---
kind: "section"
citation: "15 U.S.C. § 3609"
title: "15"
title_heading: "Commerce and Trade"
number: "3609"
heading: "Void lease or contract provisions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/15/3609"
units:
  - "Chapter 62 — Condominium and Cooperative Conversion Protection and Abuse Relief"
---

# §3609. Void lease or contract provisions


Any provision in any [lease](/usc/15/3603.md?p=16) or contract requiring unit owners or the owners’ association, in any [conversion project](/usc/15/3603.md?p=7) involving a contract meeting the requirements of [section 3607 of this title](/usc/15/3607.md) of in any project involving a [lease](/usc/15/3603.md?p=16) meeting the requirements of [section 3608 of this title](/usc/15/3608.md), to reimburse, regardless of outcome, the [developer](/usc/15/3603.md?p=14), his successor, or affiliate of the [developer](/usc/15/3603.md?p=14) for attorneys’ fees or money judgments, in a suit between unit owners or the owners’ association and the [developer](/usc/15/3603.md?p=14) arising under the [lease](/usc/15/3603.md?p=16) or [agreement](/usc/15/7a.md?p=2), is against public policy and void.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–399, title VI, § 610, Oct. 8, 1980, 94 Stat. 1678.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective Oct. 8, 1980, except that prohibition included in this section as it relates to a lease with respect to which a cause of action may be established under section 3608 of this title, shall be effective one year after Oct. 8, 1980, see section 618 of Pub. L. 96–399, set out as a note under section 3601 of this title.