Who uses these forms
Utah's set is short. Section 38-1a-802 of the Utah Code prints 2 waiver and release forms [2]: one for a progress payment and one for a final payment. Each is written for "the undersigned", the claimant giving up rights, and the rights it covers are listed in the form itself: any notice of lien or right under Title 38, Chapter 1a, any bond right under Title 14, and rights under Section 63G-6a-1103, in each case as they relate to payment rights on the described property [2].
The statute treats these forms as a safe harbor. A waiver and release in substantially the form the section provides meets the section's requirements [2]. The same section also sets out wording for a restrictive endorsement on a check, which appears on this page as a third block beside the two forms.
What the statute says about them
There is no unconditional form in Utah's set. Both forms, including the final payment form whose title does not use the word conditional, take effect on the same two events: the claimant endorses a check for the stated payment amount, and "the check is paid by the depository institution on which it is drawn" [2]. By their terms, neither form becomes effective to release before both events.
The restrictive endorsement is not a separate document to sign. It is a short statement for a check that identifies the payment as a progress or final payment for the property described on the check. Its closing sentence makes endorsement "an acknowledgment by the endorser that the waiver and release to which the payment applies is effective" to the extent the matching form provides [2].
Utah does not call for notarization [2]. Each form closes with a date line, a company name line, and "By" and "Its" lines for the person signing and that person's role.
Reading the blanks
The two forms share most of their opening lines. Each asks for a property name, the property location, the undersigned's customer, an invoice or payment application number and a payment amount.
- Conditional waiver and release upon progress payment (§ 38-1a-802(4)(b)) [2] adds a payment period. Its text limits the release to the payment amount and leaves outside it any retention withheld, items or changes pending approval, disputed items and claims, and items furnished or invoiced after the payment period.
- Waiver and release upon final payment (§ 38-1a-802(4)(c)) [2] has no payment period line. Its text applies the release to the final payment for what the undersigned furnished to the property or to the customer.
Both forms contain a warranty by the undersigned about paying its own laborers, subcontractors, materialmen and suppliers from the money received. The endorsement (§ 38-1a-802(4)(d)) [2] has no blanks; its first sentence prints "progress/ final payment" together, and the property is described on the check itself.
What changed recently
Section 38-1a-802 took its present number in 2012 [2]. It was renumbered and amended by chapter 278 and amended by chapter 347, both of the 2012 General Session [2].
Related
- Lien waiver forms by state
- Utah contractor license bond
- Lien waiver template, labeled as not a statutory form, for states without a statutory form