diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
index 54bcc4594d4..04c443fe12c 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
@@ -1713,8 +1713,8 @@ public class HRegionServer extends HasThread implements
 
     // Leases is not a Thread. Internally it runs a daemon thread. If it gets
     // an unhandled exception, it will just exit.
-    this.leases.setName(getName() + ".leaseChecker");
-    this.leases.start();
+    Threads.setDaemonThreadRunning(this.leases.getThread(), getName() + ".leaseChecker",
+      uncaughtExceptionHandler);
 
     if (this.replicationSourceHandler == this.replicationSinkHandler &&
         this.replicationSourceHandler != null) {