N.Y. Real Property Law § 218

RPL § 218: a tenant cannot sign away good cause eviction protection

Real Property Law § 218 makes void any lease clause by which a tenant waives or modifies the rights set out in New York's good cause eviction article.

Official text N.Y. Real Property Law § 218 — New York

* § 218. Waiver of rights void. Any agreement by a tenant heretofore or hereinafter entered into in a written lease or other rental agreement waiving or modifying their rights as set forth in this article shall be void as contrary to public policy.

* NB Repealed June 15, 2034

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

Three lines, one job. Any agreement by a tenant, entered into in a written lease or other rental agreement, waiving or modifying the rights set out in this article is void as contrary to public policy. "This article" is the good cause eviction article of the Real Property Law - the one that requires good cause for removal and lists what counts as good cause. Section 218 makes those protections non-waivable, whenever the lease was signed, before or after the article took effect.

The reason a provision like this exists is that rights which can be signed away are, in practice, signed away. A protection that applies unless the lease says otherwise is worth very little when the landlord writes the lease and the tenant needs somewhere to live. Section 218 removes the clause from the negotiation entirely: the signature has no effect, so there is nothing to bargain over.

The section carries an asterisk in the published text and a note: repealed June 15, 2034. That is the sunset written into the whole good cause eviction article, not a drafting slip, and it applies to the protection as well as to the waiver rule.

When it applies

  • A lease rider stating that the tenant agrees the good cause eviction protections do not apply.
  • A renewal offered on condition that the tenant waives the right to require good cause for non-renewal.
  • A clause saying the tenant consents in advance to removal at the end of the term.
  • A lease term purporting to define the tenancy as exempt from the article by agreement.

What this section does not say

  • It does not make a unit covered. Whether the good cause article applies at all is decided by the coverage provisions of that article, not by § 218.
  • It does not void every lease clause. It voids waivers or modifications of the rights in this article; other terms stand or fall on their own.
  • It is not permanent. The published text carries a note that the section is repealed June 15, 2034.
  • It does not stop an eviction on its own. It removes a defense the landlord might otherwise have raised; the grounds themselves are in § 216.

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 renewal offer arrives with a paragraph stating that the tenant agrees the good cause eviction protections do not apply to their apartment. The tenant is told the renewal is available only on those terms.

How the wording applies

Any agreement by a tenant, in a written lease or other rental agreement, waiving or modifying the rights set out in the article is void as contrary to public policy, whenever the lease was signed. So a signature on that paragraph has no effect and there is nothing in it to bargain over. What it turns on is what the paragraph does: the section voids waivers of the article's rights and leaves other lease terms to stand or fall on their own.

How the parties settled it

They sign the renewal with the paragraph struck through, and the landlord confirms the deletion is not treated as a refusal to agree reasonable lease changes at renewal.

Illustrative example

A lease contains a term reciting that the parties agree the apartment is exempt from the good cause article. The tenant later learns the building may well be within it.

How the wording applies

The section voids waivers and modifications of the article's rights, but it does not decide coverage - whether a unit is within the article is settled by the coverage provisions, and two people cannot dispose of it by reciting an answer. So it turns on the building's actual characteristics rather than on the recital either of them signed.

How the parties settled it

They replace the recital with a plain statement of the building's unit count and the owner's other holdings, which either establishes the exemption honestly or shows that it does not exist.

Illustrative example

A landlord asks a new tenant to sign a side letter consenting in advance to giving up possession at the end of the term, with no reason required from anyone.

How the wording applies

A term by which a tenant consents in advance to removal is a waiver of the rights the article confers, and the section makes such an agreement void whether it sits in the lease or in another rental agreement. What it does not do is prevent an eviction by itself - the grounds are in § 216, and § 218 only removes a defense the landlord might otherwise have raised.

How the parties settled it

The side letter is dropped and they agree instead that both will raise renewal terms ninety days before the term ends, so the landlord gets early warning rather than a waiver.

Related sections

N.Y. Real Property Law § 215 RPL § 215: no removal without good cause N.Y. Real Property Law § 216 Good cause eviction grounds: N.Y. Real Property Law § 216 N.Y. Real Property Law § 226-c Five percent rent notice: N.Y. Real Property Law § 226-c N.Y. Real Property Law § 235-c Refuse unfair lease clause: N.Y. Real Property Law § 235-c

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We copy this text from the official publisher and re-check it against that source on every page load, but we cannot guarantee it is complete, current or free of error, and we accept no liability for any reliance on it. An amendment can take effect before a consolidation catches up. The publisher's own copy is linked below; where the two differ, it is the official one that counts.

This page reproduces the text of N.Y. Real Property Law § 218 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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