Scholarship Spotlight: An Empirical Study of Unenforceable Contract Terms (Meirav Furth-Matzkin – Harvard)

While the enforceability of many contract terms discussed in this space can be a matter of good faith dispute, other terms are clearly beyond the pale of enforcement. What is the impact of potentially in terrorem use of invalid contract clauses on the general non-lawyer population? Meirav Furth-Mazkin (Harvard S.J.D. Program, John M. Olin Fellow) has conducted a fascinating empirical study on point entitled On the Surprising Use of Unenforceable Contract Terms: Evidence from the Residential Rental Market. Here is her abstract:

This paper explores the prevalence of unenforceable terms in consumer contracts. Taking the residential rental market in the Greater Boston Area as a test case, the study analyzes a sample of 70 leases in terms of Massachusetts Landlord and Tenant Law. The paper’s findings reveal that landlords frequently use legally dubious — as well as clearly invalid — provisions in their contracts. Building on psychological insights and on a survey-based study of 279 tenants, the paper suggests that such clauses may significantly affect tenants’ decisions and behavior. In particular, when a problem or a dispute with the landlord arises, tenants are likely to perceive the terms in the lease contract as enforceable and forgo valid legal rights and claims. In light of this evidence, the paper discusses preliminary policy prescriptions.

The article’s introduction further describes the study and its findings:

The study draws a distinction between clauses that are unenforceable and clauses that are enforceable but misleading. While not unenforceable per se, misleading clauses are nonetheless as likely to misinform tenants about their mandatory rights and remedies by misrepresenting the legal state of affairs. Additionally, the paper reports not only the inclusion of provisions that misrepresent the legal state of affairs, but also the exclusion of some of the tenant’s rights and remedies from the lease altogether.

The study’s findings demonstrate that residential leases not only frequently omit various rights and remedies that the law bestows upon tenants, but also include unenforceable clauses that conflict with the law and misleading clauses that misrepresent it. As shown below, 99% of the leases in the sample (69 out of 70) include at least one unenforceable or misleading clause. Such clauses shift responsibilities and liabilities from landlords to tenants, restrict or abolish tenants’ mandatory rights and remedies, and so on. When tenants’ rights and remedies are finally mentioned in these contracts, they are often inaccurately described to the detriment of tenants.

These findings may suggest that landlords are not sufficiently deterred from using unenforceable and misleading clauses in their leases. Such clauses might be included either intentionally—to exert profit— or by mistake, out of landlords’ ignorance of the law or their expectation that it will change. Even if landlords do not knowingly insert UMCs into their contracts, if the costs of including unenforceable terms are low, landlords may have little incentive to ensure that their contracts comply with the mandatory regulation governing them.

On the Surprising Use of Unenforceable Contract Terms: Evidence from the Residential Rental Market is available for download from SSRN here.