---
type: "Bill"
title: "Prohibits commercial leases from including a waiver of the right to a declaratory judgment action"
description: "Prohibits commercial leases from including a waiver of the right to a declaratory judgment action and states that the inclusion of such a waiver in a commercial lease shall be null and void as against public policy."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ny"
legislature: "New York Legislature"
session: "2019-2020"
identifier: "A 2554"
citation: "New York A 2554 (2019-2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["OTIS"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 12
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-01-23"
last_action: "2019-12-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/24c34d0c-7ab8-471f-91d7-7f4a5825aac3"
source_url: "http://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/A2554"
source_hash: "fdad70f0dcdef476f7c539de337b1f367343c02d0a574eacec2ffa842e6128d9"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ny"]
---

# New York A 2554 (2019-2020) — Prohibits commercial leases from including a waiver of the right to a declaratory judgment action

Prohibits commercial leases from including a waiver of the right to a declaratory judgment action and states that the inclusion of such a waiver in a commercial lease shall be null and void as against public policy.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **A2554** (committee substitute) — [source](http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?sh=printbill&bn=A2554&term=2019&Text=Y)

## Votes

- Assembly Vote — **101–45** (pass) · lower
- Floor Vote — **40–22** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- OTIS — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-01-23** REFERRED TO JUDICIARY `referral-committee`
- **2019-05-07** REPORTED
- **2019-05-09** ADVANCED TO THIRD READING CAL.284
- **2019-06-04** PASSED ASSEMBLY `passage`
- **2019-06-04** DELIVERED TO SENATE
- **2019-06-04** REFERRED TO RULES `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-13** SUBSTITUTED FOR S5614
- **2019-06-13** 3RD READING CAL.1346
- **2019-06-13** PASSED SENATE `passage`
- **2019-06-13** RETURNED TO ASSEMBLY
- **2019-12-10** DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR `executive-receipt`
- **2019-12-20** SIGNED CHAP.689 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/24c34d0c-7ab8-471f-91d7-7f4a5825aac3`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official New York legislature records).