Michigan lien waiver forms and what the statute says

Michigan prints four lien waiver forms in its Construction Lien Act, MCL 570.1115(9): a partial and a full waiver, each in an unconditional and a conditional version. Subsection (9) says the forms shall be used in substantially the statute’s format, so Michigan’s wording is set by the statute, with “partial” and “full” where other States say progress and final.

The four forms carry no project-type limit. In the app, a project located in Michigan gets all four with the statute’s words unchanged, filled from the pay app the payment is for, and the app offers the statutory forms only for that project, with no general form beside them.

The four Michigan forms at a glance

The statute lists them as (a) to (d). The last column quotes the sentence in each form that tells when the waiver takes hold, and the third column says which of the four kinds on this site each one matches.

The statute’s words are partial and full. Matching them to progress and final is our grouping, made so that Michigan sits in the same table as the other States on the kind pages. The two partial forms run through a date written on the form. The two full forms name the contract and the property and have no date, because they release all construction lien rights against the described property.

What section 115 says about using them

Subsection (9) opens with the sentence that sets the forms: The following forms shall be used in substantially the following format to execute waivers of construction liens: The statute asks for the format, not for every word, and the app prints the words as given. Subsection (1) is a different rule, about contracts: A person shall not require, as part of any contract for an improvement, that the right to a construction lien be waived in advance of work performed.

Section 115 sets no limit by project type or by who signs. Residential wording turns up in two places only: subsection (7), and a paragraph inside each form that begins with the residential-structure case. In that paragraph, where the claimant gave a notice of furnishing or none was needed, an owner, lessee or designee who did not receive the waiver directly from the claimant may not rely on it without contacting the claimant to check that it is authentic. The paragraph is part of the form text, so the app prints it on every Michigan waiver.

Statute

MCL 570.1115(9)

Use of the form

Yes: the forms are to be used in substantially the statute’s format.

Who it applies to

The forms carry no project-type limit.

Notary

The statute is silent.

Source: MCL 570.1115(9). The Michigan Legislature’s site, read Nov 12, 2026.

The legislature’s page lists the act’s history: Act 497 of 1980, effective January 1, 1982, then amendments in 1981, 1982, 2006 and 2007, the last being Act 28 of 2007, effective June 28, 2007. Its header marks the compiled laws as complete through PA 114 of 2026.

Wording inside the forms

All four forms end on one line in capitals: DO NOT SIGN BLANK OR INCOMPLETE FORMS. RETAIN A COPY. The statute gives no type size and no bold for it, so the app prints it in capitals, as the statute does. The two partial forms each hold a choice for the signer to circle, between “does” and “does not”, on whether the waiver together with all previous waivers covers all amounts due for the contract improvement through the date shown. The app prints that choice unmarked.

The conditional forms add a sentence saying the waiver is conditioned on actual payment. The partial one points at the amount shown above. The full one carries its own blank after “actual payment of”. The full conditional form also has an oddity in its wording: its body says the contract has been fully paid and satisfied and releases all lien rights, and a later sentence conditions the waiver on actual payment. That is how the legislature’s page prints it, and the app prints it the same way, without correction.

The statute names no notary, and none of the four forms has a notary block. Each ends with a signature line for the lien claimant, a signing date, an address and a telephone number.

The full text of each form

Each form is printed below word for word, in the statute’s order from (a) to (d). Dotted lines are the blanks, and the line breaks follow the legislature’s page.

The filled sample, field by field

The sample beside the introduction is the Partial Conditional Waiver for the first pay app of the demo drywall job, Maple Street Clinic: $25,650 of work, 5% retainage held, $24,367.50 due. These are the blanks the app filled and the ones it left for the signer.

Michigan’s forms have no printed line for the claimant’s name or for the owner. The blanks name the other contracting party and the property, and the claimant signs over the line marked as the signature of the lien claimant.

Making a Michigan waiver here

1. Choose Michigan as the project’s State when you set up the job. The four statutory forms become the ones offered.
2. Finish the pay app for the period, so its figures can no longer change.
3. Open Lien waivers and pick the pay app, then the form: partial or full, conditional or unconditional.
4. Look over the amount, the through date, the other contracting party and the property. They fill from the pay app and the project.
5. Sign typed or drawn, or send a signing link to the person who signs, then download the PDF that carries the waiver with the pay app.

How the waiver follows the pay app

The amount on a Michigan partial waiver is the payment the pay app asks for, and the through date is the end of its period. Take an electrical sub on a $200,000 job whose second pay app is for the period to April 30, 2026. The work billed to date is $119,000 including $9,000 of stored materials still on site, and retainage is 10% on the work and 5% on the stored materials.

The Partial Conditional Waiver for this pay app reads $30,074.53 in the amount blank and April 30, 2026 as the date. The retainage of $11,450 is not in the payment, so it is not in the amount. The first pay app’s payment, $77,475.47 on line 7, was for the period to March 31, 2026, and a Partial Unconditional Waiver made from that pay app carries those two figures.

The form’s own sentence speaks of all previous waivers together with this one, so on a job with several pay apps the waivers read as a series, each with its own through date. Because the waiver is made from a finished pay app, its amount cannot differ from the pay app’s line 8. A revised pay app makes a new version, and a new waiver can be made from that. The pay application guide works through each line, and the retainage guide shows how retainage is held and released.

Sources: MCL 570.1115(9).

Other States and the four kinds

The lien waiver guide compares the four kinds across the States, and conditional vs unconditional covers the timing. Before Michigan on the State list is Massachusetts, with a single partial form, and after it is Mississippi, with an interim and a final form.