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Lien waivers - progress vs final - what if you are not 100% sure there won't be additional work?

CaliforniaLien Releases

Our projects are often performed in stages - Engineering and Construction. Sometimes we don't know whether we will be hired as the GC for the Construction phase. If the next phase is undetermined, but we are submitting our final Engineering phase invoice - what lien waiver should we use - progress or final?

1 reply

Feb 20, 2021

This is a good question. It depends on what your contract says. You might have two separate contracts (e.g., engineering/design and then construction) or one that rolls into the other. If its the latter, then it if you don't continue the contract would terminate so a final invoice would be better. 

Either way, the underlying point of the release is that you release your rights related to money owed to you for work performed. This is true regardless of whether it is a progress or final release. If there are things that are not covered by the last payment you will (or may) receive, the critical thing is not whether it is a progress or final release, but whether the release is conditional or unconditional. Happy to discuss this more on a phone call if you would like: 213.926.1516. Best regards, Greg Reaume.

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