Florida lien waiver forms and what the statute says

Florida gives two lien waiver forms in Fla. Stat. 713.20: a waiver and release of lien upon progress payment in subsection (4), and one upon final payment in subsection (5). Neither is called conditional or unconditional, and the section says a waiver may be in substantially these forms.

A project located in Florida gets both forms in the app with the statute's wording unchanged. The amount, the customer, the owner and the property are filled from the pay app the payment is for; you sign, and the waiver goes into the same PDF as the pay application.

The two Florida forms at a glance

Florida has two forms where California and Arizona have four. The statute splits waivers by the payment they go with, progress or final, and it has no second split by whether the money has arrived. The right-hand column quotes the words in each form that tie it to a payment.

The kind pages for unconditional progress and unconditional final list these two forms for Florida. The progress form runs through a date and says it does not cover any retention. The final form has no date and no sentence about retention.

What Fla. Stat. 713.20 says about using them

Subsections (4) and (5) each introduce their form with the same permission: the waiver may be in substantially the following form. Subsection (4) applies when a lienor is required to execute a waiver or release of lien in exchange for, or to induce payment of, a progress payment, and subsection (5) applies in the same words to the final payment.

Three later subsections shape how the forms are used. Subsection (6) says A person may not require a lienor to furnish a lien waiver or release of lien that is different from the forms in subsection (4) or subsection (5). Subsection (7) says A lienor who executes a lien waiver and release in exchange for a check may condition the waiver and release on payment of the check. Subsection (8) says A lien waiver or lien release that is not substantially similar to the forms in subsections (4) and (5) is enforceable in accordance with the terms of the lien waiver or lien release.

Subsection (6) speaks to what a person can demand, and subsection (8) to how a waiver in other words is treated. The section applies to any lienor under the construction lien law, part I of chapter 713, with no limit to residential work or to general contractors.

Statute

Fla. Stat. § 713.20(4), (5)

Use of the form

No: the statute gives forms a waiver may follow, and no one may require a different form (713.20(6)).

Who it applies to

Any lienor.

Notary

The statute is silent.

Note

The statute’s two forms are for progress and final payments; it does not call them conditional or unconditional.

Source: Fla. Stat. § 713.20(4), (5). The Florida Legislature’s site, read Nov 12, 2026.

The wording of both forms was read on the Legislature's page, headed as the 2026 Florida Statutes, and it matches the Senate's 2025 edition of the section.

No conditional and unconditional pair

In California and Arizona the statute prints a conditional form and an unconditional form for each payment. Florida prints one form for each. The progress form says the lienor hereby waives and releases its lien and right to claim a lien in consideration of a sum, and it contains no sentence that ties the release to a check clearing. Subsection (7) is where the statute deals with that: a lienor who signs in exchange for a check may condition the waiver and release on payment of the check.

The app prints the two statutory forms and adds no third. Subsection (7) is the statute's only mention of conditioning a waiver on a check. Other States print conditional wording of their own, which the conditional progress page sets beside Florida's.

What each form releases

The progress form releases the lien and the right to claim a lien for labor, services or materials furnished through a date, to the customer, on the owner's job, for the property described. It then states what it leaves out: This waiver and release does not cover any retention or labor, services, or materials furnished after the date specified. The final form releases the lien and the right to claim a lien for labor, services or materials furnished to the customer on the job, in consideration of the final payment, and it has no date line of its own.

Both forms close the same way: a dated line with the year, the lienor's name, and a By line. The statute states no notice text, no type-size rule and no notary block. The two titles are printed in capital letters.

The full text of each form

Below is each Florida form as the app prints it, word for word. The blanks and the bracketed prompts are the statute's own. On a filled waiver each value takes the place of its prompt, so a prompt and its value never print together.

The filled sample, field by field

The sample beside the introduction is the progress form, 713.20(4), for the first pay app of the demo drywall job, Maple Street Clinic: $24,367.50 due after 5% retainage on a job at 1450 Maple Street in Tampa. The table lists each prompt the app filled and where the value came from. The signing date and the signature stay open until the signer signs.

Making a Florida waiver here

1. Set the project's State to Florida when you create the job. The two forms above are then the ones offered for it.
2. Build the pay application for the period and finish it. A finished pay app is frozen, so the amount on the waiver cannot drift from it.
3. Open Lien waivers and choose the progress or the final form, and the pay app it is for. The amount, customer, owner and property fill in.
4. Look at the lines the form leaves to you, such as the date the work runs through and the signing date.
5. Sign typed or drawn, or send the signing link to the person who signs. The waiver is added to the PDF beside the pay app.

How the waiver follows the pay app

The Florida progress form states outright that it leaves retention out, so a job with retainage held shows how the waiver and the pay app sit side by side. Take the pay application guide’s drywall job, at 10% retainage, at the point where the last work is billed, the third pay app, for the period to March 31, 2026. The contract sum is $120,000.00 and all of it, $120,000.00, is completed. Retainage at 10% is $12,000.00, so $108,000.00 is earned less retainage. The earlier applications asked for $68,400.00, and the current payment due is $39,600.00.

The progress waiver for that payment reads $39,600.00 in the sum blank. The $12,000.00 of retainage is not part of it, and the form says it does not cover any retention. If the retainage is released in full on the next pay app, that pay app asks for $12,000.00, since no work is billed on it, and if that is the final payment, the final form is the one made for it. The app blocks a release larger than the retainage held.

Because the waiver is made from the finished pay app, the two documents show the same figures, and a revised pay app makes a new version. The retainage guide follows the held amount through its release, and the pay application guide shows where the current payment due comes from.

Sources: Fla. Stat. § 713.20(4), (5).

Other States and the four kinds

The lien waiver guide sets the four kinds side by side, and conditional vs unconditional covers the timing. Neighboring States with their own statutory forms in the app: Georgia and Mississippi.