Wyoming lien waiver forms: which one to use and when

One form for every payment

The form opens with a note to the lien claimant: “Signing this form has legal implications. If you have any questions regarding how to complete this form or whether it has been properly completed, you should consult an attorney.” The heading has five blanks: TO, PROJECT, FROM, DATE and PAYMENT. The body then does four things:

1. Waives “any and all claim and/or right of lien against the project and the real property improvements thereto” for labor and materials, “in consideration of the PAYMENT received to date.”
2. Reserves your lien rights for retainage withheld, in an amount you fill in, and for labor and materials furnished later that haven't been paid for yet.
3. States what you're still owed: “The undersigned has not been paid the sum of $____” for work under contract, and keeps the right to file a lien and pursue the full amount, including equitable claims.
4. Acknowledges payment and deals with payments that later bounce, in two sentences worth reading closely.

Because the same form serves a progress draw and the last payment, the blanks do the work. On a progress payment, the retainage figure and the unpaid amount are what keep your rights alive. On final payment, both may be zero, and then nothing is reserved.

If a payment bounces

Read together, the form says the waiver stays in force even if a payment in uncertified funds bounces, unless the payment that bounced was tendered by the owner. If a check from someone other than the owner, such as the general contractor, is dishonored, the owner can still rely on your waiver. That's the reason to wait for funds to clear, or ask for certified funds, before you sign. How a court would apply the language to your facts is a question for a Wyoming attorney.

Is the wording mandatory?

The statute says the waiver “shall be completed in substantially the following form.” Unlike Arizona or Nevada, Wyoming's lien statutes in title 29 don't spell out what happens to a waiver that departs from the form, and they have no section on advance waivers of construction liens. Using the statutory form, completely filled in and acknowledged, avoids the question.

The notary acknowledgment

Below the signature, “By,” “subcontractor/materialman/employee,” Title and Date lines, the form carries a full acknowledgment: STATE OF, COUNTY OF, and “This instrument was acknowledged before me on this ___ day of ___, 20___, by ___ (name of person) as lien claimant or ___ (title, position or type of authority granted by lien claimant) of ___ (lien claimant),” signed by a notarial officer with a commission expiration and seal.

Since the acknowledgment is part of the form, plan on a notary for every Wyoming waiver. It doesn't have to mean paper. Wyoming lets a notarial officer perform a remote ink notarization or a remote online notarization (Wyo. Stat. § 32-3-111), and the state's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act lets an authorized notary's electronic signature satisfy a notarization requirement. Wyoming's UETA also says “If a law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies the law” (§ 40-21-107(d)). See Wyoming's e-signature law.

Where the waiver starts: the preliminary notice

Wyoming builds lien waivers into its preliminary notice. Under § 29-2-112, a contractor must send the record owner written notice of the right to a lien, and of the owner's right to get a lien waiver on payment, before receiving any payment, advances included. A subcontractor or materialman sends it within 30 days of first providing services or materials, and copies the contractor it works for. Missing the deadline bars the lien. The statutory “NOTICE TO OWNER” tells the owner to ask for lien waivers and says “A form of lien waiver is attached to this notice,” so send the waiver form along with it. The county clerk's office has the form.

Common Wyoming mistakes

• Leaving the retainage and unpaid blanks empty. They're the only rights the form reserves.
• Signing against a check that hasn't cleared. The form can stay in force even if a payment in uncertified funds bounces.
• Skipping the acknowledgment. The notary block is part of the statutory form.
• Using another state's conditional form. Wyoming has one form, and it isn't conditional.
• Forgetting to attach the waiver to the preliminary notice. The statutory notice says one is attached.

Sending Wyoming waivers with SignMaster

SignMaster doesn't notarize documents, so the acknowledgment needs a notary of the claimant's choosing. SignMaster handles the rest:

1. 1

   Build the form from § 29-10-101(b)

   Type the note, the LIEN WAIVER text and the acknowledgment exactly, and upload it with New template, with a Lien claimant signing role.

2. 2

   Pre-fill the money

   Make TO, PROJECT, FROM, DATE and PAYMENT, the retainage amount and the unpaid amount into fields, and fill them in before sending so the figures match your books.

3. 3

   Let the claimant sign before a notary

   The claimant can choose Print and sign instead, sign before a notary, and upload the acknowledged pages, which are added to the signed PDF.

4. 4

   Keep it with the payment

   File the completed waiver with the cleared payment, and keep the preliminary notice it was attached to.