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In the official rules of Monopoly, can you offer immunity to other players in deals? Also, what about tournament play, which has different rules again?

For example, it was a common house rule from my childhood that where two players were making a deal, but one of the players was more at risk of landing on the other player's property in the next move or two, the owner of those properties would offer immunity for the next time around the board (or maybe even the next two or three times around the board). So this is a popular house rule, but is it allowed in the official Monopoly rules and in tournament play?

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    There's nothing anywhere to stop you making a deal: the question is whether it can be enforced when you do land on the property next. My own view is that it can't, except in the sense that anyone who does insist on the rent will find it difficult to make deals in future.
    – Tim Lymington
    Commented Dec 13, 2012 at 11:12
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    You cannot offer free rent to any player under any circumstance. I specifically remember reading this on a questions & answer listing on a cardboard insert of a Monopoly game.
    – Martin Charette
    Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 7:57
  • This was a matter of contention many Christmases... it's particularly wack if there are 5+ players and three players gang up on one person.
    – smci
    Commented Jul 1, 2017 at 4:29

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The official rules are here. I can see nothing in the rules that would explicitly prevent one player offering immunity to another player. You only have to pay rent if the owner of the property asks you for it:

The owner may not collect the rent if he/she fails to ask for it before the second player following throws the dice.

However, you could argue that offering immunity violates the spirit of the no lending rule:

No player may borrow from or lend money to another player.

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    Suppose Alice wants to offer immunity to Bob as part of a larger deal. Alice could informally "forget" to collect rent from Bob, and she could informally tell Bob that she tends to become rather forgetful when she is given the better end of a trade. But I see no provision in the rules to prevent Alice from changing her mind after the deal has been struck, since this immunity does not formally exist within the rules of the game.
    – Kevin
    Commented Sep 22, 2016 at 3:47
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Going by the official rules, you don't have a choice whether to collect rent or not:

When you land on property owned by another player, the owner collects rent from you...

This doesn't give the property owner any choice in the matter, they simply do collect rent.

However, you could offer immunity as follows:

  1. The player who lands on your property pays rent.
  2. You immediately pay them back the amount they just paid.

To do this, you'll have to be able to give money to another player. There is a rule forbidding loans between players:

No player may borrow from or lend money to another player.

but a gift is not the same as a loan. Another way to give money to another player is to sell them an unimproved property for $0, then buy it back for the amount you wish to give them. This is allowed by a different rule:

Unimproved properties, railroads and utilties (but not buildings) may be sold to any player as a private transaction for any amount...

All of this comes with a caveat: You can't do anything to force someone to grant you immunity, it's entirely up to them choosing to act in good faith.

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    Interestingly however I used to have a copy of an official monopoly PC game and they did offer immunity as part of the trading. Unfortunately it was quite an old one and I can't find a screenshot.
    – Ian
    Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 12:37
  • You cannot offer free rent to any player under any circumstance. I specifically remember reading this on a questions & answer listing on a cardboard insert of a Monopoly game.
    – Martin Charette
    Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 7:58
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    You only have to pay rent when the property-owner asks for it (before the next player rolls). So it would be perfectly consistent with the rules to mutually agree to not ask each other for rent. Or not only for specific properties, specific number of turns, or other condition.
    – smci
    Commented Jul 1, 2017 at 4:27
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"Immunities", whether lifetime or partial, are not permitted in the official rules.

"Official" tournament rules used to be available online that addressed this, but Hasbro has sent cease-and-desist letter to most sites hosting copies of the official Monopoly rules. Their current site's section for instruction manuals is less than helpful.

Unofficial but credible reference: http://mospaw.com/monopoly/some-obscure-monopoly-rules-explained/12/information

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    Do you have a reference you could point to that backs this up? It would make your answer much stronger.
    – ire_and_curses
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 15:14
  • There's no official reference, as the rules themselves are quite spartan. I'll add an unofficial (but credible) reference.
    – Hyppy
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 15:33
  • With respect to tournament rules, how about this: boardgamegeek.com/filepage/26289/… I'm not in a place where I can view this right now, but perhaps you can, and add it if it's relevant.
    – ire_and_curses
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 15:53
  • Seems like you can "offer" it regardless, but there is nothing that enforces you to provide it when the time comes, same as any trade conditions that occur in the future. So it is "caveat emptor". But maybe that is just me being a Diplomacy player.
    – bwarner
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 16:05
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    @bwarner: I don't think the game allows you to waive the other player's obligation to pay. But you could probably get around that by selling a property for $x and immediately buying it back for $x+$y, where $y is the amount the other player would need to pay (and $x is arbitrary). Your remark about enforcement is of course still true.
    – Erik P.
    Commented Jun 16, 2012 at 16:16

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