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Can a conditional lien waiver be signed prior to payment in Tennessee?

I noticed this sentence on your web site: "A contractor that solicits another party to waive a lien right in violation of the Tennessee law can lose their license." Does this mean I cannot ask a Tennessee sub to sign a Georgia lien waiver form, with its conditional then unconditional language, prior to payment? Thank you.

1 reply

Aug 31, 2018

That's a great question. The article this comes from is titled "Can You Waive Lien Rights Before Work?" This article specifically identifies potential outcomes when a contractor or subcontractor includes language in their contract that attempts to waiver lien rights before the work is performed. Further, a Tennessee contractor will not lose their license based on waiver language in a contract unless that contractor has first been warned by the state board for licensing contractors. After being warned, the contractor will then be given a chance to remove the language from the contract. If the contractor refuses, the issue will go to a hearing before the licensing board before any revocation could occur. Finally, as Tennessee is not one of the 12 states with statutory lien waiver forms, Tennessee contractors may whatever lien waiver forms they see fit. But those lien rights may not be waived before work is performed.

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