry number and sends the owner the notice in 572.13, telling him people who furnish labor or materials can enforce a lien even with no direct contract with him, and pointing him at the registry to see who has posted.
The subcontractor's own step is the preliminary notice under 572.13B, posted to the same site. A preliminary notice posted before the balance due is paid to the general contractor or owner builder is effective as to all labor, service, equipment and material the subcontractor furnished. Posted after that balance goes out, it is not. The lien itself is then posted within ninety days after the last material was furnished or the last labor performed, with written notice to the owner.
And all three of those notice sections stop at the property line. 572.13 subsection 4, 572.13A subsection 5 and 572.13B subsection 5 each say the section applies only to residential construction properties, and 572.1 defines residential construction as single-family or two-family dwellings, plus property under chapter 499B. So on an Iowa commercial job there is no owner notice, no notice of commencement and no preliminary notice. There is the lien itself, and there are the two commercial sections below, which work nothing like the registry does.
Why the registry matters more than the waiver you signed
572.14 is the section that explains why Iowa runs this way. Except as provided in 572.13B, payment to the general contractor or owner builder of any part or all of the contract price within ninety days after the last material or labor does not relieve the owner from liability to the subcontractor for the full value of what was furnished, if the subcontractor posts a lien within that ninety days.
Read the exception carefully, because it is the whole design. The owner is exposed to a sub he never contracted with, unless the registry was used properly. The owner protects himself by watching the site and paying against what is posted there, and the sub protects himself by being on it before the money goes out. A waiver is a private piece of paper between two parties. The registry is public and the owner is reading it.
That is the practical shape of an Iowa payment fight. If a waiver you signed turns out to be broader than the draw it came with, you argue it as a contract, with no statute helping you. If you missed the preliminary notice before the balance went to the general, no waiver wording would have saved you anyway. The paperwork that decides an Iowa job is mostly not the waiver.
The one job Iowa gives a waiver, and it is commercial only
Iowa Code 572.33A is the only operative sentence in the chapter that uses the word. An owner of a building, land, or improvement upon which a mechanic's lien of a subcontractor may be posted is not required to pay the general contractor compensation for work done or material furnished until the expiration of ninety days after the completion of the building or improvement, unless the general contractor furnishes the owner one of two things. The first is receipts and waivers of claims for mechanics' liens, signed by all persons who furnished material or performed labor for the building, land, or improvement. The second is a good and sufficient bond approved by the owner, conditioned that the owner be held harmless from any loss sustained by reason of the posting of mechanics' liens by subcontractors.
Read what that actually does on a job. Iowa still does not tell you what a waiver has to say, still does not void one signed early, and still does not order anybody to sign one. It hands the owner a ninety day reason to keep the money, and hands the general contractor one way to end that wait early. So collecting a signed waiver off every sub and every supplier stops being good practice and becomes the thing that releases the last payment. The bond is the alternative for a general who cannot get every signature, and since the owner approves it, it is not an equal option.
Subsection 2 confines the section to commercial construction properties, and Iowa means that narrowly: 572.1 defines residential construction as single-family or two-family dwellings, so a triplex up is commercial for this chapter. On a house or a duplex 572.33A simply is not there. No ninety day hold, no statutory reason for the owner to want your waivers, and the waiver goes back to being an ordinary contract judged by its own words.
Commercial work has a notice, and it does not go on the registry
The other commercial section is 572.33, and it is the one that catches suppliers. A person furnishing labor or materials to a subcontractor is not entitled to a lien under the chapter unless they do both of two things. First, notify the general contractor or owner-builder in writing with a one-time notice containing the name, mailing address, and telephone number of the person furnishing the labor or materials, and the name of the subcontractor to whom the labor or materials were furnished, within thirty days of first furnishing labor or materials for which a lien claim may be made. Second, support the lien claim with a certified statement that the notice was given.
Three things about it are easy to get wrong. It is a one-time notice, so additional labor or materials furnished by the same person to the same subcontractor for use in the same construction project are covered by the one already sent, and there is no monthly repeat to miss. It goes to the general contractor or owner-builder in writing, not to the registry, so a posting to the mechanics notice and lien registry does not do it for you and cannot. And the thirty days run from first furnishing, not from the contract and not from the last delivery.
Paragraph b is the part that stays quiet until it is too late. Sending the notice is not enough on its own, because the lien claim has to be supported by a certified statement that it was given, naming the same items over again. Keep proof of the notice from the day it goes out, since what you will be certifying to later is its contents rather than your intention to send it. Subsection 3 then preserves the general contractor's right to ask a subcontractor, or anybody furnishing labor or materials to one, about payments made or to be made, which is how the tier above you finds out what you are still owed.
What to do about it on an Iowa job
Sign conditional, never unconditional, until the money has cleared your bank. Where no statute voids a bad waiver the form is the entire protection, and a conditional waiver that takes effect when the payment clears is a different document from one that takes effect on signature. Put the amount and the through date on it, because nothing in chapter 572 will limit a waiver that does not limit itself.
On a residential job, post to the registry before you worry about anything else. If you are the general or an owner builder, the notice of commencement of work goes up within ten days of commencement, and until it does your subs cannot post their preliminary notices at all. If you are a subcontractor, post the preliminary notice while the owner still holds the balance, because that is the line 572.13B draws.
On a commercial job none of that registry advice reaches you and two other sections do. If you are the general contractor, start collecting signed receipts and waivers at the first draw rather than at the end, because 572.33A lets the owner sit on your money for ninety days after completion until you hand them over or produce a bond the owner will approve. If you furnish labor or materials to a subcontractor, get the one-time notice to the general contractor or owner-builder inside thirty days of your first delivery and keep the proof of it, because 572.33 wants a certified statement about that notice before the lien claim will stand at all.
Then hold the ninety days. The lien is posted to the registry within ninety days after the last of the material was furnished or the last of the labor performed, with written notice to the owner. Iowa still allows a lien posted after the ninety days, but 572.11 limits what it reaches, so the late route is a smaller lien rather than the same one. A conditional waiver protects what you have already released. It does not post anything and it does not stop that count.
Running an Iowa residential job as the general contractor? Collecting waivers is the easy half. Iowa Code 572.13 makes you give the owner an owner notice in boldface at a minimum of ten points, and subsection 3 says a general contractor who fails to provide it is not entitled to a lien and remedy provided by this chapter. There is no good faith clause anywhere in the section.
Which of the four to sign on an Iowa job
Iowa has no anti waiver statute, so the wording of the form is the whole of the protection. A conditional waiver ties the release to the payment clearing. An unconditional one releases on signature, paid or not, and there is no section in chapter 572 that will read a condition back into it.
Questions people ask
Is an Iowa lien waiver signed before payment valid?
Yes, as far as the Iowa Code is concerned. No section of chapter 572 declares an advance waiver void, and none prescribes what one must say. An Iowa lien waiver is an ordinary contract, which means an unconditional one takes effect on signature whether or not the check ever clears. The one place the chapter uses the word is 572.33A, and that makes a waiver something a commercial general contractor has to collect, not something the law limits.
Does taking a promissory note waive an Iowa mechanic's lien?
Not by itself. Iowa Code 572.4 says that after completion of the work, taking security of any kind does not affect the right to establish a mechanic's lien unless the new security is, by express agreement, given and received in lieu of the lien. Express agreement is the standard, so read what the note says before signing it.
What is the Iowa mechanics notice and lien registry?
It is a statewide public internet site under Iowa Code 572.34, run by the secretary of state, where the notice of commencement of work, preliminary notices and the liens themselves are all posted. A general contractor or owner builder posts the notice of commencement within ten days of commencing work, and no preliminary notice can be posted until that is up.
When does an Iowa subcontractor have to post a preliminary notice?
Before the balance due is paid to the general contractor or owner builder. Under 572.13B a preliminary notice posted before that payment is effective as to all labor, service, equipment and material the subcontractor furnished. The lien itself is then posted within ninety days after the last material was furnished or the last labor performed, with written notice to the owner.
Does Iowa require lien waivers on a commercial job?
Not directly, but 572.33A makes them the price of getting paid on time. An owner is not required to pay the general contractor until ninety days after completion of the building or improvement unless the general contractor furnishes receipts and waivers of claims for mechanics' liens signed by all persons who furnished material or performed labor, or a good and sufficient bond approved by the owner. Nobody is ordered to sign one. The owner is simply allowed to wait.
Does the ninety day hold in 572.33A apply to a house?
No. Subsection 2 says the section applies only to commercial construction properties, and Iowa Code 572.1 defines residential construction as single-family or two-family dwellings, plus property under chapter 499B. On a house or a duplex there is no ninety day hold and no statutory reason for the owner to want your waivers at all.
I supply a subcontractor on a commercial Iowa job. What do I have to send?
A one-time written notice to the general contractor or owner-builder within thirty days of first furnishing, containing your name, mailing address and telephone number, and the name of the subcontractor you supplied. Additional labor or materials furnished to the same subcontractor on the same project are covered by that one notice. Iowa Code 572.33 says that without it, and without a certified statement supporting the lien claim that says you sent it, you are not entitled to a lien.
Does the commercial one-time notice get posted to the registry?
No. 572.33 says notify the general contractor or owner-builder in writing, which is a direct notice between two private parties. The registry notice sections do not reach a commercial job at all, because 572.13, 572.13A and 572.13B each say they apply only to residential construction properties. On commercial work the registry is where the lien goes, not where the notice goes.
Working in another state? The general lien waiver forms page covers all four waiver types, and conditional vs unconditional lien waiver explains which of the two to sign and when.
This page quotes Iowa Code section 572.4 and explains what it says. It is not legal advice, and a statute can be amended. Read the linked section before you rely on it.