Kentucky: Mechanic's Lien Waiver Form and Advance-Waiver Rules
The short answer
Kentucky makes a construction-contract provision that waives, releases, or extinguishes Chapter 376 lien rights void and unenforceable, except for a partial lien waiver provided by a contractor or subcontractor for a progress payment. Kentucky prescribes no conditional, unconditional, progress, or final waiver form and does not state that the progress-payment exception depends on actual receipt or cleared funds. A written waiver also removes the contractor's separate statutory duty to apply owner payments to that claimant's labor or material bill.
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This is the general rule in Kentucky. Ezel applies current Kentucky law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and project scope | Kentucky Fairness in Construction Act, KRS 371.400-371.425, especially § 371.405, paired with mechanics' and materialmen's liens under KRS Chapter 376. Covers construction contracts among owners/public entities, contractors, and subcontractors for real-property construction, excluding routine maintenance and manufacturing processing equipment (§ 371.400). |
|---|---|
| Advance or prospective waiver | A construction-contract provision purporting to waive, release, or extinguish KRS Chapter 376 rights is against public policy, void, and unenforceable, except for a partial lien waiver provided by a contractor or subcontractor for a progress payment (§ 371.405(2)(b)). |
| Statutory form requirement | No statutory payment-stage waiver form or mandatory wording. Section 371.405 identifies the permitted partial-progress exception but supplies no conditional, unconditional, progress, or final template. |
| Waiver types and payment stage | The only express exception is a partial waiver of lien rights by a contractor or subcontractor for a progress payment (§ 371.405(2)(b)). No statutory conditional/unconditional forms or final-waiver category. |
| Payment and effectiveness | Section 371.405 says 'for progress payments' but does not require actual receipt, check clearance, a joint check, or written acknowledgment as an effectiveness condition. Section 376.070(3) recognizes a written lien waiver for the separate proceeds-application exception. |
| Required contents, exceptions, and through date | No required claimant, owner, project, property, amount, check, through-date, retainage, extras, change-order, or disputed-claim fields. To fit the statutory exception, the waiver must be partial and for a progress payment (§ 371.405(2)(b)). |
| Rights released and reserved | The permitted exception reaches lien rights under KRS Chapter 376. Section 371.405 separately voids construction-contract provisions waiving litigation rights, KRS 371.160 requirements, and certain contractor/subcontractor delay remedies; the partial-lien exception does not state that those other rights are released. |
| Signature, authority, notary, and format | Section 371.405 states no signer, title, agent-authority, notarization, acknowledgment, warning, type-size, attachment, or electronic-form rule. A waiver must be in writing to trigger KRS 376.070(3)'s exception to the contractor's duty to apply owner payments to labor and material claims. |
| Noncompliance, remedies, and transition traps | A prohibited waiver provision is void and unenforceable, while compliant contract provisions remain severable (§ 371.405(2), (4)). The Act applies to construction contracts entered after June 26, 2007. Releasing a recorded satisfied lien is a separate 30-day county-clerk duty under § 382.365. |
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Requirements one by one
Construction-contract lien waivers are usually void
KRS § 371.405(2)(b) makes a construction-contract provision that purports to
"waive, release, or extinguish" KRS Chapter 376 rights against Kentucky public
policy and void. The same sentence supplies one narrow exception:
partial waivers of lien rights provided by the contractor or subcontractor
for progress payments
The exception is limited by both scope and stage. It says partial, not blanket,
and progress payment, not a general pre-work or final surrender.
Kentucky prescribes no waiver form or payment condition
Section 371.405 supplies no conditional or unconditional form and no required
claimant, owner, project, amount, check, through-date, exception, warning,
signature-title, or notary fields. It also does not say that the partial-progress
exception becomes effective only after actual receipt or check clearance.
That silence matters. A private document may condition itself on payment, but
the statute does not create California-style conditional and unconditional
forms or a statutory cleared-funds rule.
A written waiver changes the contractor's proceeds duty
KRS § 376.070 ordinarily requires a contractor, architect, or other person who
receives owner money to pay in full the people who furnished labor or material,
or to distribute an insufficient payment pro rata. Subsection (3) removes that
duty where those people "have waived in writing their right to file mechanics'
or materialmen's liens."
This is a consequence of the written waiver; it is not a separate statutory
waiver form. A progress waiver can therefore affect both the claimant's lien
security and the recipient's statutory duty to apply owner proceeds to that
claim.
What trips people up
The statute does not say "after payment clears." Section 371.405 permits
partial waivers "for progress payments" but states no actual-receipt or cleared-
check condition. Do not add one to the statutory rule from a private form.
The exception does not create a general final-waiver safe harbor. The text
names partial progress waivers only. A construction-contract clause demanding a
blanket future or final surrender is not within the stated exception.
The invalid term is severed from the rest of the contract. Under
§ 371.405(4), finding the waiver provision null and unenforceable does not
invalidate compliant provisions elsewhere in the construction contract.
A recorded lien has a separate release duty. Once a recorded lien is
satisfied, § 382.365 requires release in the county clerk's office within 30
days. That post-recording instrument is outside this survey's payment-stage
waiver scope.
Common questions
Can a Kentucky subcontract waive all lien rights before work starts?
No. A construction-contract provision waiving Chapter 376 rights is void unless
it fits the partial-progress-payment exception.
Does Kentucky require a conditional progress waiver form?
No. The statute recognizes partial progress waivers but prescribes no form and
no cleared-payment condition.
Can a progress waiver cover the entire project?
The statutory exception says "partial waivers." A blanket project-wide waiver
does not fit that wording merely because it is presented with a progress draw.
Statutes and sources
- KRS §§ 371.400 and 371.405, construction-contract scope, void waiver rule,
partial-progress exception, and severability —
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35257 and
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=56548 (accessed
2026-07-23) - KRS § 376.010(1)(a), mechanics' and materialmen's lien —
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=54156 (accessed
2026-07-23) - KRS § 376.070, application of owner payments and written-waiver exception —
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35287 (accessed
2026-07-23) - KRS § 382.365(1), release of recorded satisfied liens —
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35623 (accessed
2026-07-23)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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