Massachusetts: Mechanic's Lien Waiver Form and Advance-Waiver Rules

Requirements one by one

No-lien and forced-subordination clauses are void

M.G.L. c. 254, § 32 makes a construction-related covenant that bars filing a
notice of contract, blocks a step to enforce a Chapter 254 lien, or subordinates
those rights against public policy, void, and unenforceable. The rule covers
construction, alteration, repair, maintenance, moving, demolition, professional
services, and connected excavation.

Massachusetts has one narrow payment-stage form

Section 32 does not create four conditional and unconditional progress and final
forms. It permits a Partial Waiver and Subordination of Lien only for a person
who has filed or recorded a notice of contract under M.G.L. c. 254, § 2. The
document must follow the statutory form substantially "with no material
deviation."

That timing is an important outlier. Section 2 says the lien appears of record
when the notice of contract is filed or recorded. The partial form therefore is
not a general pre-filing waiver; it is a payment-application document for an
existing Section 2 notice position.

The form both waives and subordinates

The form waives liens through the payment-period date except retainage, unpaid
agreed or pending change orders, and listed disputed claims. It then subordinates
liens securing those unpaid changes and disputes, plus further work through the
25th day after the payment period, to the lender's actual advances through that
day. Retainage is expressly excluded from the subordination.

Other statutory exceptions are not additional forms

Section 32 separately allows a principal named on a Section 12 lien bond to give
a waiver connected with an interim or final payment received. It also leaves
amount-due or amount-paid statements and formal Section 10 lien dissolutions
outside the anti-waiver rule. It prescribes no separate form for those first two
exceptions.

What trips people up

The partial form is limited to a Section 2 notice filer. It is not a generic
statutory waiver for every subcontractor, supplier, laborer, or design
professional on the project.

Retainage is preserved and not subordinated. The waiver clause excepts
retainage, and the subordination clause separately says "except for retainage."

The lender window ends on day 25, not the signature date. Subordination is
limited to money actually advanced by the lender through the 25th day after the
end of the payment period.

The form has no check-clearance condition. It lists the current amount due,
but it does not say the waiver becomes effective only when a check clears. A
claimant should not import a conditional-waiver rule from another state.

Common questions

Can a Massachusetts construction contract prohibit every lien filing?
No. Section 32 makes that covenant against public policy, void, and
unenforceable.

Does Massachusetts provide a conditional progress-waiver form?
No. It provides one Partial Waiver and Subordination form for a person who has
already filed or recorded a Section 2 notice of contract.

Must the statutory form be notarized?
Section 32 says it is signed under penalties of perjury but prescribes no notary
or acknowledgment block.

Statutes and sources

• M.G.L. c. 254, § 2, notice of contract and lien attachment —
  https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleIV/Chapter254/Section2
  (accessed 2026-07-23)
• M.G.L. c. 254, § 32, anti-waiver rule, exceptions, and statutory partial form —
  https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleIV/Chapter254/Section32
  (accessed 2026-07-23)