Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>If there is retention on a job, is a conditional release upon final payment submitted with the final progress payment, or with the final retention billing?
If there is retention on a job, is a conditional release upon final payment submitted with the final progress payment, or with the final retention billing?
I'm not sure whether to submit a final release with the final progress billing, or with the final retention billing.
1 reply
Jun 11, 2018
That's a fair question, and the text of the California conditional waivers should be helpful here. On a California <strong?Partial Conditional Lien Waiver, "retentions" are written into the "Exceptions" section of the waiver. As a result, retention billings are automatically excluded from waived progress payments. The California Final Conditional Waiver, retentions are not automatically excluded. However, that is not to say that retention amounts cannot be excluded from the waiver. Under the "Exceptions" section of a California Final Conditional Waiver, a claimant could certainly write in "retentions" and/or identify specific dollar amounts should be excluded from the waiver. So, if the "Exceptions" section of a California Final Conditional Waiver indicates that retention amounts should not be waived, a Final Conditional Waiver might be used, even if retainage amounts have not been paid. However, if the Exceptions section does not indicate anything about retainage, a Conditional Final Waiver would waive lien rights for retainage. If the Exceptions section will be left blank, then a Partial (or "Progress") Conditional Waiver might be more appropriate.