Mechanic's Lien Waiver Form and Advance-Waiver Rules in Tennessee
At a glance
| Governing law and project scope | Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-124, within the private-improvement mechanics' and materialmen's lien chapter. Applies to any lien right under chapter 11; subsection (c) separately replaces remote-contractor land liens when a qualifying payment bond is provided before furnishing begins. |
|---|---|
| Advance or prospective waiver | Any contract provision purporting to waive a lien right under chapter 11 is void and unenforceable as against public policy (§ 66-11-124(b)(1)). |
| Statutory form requirement | No statutory payment-stage waiver form or mandatory wording. Section 66-11-124 regulates contract clauses, express written agreement when accepting a note, enforcement consequences, and the payment-bond alternative. |
| Waiver types and payment stage | No statutory conditional/unconditional or progress/final forms. Accepting a note is not a waiver unless the lienor expressly agrees in writing; the statute does not supply a separate draw or final-waiver format (§ 66-11-124(a)). |
| Payment and effectiveness | A note for all or part of the claim does not waive the lien absent express written agreement and does not affect the lien-notice period. No statutory actual-receipt, cleared-check, or amount-paid effectiveness rule for a separate payment-stage waiver (§ 66-11-124(a)). |
| Required contents, exceptions, and through date | No statutory claimant, owner, project, property, amount, check, through-date, retainage, extras, change-order, or disputed-claim fields for a payment-stage waiver. A note-related waiver must at least be expressly agreed in writing (§ 66-11-124(a)). |
| Rights released and reserved | The anti-waiver rule protects any lien right under chapter 11. Section 66-11-124 does not state that a permitted written waiver releases contract, payment-bond, or other claims; subsection (c) preserves remote contractors through a payment bond while eliminating their land liens. |
| Signature, authority, notary, and format | No statutory signer-title, agent-authority, notarization, acknowledgment, warning, type-size, attachment, or electronic-format rule for a payment-stage waiver. The only express format point is written agreement for a note to waive a lien (§ 66-11-124(a)). |
| Noncompliance, remedies, and transition traps | Prohibited contract language is void. A solicited person reports it to the licensing board; refusal to delete can lead to hearing and immediate license revocation, notice to other states, and attorney fees/costs in a lien-enforcement damages action. Deletion plus a no-future-use statement ends the first complaint (§ 66-11-124(b)(2)). |
Requirements one by one
Contract lien waivers are void
Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-124(b)(1) states the rule without a work-start or payment-stage qualifier:
Any contract provision that purports to waive any right of lien under this chapter is void and unenforceable as against the public policy of this state.
The restriction is broader than a rule that merely forbids a pre-work clause. It reaches any purported lien-waiver provision in the construction contract.
Soliciting the clause creates a licensing-board path
Under § 66-11-124(b)(2), the solicited person reports the prohibited provision to the State Board for Licensing Contractors. If the contractor deletes it and states that the language will not appear in future Tennessee construction contracts, the board takes no further action on that first complaint. Refusal can lead to a hearing and immediate license revocation, followed by notice to the contractor's licensing authorities in other states.
The same subsection gives a solicited person reasonable attorney fees and costs in an action for damages based on the waiver, in connection with enforcing the lien.
Tennessee prescribes no payment-stage waiver form
Section 66-11-124 supplies no conditional, unconditional, progress, or final form. Its payment-specific rule concerns a note: accepting a note for all or part of the claim does not waive the lien unless the lienor expressly agrees in writing. Accepting the note also does not change the time to serve or record the lien notice.
A pre-work payment bond changes remote-contractor security
The separate subsection (c) mechanism is not a waiver. If, before anyone begins furnishing, the owner or agent provides a payment bond equal to 100% of the prime contract price in favor of remote contractors, with authorized surety and recording in every affected county, remote contractors receive no land liens under the chapter and instead look to the bond.
What trips people up
A note is not payment and does not stop the lien clock. Taking a promissory note leaves the lien intact unless the lienor expressly agrees in writing to a waiver, and it does not extend or alter the notice deadline.
The statute does not supply private-form safe harbors. It gives no approved through-date, amount, exception, payment-condition, signature, or notary fields for a separate draw waiver.
The board remedy begins with an opportunity to delete. Immediate revocation does not follow merely from the first report; the contractor first receives notice and can remove the clause and promise not to reuse it.
The 100% payment bond must predate furnishing. A later bond is not the subsection (c) route that prevents remote-contractor liens from arising.
Common questions
Can a Tennessee subcontract contain a blanket lien waiver? No. A contract provision purporting to waive a Chapter 11 lien right is void and unenforceable.
Does Tennessee require conditional or unconditional waiver forms? No. Section 66-11-124 prescribes no payment-stage waiver forms.
Does accepting a promissory note waive the lien? Not by itself. The lienor must expressly agree in writing, and the note does not change the lien-notice deadline.
Statutes and sources
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-124(a)-(c), note, contract-waiver, and payment-bond rules as reenacted — http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/105/Chapter/PC0189.pdf (accessed 2026-07-23)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-124(b)(2), licensing and fee remedies — https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/111/pub/pc0749.pdf (accessed 2026-07-23)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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