N.Y. General Obligations Law § 5-903

Renewal Notice Rule: N.Y. General Obligations Law § 5-903

Under N.Y. General Obligations Law § 5-903, automatic renewal clauses are unenforceable unless written notice is given fifteen to thirty days beforehand.

Official text N.Y. General Obligations Law § 5-903 — New York

§ 5-903. Automatic renewal provision of contract for service, maintenance or repair unenforceable by contractor unless notice thereof given to recipient of services. 1. As used in this section, "person" means an individual, firm, company, partnership or corporation.

  • 2. No provision of a contract for service, maintenance or repair to or for any real or personal property which states that the term of the contract shall be deemed renewed for a specified additional period unless the person receiving the service, maintenance or repair gives notice to the person furnishing such contract service, maintenance or repair of his intention to terminate the contract at the expiration of such term, shall be enforceable against the person receiving the service, maintenance or repair, unless the person furnishing the service, maintenance or repair, at least fifteen days and not more than thirty days previous to the time specified for serving such notice upon him, shall give to the person receiving the service, maintenance or repair written notice, served personally or by certified mail, calling the attention of that person to the existence of such provision in the contract.
  • 3. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to apply to a contract in which the automatic renewal period specified is one month or less.

Text as published in the 2026 snapshot of the code.

Source: Vaquill Open US Law, compiled from official state publishers (huggingface.co), reproduced under license CC BY 4.0.

Read this provision at the official source →

What it actually says

The rule is a notice requirement backed by unenforceability. A provision in a contract for service, maintenance or repair to or for any real or personal property stating that the term renews for a further period unless the recipient gives notice of intention to terminate is not enforceable against that recipient - unless the person furnishing the service gives written notice, served personally or by certified mail, calling the recipient's attention to the existence of that provision in the contract.

The timing is a window, not a deadline: at least fifteen days and not more than thirty days before the date by which the recipient has to serve the cancellation notice. Sending the reminder too early is as ineffective as sending it too late. And the method is prescribed - personal service or certified mail. An email or a line on an invoice is not what the section describes.

Subdivision 1 defines "person" to include individuals, firms, companies, partnerships and corporations, so the protection is not limited to consumers. Subdivision 3 carves out contracts whose automatic renewal period is one month or less. The section is limited by its subject matter to service, maintenance or repair of real or personal property: alarm monitoring, equipment servicing, landscaping, cleaning, pest control and the like. A contract that supplies something other than service, maintenance or repair to property is outside the words, whatever its renewal terms.

When it applies

  • An alarm monitoring contract renews for another year and the provider sent no reminder.
  • A maintenance agreement for equipment rolls over and the customer is billed for a full new term.
  • A landscaping or cleaning contract renews automatically and cancellation is refused.
  • A provider points to a renewal notice sent two months in advance.
  • A business is told its service agreement cannot be cancelled because the window has passed.

What this section does not say

  • It does not reach every subscription. The contract must be for service, maintenance or repair to or for real or personal property.
  • It does not apply where the automatic renewal period is one month or less.
  • It does not accept any form of reminder. The notice must be written and served personally or by certified mail, in the fifteen-to-thirty-day window.
  • It does not cancel the contract for the recipient. It makes the renewal provision unenforceable against them.
  • It does not deal with automatic renewal disclosure at the point of sale, which is a separate area of consumer law.

Worked examples

Invented situations, written to show how the wording bites. They are not real cases, not judgments and not precedent, and nothing here predicts what would happen in yours.

Illustrative example

A householder's alarm monitoring agreement rolls into another twelve months. The company sent nothing at all before the cancellation date and now refuses to release them from the new term.

How the wording applies

An automatic renewal provision in a contract for service, maintenance or repair to or for property is not enforceable against the recipient unless the provider gave written notice, served personally or by certified mail, calling the recipient's attention to that provision. It turns on the notice and nothing else: no notice of the prescribed kind, no enforceable renewal.

How the parties settled it

They agree the contract ends on the original date, the customer pays only for the months actually monitored, and the equipment is either bought out at an agreed figure or collected.

Illustrative example

A provider points to a renewal reminder it posted two months ahead of the cancellation deadline and says it did everything the law asks of it.

How the wording applies

The timing is a window rather than a deadline: the notice must be given at least fifteen days and not more than thirty days before the date by which the recipient has to serve a cancellation notice. Too early fails the section exactly as too late does, so the date on the letter is what decides this.

How the parties settled it

The provider treats the renewal as cancelled and moves the customer onto a rolling monthly arrangement, which takes the reminder question away from both of them next year.

Illustrative example

A company assumes the renewal protection is a consumer rule and does not apply to it. It also wonders whether the software subscription bundled into the same agreement as its equipment servicing is covered.

How the wording applies

Subdivision 1 defines "person" to include firms, companies, partnerships and corporations, so being a business changes nothing. What does decide coverage is subject matter: the section reaches service, maintenance or repair to or for real or personal property, and anything else in the bundle falls outside its words however it renews.

How the parties settled it

They split the bundle into two agreements, one for the equipment servicing and one for the software, each with its own end date and a plain cancellation clause, so nobody argues about which rules apply to which.

How courts have read it

Decisions construing this provision. The question and the summary are ours; the quoted sentence is the court's own words, taken from the published opinion. These are the decisions in our corpus, not every decision there is, and nothing here predicts any other case. Reported 2003 to 2017.

Healthcare I.Q., LLC v. Tsai Chung Chao, 118 A.D.3d 98 (2014)

Appellate Division

What the court had to decide

Whether the agreement between Healthcare I.Q. and Dr. Chao is a contract for service to or for personal property under General Obligations Law § 5-903, rendering its automatic renewal provision unenforceable absent proper notice.

What it held

The court held that the agreement was a contract for service to or for personal property within the meaning of General Obligations Law § 5-903, and because the automatic renewal clause was not timely brought to Dr. Chao's attention, the agreement did not automatically renew.

In the court's words
We find that the parties’ agreement was “for service . . . to or for . . . personal property” within the meaning of the General Obligations Law.

Wornow v. Register.Com, Inc., 8 A.D.3d 59 (2004)

Appellate Division

What the court had to decide

Whether General Obligations Law § 5-903 applies to automatic renewal provisions in contracts for domain name registration, where the domain name is not personal property.

What it held

The court held that General Obligations Law § 5-903 is inapplicable because a domain name is not personal property but a contract right, so the automatic renewal provision was not subject to the statute's notice requirements.

In the court's words
Accordingly, General Obligations Law § 5-903, which makes automatic renewal provisions unenforceable except upon conditions admittedly not met here, is inapplicable

Source: Caselaw Access Project, CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication).

Related sections

N.Y. General Obligations Law § 5-701 NY Statute of Frauds: N.Y. General Obligations Law § 5-701 N.Y. General Obligations Law § 15-301 Written change requires signed writing: N.Y. GOL § 15-301

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This page reproduces the text of N.Y. General Obligations Law § 5-903 in force at the date shown and explains it in general terms. It is not legal advice and takes no account of the circumstances of your case, which can change the answer completely. For a live dispute, for limitation periods, and before taking any step in court, consult a qualified lawyer in New York.

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