Missouri lien waiver form and what the statute says

Missouri prints one lien waiver form in its statute: the Unconditional Final Lien Waiver for Residential Real Property, in RSMo 429.016, subsection 27. It is for residential real property only, and the statute gives no form for a conditional waiver or for a progress payment.

A project located in Missouri and marked residential gets that form in the app with the statute’s words unchanged. A Missouri project that is not marked residential gets our own general forms, which are written by us and are not the statute’s words. The form has no amount line, so the account and the project supply the names, the property and the signer’s details.

The Missouri form at a glance

The statute has a single form, so the table has a single row. Its last column quotes the sentence in subsection 27 that introduces the form.

The other three kinds on this site have no Missouri form. For a conditional final waiver, the conditional final page shows Missouri’s unconditional final form in its table, marked as a different kind.

What the statute says about it

Subsection 1 limits the whole section: it shall only apply to mechanic's liens asserted against residential real property, other than mechanic's liens for the repair, remodeling, or addition to owner-occupied residential property of four units or less which are governed by section 429.013 and other applicable sections of this chapter. So a commercial project has no statutory form, and an owner-occupied home of four units or less is left to section 429.013. Subsection 3 uses the word claimant for any person or entity seeking to retain lien rights, and the form is written for a claimant.

Subsection 25 is the rule the form is tied to. It says that a waiver of mechanic’s lien rights shall not be deemed or interpreted to waive or release mechanic's lien rights in exchange for a payment of less than the amount claimed due at that time unless such mechanic's lien waiver is an unconditional, final mechanic's lien waiver in compliance with this section. The same subsection lets a claimant waive its right to assert a lien against residential real property by a partial or full waiver, whether conditioned upon receipt of payment or unconditional. It gives no form for those waivers.

A neighboring section, 429.005, holds no form either: it only allows waivers that are required as a condition of payment. The form in subsection 27 is the only form wording the statute prints.

Statute

RSMo 429.016 (subsection 27)

Use of the form

Yes, for an unconditional final waiver on residential real property: it is valid only on a form substantially like the statute’s.

Who it applies to

Residential real property only, not the repair of owner-occupied homes of four units or less (RSMo 429.013). The form is offered when the project is marked residential.

Notary

The statute is silent.

Note

The statute sets no form for the other kinds.

Source: RSMo 429.016 (subsection 27). Missouri Revisor of Statutes (revisor.mo.gov), read Nov 12, 2026.

Signature, notary and dates

The last lines of subsection 27 give a rule for the signature block: Claimant's legal name and the name, title or position, address, and telephone number of the person executing the unconditional final lien waiver on behalf of claimant shall be typed or legibly printed immediately above or below the signature, and the date that the document was signed shall be typed or legibly printed immediately adjacent to the signature. The app’s signature block holds each of those items: the claimant’s name, the signer’s name, title, address and telephone, and a line for the date signed.

For the waiver itself the statute is silent on a notary. A notary appears only in the Notice of Rights in subsection 8, which says such signature shall be notarized. The statute also sets no type size and no bold. The title is in capitals on the form, and the app prints it that way.

The section took effect on August 28, 2010, as the legislature’s page shows, and subsection 31 says it applies to any residential real property conveyance closing on or after November 1, 2010. Subsection 30 covers a claimant who recorded a notice of rights and was paid in full: it sets five calendar days to give a final waiver after a written request, and a $500 penalty.

The full text of the form

The form is printed below word for word. The legislature’s page gives it as a title, one paragraph and a line for the legal description of the property. The signature block follows the rule quoted above, and its layout is ours, since the page shows only blank space there.

The waiver reaches work done before the date on the document, and also any work hereafter performed by or on behalf of Claimant under any agreements executed by Claimant prior to said date. The form names no payment and no amount, so no check and no figure is tied to it.

The filled sample, field by field

The sample is made on the same drywall job as the other State samples, in a Missouri city. Its form has no amount, no through date and no retainage line, so none of the pay app’s figures print on it. That leaves the claimant, the property and the signer’s block.

The form asks for the legal description of the property, and the sample prints the project’s name and street address in that place.

Making a Missouri waiver here

1. Choose Missouri as the project’s State and mark the project residential. The statutory form is offered only on a residential project.
2. Finish the pay app the waiver is for, so its record can no longer change.
3. Open Lien waivers, pick that pay app and the Unconditional Final Lien Waiver for Residential Real Property.
4. Look over the claimant, the property and the signer’s name, title, address and telephone. They fill from the account 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

A Missouri waiver has no amount line, so it follows the pay app by the job rather than by a figure. The pay app it follows is the last one. Take the pay application guide’s $120,000 drywall job, at 10% retainage, on its fourth pay app, for the period to April 30, 2026. All of the work has been billed, $12,000 of retainage is held, and the sub enters a release of $12,000.

The payment due is the retainage, because there is no new work, and line 9 shows nothing left to bill on the job. In the app the final waiver is made from this pay app, as every waiver is made from a finished one. The $12,000.00 does not print on the Missouri form, which names no payment. What carries over is the claimant, the property and the signer, set once on the account and the project.

For a progress payment on the same job, the earlier pay apps are billed the same way, but Missouri’s statute gives no form for them. A pay app is frozen once it is finished, and a revision makes a new version. The pay application guide works through each summary line, and the retainage guide shows a release like this one in full.

Sources: RSMo 429.016 (subsection 27).

Other States and the four kinds

The lien waiver guide compares the four kinds across the States, and conditional vs unconditional covers when each takes effect. Before Missouri on the State list is Mississippi, with an interim and a final form, and after it is Nevada, which prints all four.