Massachusetts partial waiver and subordination of lien, free
Massachusetts starts from the opposite end. Section 32 makes advance lien waivers void and unenforceable, then lists four narrow exceptions, and the partial waiver form below is one of them.
An agreement to waive lien rights in advance is void and unenforceable, with four listed exceptions. The partial waiver and subordination has to be substantially in the statutory form with no material deviation from it.
Read the law: Massachusetts General Laws chapter 254 section 32malegislature.gov
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Word for word from M.G.L. c.254 s.32. Print it and fill it in by hand, or use the builder below and get it back already filled in.
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Which of the Massachusetts forms you need
- Partial Waiver and Subordination of Lien. Use this for a payment that is not the last one. It releases what you have been paid for up to a date you name, and nothing after that date.
A Massachusetts subcontractor gets a lien by recording a notice of contract at the registry of deeds under c. 254, s. 4. Record it early, because s. 4 caps the lien at the amount due or to become due under the original contract as of the date the owner is told it was filed.
A Massachusetts claimant with no direct contract with the original contractor has a capped lien unless they mail a notice of identification within thirty days of starting work. The notice of contract still has to be recorded; this one only lifts the cap.
A Massachusetts contractor who signed with the owner gets a lien by recording a notice of contract, direct contract under c. 254, s. 2. It can go on record as soon as the contract is signed, and the window shuts on the earliest of three dates, the last of which is ninety days after the last day of work.
No material deviation is stricter than substantially
The statute's phrase is substantially in the following form with no material deviation therefrom. That second clause is doing the work. Massachusetts is not inviting a redrafted version of this form.
Note also who may give it. The exception covers partial waivers and subordinations given by persons who have filed or recorded notices of contract under section two, so the form sits inside the notice of contract regime rather than outside it.
It is a running total, not a receipt
The Massachusetts form is built as a ten line payment application. Original contract amount, approved change orders, adjusted contract amount, completed to date, less retainage, total payable to date, less previous payments, current amount due, pending change orders, disputed claims.
Three of those lines are arithmetic, not typing, and the generator works them out as you fill the others in. That is the point of doing this on a computer rather than a clipboard.
Waive, and subordinate
The form does two things at once. It waives liens for what has been paid, and it subordinates any remaining lien rights, for pending change orders and disputed claims, to the lender or mortgagee named at the top.
The subordination has a tail on it. It runs through the twenty-fifth day after the end of the payment period you name, to the extent of the amount actually advanced by that lender through that twenty-fifth day. So work you do in the three and a half weeks after the period closes is inside the subordination even though it is not inside the waiver.
Which makes the lender line matter. If there is no lender, the subordination has nothing to attach to and the field should say so rather than being left ambiguous.
Questions people ask
Are advance lien waivers valid in Massachusetts?
No. Chapter 254 section 32 makes an agreement to waive lien rights in advance void and unenforceable, subject to four listed exceptions.
Who can give this partial waiver?
The exception covers persons who have filed or recorded a notice of contract under section two of chapter 254.
Does the form have to be exact?
Substantially the statutory form with no material deviation. Massachusetts uses the strictest phrasing of any state on this site, so treat the wording as fixed and only fill in the numbers.
What goes in disputed claims?
Any amount you are still arguing about. It is one of the two figures the form subordinates rather than waives, so leaving it at zero when it is not zero gives up ground for nothing.
Working outside Massachusetts? 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.