Running the Business · Part 3
Template: the four statutory lien waiver and release forms (Civil Code 8132 to 8138), verbatim
The only four forms California allows for waiving lien, stop payment notice, and payment bond rights, exactly as the Civil Code sets them out, with the rule for which one to use when: conditional with the invoice, unconditional when the check has cleared; progress during the job, final at the end. Never sign an unconditional release before the money is in your account; the form itself warns you in the largest type on the page.
What the full lesson covers
- Conditional on Progress Payment (8132): with each progress invoice, before payment; effective only when the named check clears.
- Unconditional on Progress Payment (8134): after the progress payment has cleared; this is the release you owe a residential customer under B&P 7159.5(a)(6).
- Conditional on Final Payment (8136): with the final invoice; Unconditional on Final Payment (8138): after the final payment has cleared.
- Fill the exceptions: retentions, unpaid extras, prior conditional releases not yet paid, and disputed extras in a stated dollar amount. A blank exception line waives the item.
- The forms are statutory; do not edit the text. Any other form is void.
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More lessons in Contracts and Getting Paid
- 1The home improvement contract (B&P 7159): every required element, the exact notices, and the three-day right to cancel
- 2The deposit cap: $1,000 or 10 percent, whichever is less, and progress payments that cannot exceed the work. CSLB's most common citation
- 3Service and repair contracts (B&P 7159.10): when the short form applies, what it must say, and how a service call falls out of it
- 4Subcontracts with GCs: the twelve clauses to read, what to strike, and what to negotiate
- 5Change orders: written, signed, before the work. Every time. Why verbal ones end in CSLB complaints
- 6Mechanics liens I: the 20-day preliminary notice. Miss it, lose your rights
- 7Mechanics liens II: recording deadlines, the 90-day foreclosure clock, the four statutory release forms, stop payment notices, and payment bonds on public work
- 8Collections: demand letter, lien, small claims, attorney. When each is worth it, and the one thing that makes all of them impossible
- 9Taking payment: cards, ACH, checks, cash, financing partners, and getting every dollar into the right account
- 10Case: the job that went unpaid. Where the contractor lost lien rights and how to have kept them
- 11Case: the deposit that became a citation
- 12Case: the change order that was never written
- 13Template: the home improvement contract, with every B&P 7159 notice verbatim
- 14Template: the service and repair contract (B&P 7159.10), one page, with the notices verbatim
- 15Template: the change order, one page, signed before the work
- 16Template: the 20-day preliminary notice, with the proof-of-notice declaration
- 17Template: the four statutory lien waiver and release forms (Civil Code 8132 to 8138), verbatimYou are here
- 18Template: the demand letter, homeowner version and general contractor version
- 19Template: the subcontract review checklist. Twelve clauses, three boxes each