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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. –  TimLymington Dec 13 '12 at 11:12

5 Answers 5

up vote 9 down vote accepted

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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When you downvote a post, it's courteous to leave a comment explaining how the post could be improved. –  Joe Jul 19 '12 at 18:00
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 Oct 24 at 12:37

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:


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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"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 Jun 15 '12 at 15:14
There's no official reference, as the rules themselves are quite spartan. I'll add an unofficial (but credible) reference. –  Hyppy Jun 15 '12 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 Jun 15 '12 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 Jun 15 '12 at 16:05
@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. Jun 16 '12 at 16:16

Official rules state that 2 players can not share ownership of properties.

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Gifts are not permitted between two players.

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this doesn't really answer the question. An explanation of why the proposal would be considered a gift or other expansion and explanation may resolve the problem –  Patters Nov 4 '13 at 14:01
there is no rule preventing gifts –  warren Oct 1 at 19:49

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