Who uses these forms
Section 53.284 of the Texas Property Code sets out four waiver and release forms [1]. Two cover a progress payment and two cover a final payment, and each pair has a conditional and an unconditional version. The statute gives them mandatory force: in Texas a waiver and release is unenforceable unless it substantially complies with the form that applies to it [1].
The forms are written for the person giving up rights, whom the text calls the signer. The rights released are wide. Each form reaches the signer's mechanic's lien rights, statutory and common law payment bond rights, claims for payment, and rights under any similar ordinance, rule or statute related to claim or payment rights for persons in the signer's position.
What the statute says about them
Payment is the dividing line between the two kinds. A conditional form has no effect when it is signed. It becomes effective once the signer receives a check for the stated sum, the check is properly endorsed, and it "has been paid by the bank on which it is drawn" [1]. An unconditional form runs the other way: its text recites that the signer has already been paid and on that basis waives and releases the listed rights.
The two unconditional forms open with a notice placed above the title. Texas fixes how that notice looks: bold type at least as large as the largest type used in the document, and not smaller than 10-point type [1]. Neither conditional form carries that notice.
Notarization plays no part. Texas does not require it, and every form ends with lines for a date, a company name, a signature and a title [1].
Reading the blanks
The first blanks on each form are for the project and a job number. From there the four diverge.
- The conditional forms (§ 53.284(b) and (d)) [1] ask for the maker of the check, the dollar sum, the payee or payees of the check, the owner of the property, its location, a job description and the person with whom the signer contracted.
- The unconditional progress form (§ 53.284(c)) [1] asks for the sum of the progress payment received, the person with whom the signer contracted, the owner, the location and a job description.
- The unconditional final form (§ 53.284(e)) [1] has no dollar blank; its text states that the signer has been paid in full. It asks for the contracting party, the owner, the location and a job description.
Both progress forms tie the release to attached statements or progress payment requests and list what stays outside it: unpaid retention, pending modifications and changes, and other items furnished. All four also contain a warranty by the signer about paying its own laborers, subcontractors, materialmen and suppliers with the funds from the payment.
What changed recently
The forms date from 2011 legislation [1]. Section 53.284 was added by Acts 2011, 82nd Legislature, chapter 271 (H.B. 1456), with an effective date of January 1, 2012 [1].
Related
- Lien waiver forms by state
- Texas retainage law
- Lien waiver template, labeled as not a statutory form, for states without a statutory form