Tennessee Lien Release
The Lien You Are Releasing
Pull your stamped copy of the lien — everything on this page is on it. If the details here do not match the instrument on record, the release does not release it, and no one at the counter will catch that for you.
This instrument says the debt is paid.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-11-135 discharges the lien on satisfaction of the debt. Signing it while money is still owed puts a false statement on the public record and gives away the security you filed to protect. If you have been paid part of it, this is not the document you want — talk to a construction attorney about what is.
Where this gets filed: Register of Deeds. § 66-11-135(b) names the office only functionally — "the office where the notice of lien was recorded" — and sets the fee at the fee for recording a release or satisfaction of a mortgage. Register of deeds is our label for it, drawn from § 66-11-112. And § 66-11-135(c) makes the lien released only ON THE DAY THE RELEASE IS RECORDED — so mailing an executed release to the owner does not discharge anything.
Thirty days after SERVICE OF WRITTEN NOTICE demanding release — and the trigger set is wider than payment: § 66-11-135(a) reaches a lienor whose lien has been FORFEITED, EXPIRED, satisfied, or adjudged against the lienor in a proceeding on the lien. A lien whose enforcement window simply lapsed carries the same exposure as one that was paid. Failure makes you liable to the owner for all damages arising, and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees — uncapped, with fee-shifting, and no flat figure. Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-25-102 sits in a different chapter governing liens created by written instruments; its application here is unsettled.