Mississippi: Mechanic's Lien Waiver Form and Advance-Waiver Rules
The short answer
Mississippi makes any lien or bond-claim waiver signed before labor, services, or materials are furnished null, void, and unenforceable. Its Construction Lien Law uses two notarized statutory forms—interim and final, both 'upon payment'—rather than separate conditional and unconditional forms. A waiver can convert after 60 days to conclusive payment unless the claimant timely files the statutory nonpayment protection, and the required face warning may not be omitted.
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This is the general rule in Mississippi. Ezel applies current Mississippi law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and project scope | Miss. Code §§ 85-7-401 to -433, Construction Lien Law (Title 85, ch. 7, art. 21), effective Apr. 11, 2014. Waiver rules are §§ 85-7-407(3), -413, -419, and forms in -433; § 85-7-407 does not apply to single-family residential construction. |
|---|---|
| Advance or prospective waiver | Null, void, and unenforceable if made before furnishing labor, services, or materials, for either the construction lien or bond claim (§ 85-7-419(1)). Advance lien subordination remains enforceable (§ 85-7-419(4)(a)). |
| Statutory form requirement | Mandatory substantial-following regime. Interim waivers must substantially follow § 85-7-433(1); final waivers must substantially follow § 85-7-433(2). Incorrect blanks do not invalidate a form if its subject matter remains reasonably determinable (§ 85-7-419(2)-(3)). |
| Waiver types and payment stage | Two forms, not four: Interim Waiver and Release Upon Payment for payment other than final, and Waiver and Release Upon Final Payment for final payment. Both can remain payment-dependent, then convert under the 60-day rule (§§ 85-7-419, 85-7-433(1)-(2)). |
| Payment and effectiveness | Binding subject to full payment of the stated amount. Payment is conclusively deemed at the earliest of actual receipt, a separate written acknowledgment, or 60 days after execution unless timely nonpayment protection is filed. A filed affidavit suspends the waiver until full payment, subject to § 85-7-413 owner/lender reliance (§ 85-7-419(5)). |
| Required contents, exceptions, and through date | Both forms state county, contractor, labor/material description, project, city/county, owner, property description, payment sum, signature/name/title, notary, and the 60-day warning. Interim adds a through date and preserves retained amounts; final has no statutory retainage or disputed-claim exception (§ 85-7-433(1)-(2)). |
| Rights released and reserved | Both forms release all liens/claims of lien on the described property and labor/material bond rights. Interim reaches through the stated date and excepts retained amounts; final reaches all covered labor/materials. A timely affidavit suspends waiver rights, but § 85-7-413 reliance can still dissolve the lien (§§ 85-7-413, 85-7-419, 85-7-433). |
| Signature, authority, notary, and format | Claimant signs; form has printed-name and title fields and must be sworn and subscribed before a notary. The statutory 60-day notice must appear on the face; omitting it makes the waiver unenforceable and invalid. No electronic-form or attachment rule is stated (§ 85-7-433(1)-(3)). |
| Noncompliance, remedies, and transition traps | Advance waiver is void; omitted face notice invalidates the waiver; incomplete blanks may survive if subject matter is determinable. Outside single-family construction, an upstream party paid pursuant to a waiver who willfully withholds the stated claimant amount without good cause owes 3× that amount (§ 85-7-407(3)-(4)); false contractor payment statements can cause 3× actual damages (§ 85-7-413). |
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Requirements one by one
Advance waivers are void
Mississippi's Construction Lien Law rejects a waiver made before the claimant
furnishes labor, services, or materials. The prohibition covers both the lien
and a bond claim and calls the premature document null, void, and unenforceable
(§ 85-7-419(1)-(5)).
The statute preserves three separate transactions: advance subordination to
another property interest, settlement of a bona fide dispute over work already
furnished, and cancellation or release of a lien already recorded.
Mississippi uses two statutory forms
An interim waiver for payment other than final must substantially follow the
form in § 85-7-433(1)-(2), as must the final-payment waiver. The two forms do not
use the usual conditional-versus-unconditional labels. Each says "upon receipt"
of the stated sum, then operates through Mississippi's payment and 60-day
conversion rules.
Incorrectly completed blanks do not automatically invalidate the document if
the subject matter of the release can still be determined. But the statutory
face warning is different: omitting it makes the waiver unenforceable and
invalid.
The 60-day clock can convert an unpaid waiver
Under § 85-7-419(1)-(5), the stated amount is conclusively deemed paid at the
earliest of actual receipt, a separate written acknowledgment of full payment,
or 60 days after the waiver is executed. The statutory warning tells an unpaid
claimant to file an affidavit of nonpayment or a claim of lien before that
60-day period ends.
The affidavit uses § 85-7-433's notarized form, is filed in the property's
county, and must be sent to the owner. Filing suspends the waiver until full
payment, but the statute expressly preserves the owner, purchaser, or lender
reliance rules in § 85-7-413(1)-(2).
Interim and final forms release different scopes
The interim form identifies the contractor, labor or materials, project,
owner, property, amount, and a through date. It releases lien and labor/material
bond rights through that date but expressly preserves retained amounts.
The final form releases all liens or claims of lien on the described property
and labor/material bond rights for the furnished labor or materials. Unlike the
interim form, it does not include a statutory retainage or disputed-claim
exception. Both forms require signature, printed name and title, and a notarial
jurat.
What trips people up
A timely affidavit of nonpayment is not absolute protection against every
third-party reliance defense. Section 85-7-413 can dissolve the lien when an
owner, purchaser, or lender released funds in reliance on the statutory waiver,
and it gives an owner a defense to the extent of qualifying good-faith payment.
The commercial remedy in § 85-7-407(3)-(4) runs in the other direction. If a
design professional, contractor, or subcontractor receives payment pursuant to
a waiver and then, without good cause, willfully refuses to pay the claimant the
amount shown, the claimant may recover three times that stated amount. Section
85-7-407 expressly excludes single-family residential construction.
Common questions
Does Mississippi use four conditional and unconditional forms?
No. It uses one interim and one final "upon payment" waiver, plus a separate
affidavit of nonpayment.
Can a blank mistake invalidate the waiver?
Not automatically. Sections 85-7-419(2)-(3) preserve a substantially compliant
form if the release's subject matter remains reasonably determinable. Omitting
the mandatory face warning does invalidate it.
Must the waiver be notarized?
Yes. Both statutory waiver forms include a sworn-and-subscribed jurat before a
notary public.
Statutes and sources
- Miss. Code Ann. § 85-7-419, advance-waiver ban, form rules, payment, 60-day
conversion, and nonpayment affidavit —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ms/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.85.html#t85c07s85-7-419
(accessed 2026-07-23) - Miss. Code Ann. § 85-7-433, interim, final, and affidavit statutory forms —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ms/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.85.html#t85c07s85-7-433
(accessed 2026-07-23) - Miss. Code Ann. § 85-7-407(3)-(4), triple-damages nonpayment remedy and
single-family exclusion —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ms/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.85.html#t85c07s85-7-407
(accessed 2026-07-23) - Miss. Code Ann. § 85-7-413, owner/purchaser/lender reliance and defenses —
https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ms/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.85.html#t85c07s85-7-413
(accessed 2026-07-23)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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