The lien waiver process needs to be managed.
Over the past 10 years lien waivers have changed. What was once a half page, English language simple fill-in-the-blank form has morphed into a full-fledged legal document often requiring contract administration to figure out what the form means and what's actually being waived to receive payment. Another problem, how do you track what's actually been waived per project and finally to complicate matters further these prime contractor home grown forms can be misleading and demand concessions never designed to be part of a waiver process. This problem is beginning to be addressed, recent statute changes in states like Texas and California have added statutory language requiring specific lien waiver forms designed to protect suppliers and laborers.
A lien waiver is an agreement that the creditor will not impose a lien on the owner's property in order to obtain payments. The creditor basically relinquishes or forfeits their right to impose a lien through the waiver. When signed the creditor would thus be limited to obtaining payments through the debtor's credit, bank accounts, or other properties.
A mechanic's lien waiver is used as proof a supplier/contractor was paid for the labor, material and services provided on a project. Suppliers/contractors sign a mechanic's lien waiver as the job progresses and payments are made. These lien waivers are typically partial, final, conditional, and unconditional. Conditional waivers state the supplier/contractor waives its rights to file a mechanic's lien upon receipt of payment for work performed up to a stated date, the waiver and may be partial or final. An unconditional mechanic's lien waiver states the supplier/contractor has in fact been paid in full for the stated work and is typically final.
As mentioned over the past couple years and most recently with states like Georgia, California (2013) and Texas (2012), lien waivers have become statutory forms with specific required verbiage extracted from the state's mechanic's lien statue; forms you must be able to produce. To solve this problem and to assist with the management of lien waivers beginning this spring NACM through its Mechanic's Lien & Bond Services will add the MLBS Lien Wavier Manager to its on-line portal. From the waiver manager you'll be able to create, print and mange all these state specific statutory Lien Waivers, merging project data from the MLBS System, on a national basis.
Finally there's a system created by the leading association for Credit Managers, NACM for suppliers and subs. The MLBS Lien Wavier Manager will produce and/or manage, if using waivers provided by your customer or a prime, lien waivers for all 50 states. Users will be able to load project information in the MLBS System than merge, print, or reprint statutorily compliant partial, final, conditional, and unconditional waivers.
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During the month of May, the Waiver Manger is available to all MLBS Clients. Find links in the "Find Projects" screen in Service Request.
What our clients are saying:
- Having an online systems that details what dollar amounts and/or progress bills have been waived is critical to our success when placing and fielding collection calls.
- Having detailed accounting of what has been waived on job accounts makes the month end process run that much smoother.
The MLBS Lien Wavier Manager retails as an annual subscription based service for $350 per year to include unlimited users and unlimited projects or added to a MLBS Lien Navigator annual subscription for $650, a $100 discount off the Waiver Manager when you purchase both and the package includes unlimited users and unlimited projects.
Contact Us
Please consider the MLBS Lien Wavier Manager, if you'd like to be first in line with the new functionality and receive an additional $50 off your first year and add the Waiver Manager by May 15th, please email Greg Powelson, Director of NACM's Secured Transaction Services at gregp@nacm.org.
Current Lien Navigator subscriptions will be prorated to the new subscription period, allowing for one renewal date.
We'd like to be your solution to managing the entire lien and bond process.
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