Can you tell a tenant they are giving up rights in a lease agreement?

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Can you tell a tenant they are giving up rights in a lease agreement?

I downloaded a month-to-month lease agreement that says at the end, “This is an important LEGAL document…you are giving up certain important rights.” It’s supposed to conform to state landlord-tenant law (that law states that a landlord can’t require a tenant to give up waive his/her legal rights). So is it even legal to have such a statement in a lease agreement?

Asked on February 14, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Washington

Answers:

FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

Since a residential tenancy is an arms length transaction between the landlord and the tenant, certain rights can be waived by the tenant and the landlord so long as the waiver is not in violation of a given state's laws as to a certain provision of the lease.

Many such agreements for a tenancy have such a waiver provision in order to put parties on notice that important rights may be waived. The issue is then whether those rights being waived can actually be waived due to a given state's laws.


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