diff --git oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/ClusterNodeInfo.java oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/ClusterNodeInfo.java
index b3bacec..e99dc61 100644
--- oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/ClusterNodeInfo.java
+++ oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/ClusterNodeInfo.java
@@ -202,6 +202,9 @@ public class ClusterNodeInfo {
      */
     public static final int DEFAULT_LEASE_FAILURE_MARGIN_MILLIS = 1000 * 20;
 
+    public static final boolean DEFAULT_LEASE_CHECK_DISABLED =
+            Boolean.valueOf(System.getProperty("oak.documentMK.disableLeaseCheck", "false"));
+
     /** OAK-3399 : max number of times we're doing a 1sec retry loop just before declaring lease failure **/
     private static final int MAX_RETRY_SLEEPS_BEFORE_LEASE_FAILURE = 5;
 
@@ -350,7 +353,7 @@ public class ClusterNodeInfo {
         this.state = state;
         this.revRecoveryLock = revRecoveryLock;
         this.newEntry = newEntry;
-        this.leaseCheckDisabled = Boolean.valueOf(System.getProperty("oak.documentMK.disableLeaseCheck", "false"));
+        this.leaseCheckDisabled = DEFAULT_LEASE_CHECK_DISABLED;
     }
 
     public void setLeaseCheckDisabled(boolean leaseCheckDisabled) {
diff --git oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/DocumentNodeStoreService.java oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/DocumentNodeStoreService.java
index a55874b..98c09e1 100644
--- oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/DocumentNodeStoreService.java
+++ oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/DocumentNodeStoreService.java
@@ -456,7 +456,7 @@ public class DocumentNodeStoreService {
                 setCacheSegmentCount(cacheSegmentCount).
                 setCacheStackMoveDistance(cacheStackMoveDistance).
                 setBundlingDisabled(bundlingDisabled).
-                setLeaseCheck(true /* OAK-2739: enabled by default */).
+                setLeaseCheck(ClusterNodeInfo.DEFAULT_LEASE_CHECK_DISABLED /* OAK-2739: enabled by default */).
                 setLeaseFailureHandler(new LeaseFailureHandler() {
                     
                     @Override