District of Columbia Code
Part II - Formation and Construction of Lease Contract
§ 28:2A–208. Modification, rescission, and waiver

(a) An agreement modifying a lease contract needs no consideration to be binding.
(b) A signed lease agreement that excludes modification or rescission except by a signed writing may not be otherwise modified or rescinded, but, except as between merchants, such a requirement on a form supplied by a merchant must be separately signed by the other party.
(c) Although an attempt at modification or rescission does not satisfy the requirements of subsection (b) of this section, it may operate as a waiver.
(d) A party who has made a waiver affecting an executory portion of a lease contract may retract the waiver by reasonable notification received by the other party that strict performance will be required of any term waived, unless the retraction would be unjust in view of a material change of position in reliance on the waiver.
(July 22, 1992, D.C. Law 9-128, § 2(b), 39 DCR 3830.)
1981 Ed., § 28:2A-208.
Uniform Statutory Source:Section 2-209.
Changes: Revised to reflect leasing practices and terminology, except that the provisions of sub section 2-209(3) were omitted.
Purposes:Section 2-209(3) provides that “the requirements of the statute of frauds section of this Article ( Section 2-201) must be satisfied if the contract as modified is within its provisions.“ This provision was not incorporated as it is unfair to allow an oral modification to make the entire lease contract unenforceable, e.g., if the modification takes it a few dollars over the dollar limit. At the same time, the problem could not be solved by providing that the lease contract would still be enforceable in its pre-modification state (if it then satisfied the statute of frauds) since in some cases that might be worse than no enforcement at all. Resolution of the issue is left to the courts based on the facts of each case.
Cross References:Sections 2-201 and 2-209.
Definitional Cross References: “Agreement”. Section 1-201(3).
“Between merchants”. Section 2-104(3).
“Lease agreement”. Section 2A-103(1)(k).
“Lease contract”. Section 2A-103(1)(l).
“Merchant”. Section 2-104(1).
“Notification”. Section 1-201(26).
“Party”. Section 1-201(29).
“Signed”. Section 1-201(39).
“Term”. Section 1-201(42).
“Writing”. Section 1-201(46).