diff --git a/docs/ENVIRONMENT.rst b/docs/ENVIRONMENT.rst
index 427afd44..81203957 100644
--- a/docs/ENVIRONMENT.rst
+++ b/docs/ENVIRONMENT.rst
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ Consul
 -  **PATRONI\_CONSUL\_KEY**: (optional) File with the client key. Can be empty if the key is part of certificate.
 -  **PATRONI\_CONSUL\_DC**: (optional) Datacenter to communicate with. By default the datacenter of the host is used.
 -  **PATRONI\_CONSUL\_CONSISTENCY**: (optional) Select consul consistency mode. Possible values are ``default``, ``consistent``, or ``stale`` (more details in `consul API reference <https://www.consul.io/api/features/consistency.html/>`__)
--  **PATRONI\_CONSUL\_CHECKS**: (optional) list of Consul health checks used for the session. If not specified Consul will use "serfHealth" in additional to the TTL based check created by Patroni. Additional checks, in particular the "serfHealth", may cause the leader lock to expire faster than in `ttl` seconds when the leader instance becomes unavailable.
+-  **PATRONI\_CONSUL\_CHECKS**: (optional) list of Consul health checks used for the session. By default an empty list is used.
 -  **PATRONI\_CONSUL\_REGISTER\_SERVICE**: (optional) whether or not to register a service with the name defined by the scope parameter and the tag master, replica or standby-leader depending on the node's role. Defaults to **false**
 -  **PATRONI\_CONSUL\_SERVICE\_CHECK\_INTERVAL**: (optional) how often to perform health check against registered url
 
diff --git a/docs/SETTINGS.rst b/docs/SETTINGS.rst
index 4fbfe543..c099d2e8 100644
--- a/docs/SETTINGS.rst
+++ b/docs/SETTINGS.rst
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ Most of the parameters are optional, but you have to specify one of the **host**
 -  **key**: (optional) file with the client key. Can be empty if the key is part of **cert**.
 -  **dc**: (optional) Datacenter to communicate with. By default the datacenter of the host is used.
 -  **consistency**: (optional) Select consul consistency mode. Possible values are ``default``, ``consistent``, or ``stale`` (more details in `consul API reference <https://www.consul.io/api/features/consistency.html/>`__)
--  **checks**: (optional) list of Consul health checks used for the session. If not specified Consul will use "serfHealth" in additional to the TTL based check created by Patroni. Additional checks, in particular the "serfHealth", may cause the leader lock to expire faster than in `ttl` seconds when the leader instance becomes unavailable
+-  **checks**: (optional) list of Consul health checks used for the session. By default an empty list is used.
 -  **register\_service**: (optional) whether or not to register a service with the name defined by the scope parameter and the tag master, replica or standby-leader depending on the node's role. Defaults to **false**
 -  **service\_check\_interval**: (optional) how often to perform health check against registered url
 
diff --git a/patroni/dcs/consul.py b/patroni/dcs/consul.py
index 66a8446f..cea7bb88 100644
--- a/patroni/dcs/consul.py
+++ b/patroni/dcs/consul.py
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ class Consul(AbstractDCS):
         self.set_retry_timeout(config['retry_timeout'])
         self.set_ttl(config.get('ttl') or 30)
         self._last_session_refresh = 0
-        self.__session_checks = config.get('checks')
+        self.__session_checks = config.get('checks', [])
         self._register_service = config.get('register_service', False)
         if self._register_service:
             self._service_name = service_name_from_scope_name(self._scope)