A recent Superior Court decision should cause general contractors and owners to reevaluate their procedures for obtaining lien waivers.  Typically, signed lien waivers are submitted after the work is performed but before payment is received.  On a basic level, the procedure makes sense because the owner does not want to issue payment to its general contractor unless it is sure that it’s protected from potential mechanic’s liens.  While the general contractor and its subcontractors may argue that they should not have to provide lien waivers until they receive payment, they are generally protected if the owner does not actually issue the payment described in the lien waiver because standard lien waiver language makes it clear that the waiver is not effective unless the payment described therein is actually received.

In Milone & MacBroom, Inc. v. Winchester Estates, 2011 Conn. Super. LEXIS 2688, the Superior Court considered whether a lien waiver is valid when:

1. The lien waiver is issued after the work is performed:
2. The lien waiver is executed before payment is received; and
3. The payment described in the lien waiver is received three weeks after the lien waiver was signed.