North Dakota: Mechanic's Lien Waiver Form and Advance-Waiver Rules
The short answer
North Dakota has no statute voiding an advance lien waiver and prescribes no statutory waiver form. Its construction-lien chapter simply says that if the owner has received a valid waiver of lien signed by the person who improved the property, no lien is allowed. There are no conditional, unconditional, progress, or final forms, and no statutory payment condition. A related rule protects a claimant who takes a note or other security: accepting collateral does not give up the lien unless the parties expressly agree the security is taken in place of it.
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This is the general rule in North Dakota. Ezel applies current North Dakota law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and project scope | North Dakota Century Code ch. 35-27 (Construction Lien). Liens on real-estate improvements for contractors, subcontractors, materialmen, and laborers. Well and pipeline liens fall under ch. 35-24 and are excluded from this chapter (§ 35-27-02(5)). No separate residential track and no statutory waiver form. |
|---|---|
| Advance or prospective waiver | Permitted; no statute voids an advance or no-lien waiver. 'If the owner, trustee, or agent of the owner has received a valid waiver of lien, signed by the person that improves the real estate, a lien is not allowed' (§ 35-27-02(3)). The chapter sets no limit to past-only work and no clause shielding a subcontractor from an owner-contractor waiver. |
| Statutory form requirement | None. Section 35-27-02(3) requires only a 'valid waiver of lien, signed by the person that improves the real estate.' There are no conditional/unconditional or progress/final forms and no prescribed warning or fields. |
| Waiver types and payment stage | No statutory conditional/unconditional or progress/final versions; the chapter recognizes one signed 'waiver of lien' (§ 35-27-02(3)). Whether a waiver is partial, through a certain date, or amount-limited is left entirely to its own wording. |
| Payment and effectiveness | A signed waiver bars the lien with no statutory payment, cleared-check, or consideration condition (§ 35-27-02(3)). Payment operates separately as a lien limit: the lien is capped at the difference between the price the owner paid and the value furnished, and 'if the owner … has paid the full price or value of the contribution, no lien is allowed' (§ 35-27-02(2)). |
| Required contents, exceptions, and through date | No statutory required fields, exceptions, or through-date. A waiver reserves only what its own terms reserve; the chapter supplies no default carve-out for retainage, extras, or later work. |
| Rights released and reserved | A signed waiver releases the ch. 35-27 construction lien (§ 35-27-02(3)). Taking a note or other security for the debt 'in no way impairs the right to the lien unless the security, by express agreement, is given and received in lieu of the lien' (§ 35-27-20). The chapter does not address payment-bond or stop-notice rights. |
| Signature, authority, notary, and format | The waiver must be 'signed by the person that improves the real estate' (§ 35-27-02(3)). No notarization, acknowledgment, warning, type-size, or authorized-agent rule is prescribed. |
| Noncompliance, remedies, and transition traps | A 'valid' signed waiver bars the lien; the statute sets no form to fall short of and no penalty for a nonconforming waiver. Accepting security without an express 'in lieu of the lien' agreement does not waive the lien (§ 35-27-20). Chapter 35-27 was last amended by 2023 HB 1323 and SB 2311; the Legislative Assembly meets biennially and no 2025 amendment followed. |
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What North Dakota's waiver rule actually is
North Dakota's construction-lien chapter, Century Code chapter 35-27, resolves
the waiver question in a single clause. Section 35-27-02(3) says that "if the
owner, trustee, or agent of the owner has received a valid waiver of lien, signed
by the person that improves the real estate, a lien is not allowed." A signed
waiver works, and once the owner holds it, the person who signed cannot lien the
property.
That is the whole statutory form regime: a valid signed waiver of lien. The
chapter does not divide waivers into conditional and unconditional versions or
into progress and final versions, does not print a form, and does not require a
warning, notarization, or any particular fields. It also does not void an advance
or "no-lien" waiver, and it does not contain a clause protecting a subcontractor
from a waiver in the prime contract. What a North Dakota waiver covers is set by
the document a claimant actually signs, not by a statutory template.
Because there is no statutory payment condition, a waiver is effective on its own
terms whether or not the claimant has been paid. A claimant who signs a broad
waiver in exchange for a check has no statutory fallback if the check does not
clear; any payment condition has to be written into the waiver itself.
What trips people up
Payment does two different jobs here, and only one of them is a waiver. Even
without any signed waiver, § 35-27-02(2) caps the lien at "the difference between
the price paid by the owner … and the price or value of the contribution," and if
the owner "has paid the full price or value of the contribution, no lien is
allowed." So an owner who has fully paid for the work can defeat a lien on payment
grounds alone, separate from any waiver document.
Taking a note or other security is not the same as waiving. Section 35-27-20 says
that taking collateral or other security for the debt "in no way impairs the
right to the lien unless the security, by express agreement, is given and received
in lieu of the lien." A claimant who accepts a promissory note keeps the lien
unless the parties expressly agreed the note was taken in place of it — but an
express "in lieu of the lien" agreement will surrender it.
A blank or careless waiver still binds. Because the statute supplies no default
exceptions for retainage, extras, or later work, nothing is reserved unless the
signed waiver reserves it in its own words.
Common questions
Does a North Dakota lien waiver have to use a statutory form or be notarized?
No. Section 35-27-02(3) requires only a valid waiver of lien signed by the person
who improved the property; there is no statutory form, warning, or notarization
requirement.
Can a contract waive lien rights before the work is done?
Nothing in chapter 35-27 voids an advance or no-lien waiver. A valid signed
waiver bars the lien, and the chapter sets no rule limiting a waiver to work
already performed.
If a contractor accepts a promissory note, has it given up the lien?
Not automatically. Under § 35-27-20 the lien survives unless the parties expressly
agreed the note or other security was given and received in lieu of the lien.
Statutes and sources
- N.D.C.C. § 35-27-02 (persons entitled to a construction lien; payment limit at
subsection 2 and signed-waiver rule at subsection 3) —
https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t35c27.pdf (accessed 2026-07-23) - N.D.C.C. § 35-27-20 (collateral security does not impair the lien unless given
in lieu of it) — https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t35c27.pdf (accessed 2026-07-23)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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