Landlord-Tenant FAQs

Though it depends on the item facts of your state of affairs, your prospective landlord probably cannot accuse you an application fee. A rental agent may be able to charge you a "finders" fee if they are a licensed real estate agent, though they must comply with other requirements of the law, including giving you written notice that they are a licensed real estate amanuensis along with their license number. If you have been charged an application or a "finders" fee, please submit an intake course to asking services from SLSO.

Y'all accept a tenancy with a charter. In this blazon of tenancy there is a written agreement that sets the conditions of the tenancy, including a specific start and finish date for the tenancy and the amount of hire you will pay.

If yous have not signed a charter, but are moving in with the landlord's permission, you lot take a tenancy at will. This kind of tenancy sometimes has a written rental understanding, but it can besides be a exact agreement. The feature that distinguishes a written rental agreement from a lease is that it doesn't take a specific commencement and end date for the tenancy. The almost mutual type of tenancy at volition is a "calendar month to calendar month" tenancy. This means that there is no gear up stop date for your tenancy and it can therefore be terminated by either y'all or your landlord with a proper total rental menstruation notice (referred to as a thirty-day notice).

If you accept stayed at the rental after the expiration of your lease, or after your landlord has served you lot with a proper full rental period notice ending your tenancy at will, y'all are a tenant at sufferance. If you believe you are a tenant at sufferance, delight submit an intake form to asking services from SLSO.

Regardless of the kind of tenancy you have, a court order is required earlier a landlord tin forcibly remove you lot and your belongings from the rental.

When you sign a lease and hold to "joint and several liability," you are agreeing that you are each fully responsible for the full corporeality of the rent, for fulfilling all conditions of the charter, and for whatsoever damages to the rental. What this means practically is that if one of your housemates decides to motion out in the heart of the year without finding a replacement tenant, your landlord can withal require that y'all pay the full rental amount, non just the portion that was agreed upon between you and your housemates. As well, if you make up one's mind to break your lease early and a courtroom finds you did not accept a valid reason to do so, your landlord can seek to compensate the coin for the balance of the charter term from either one or all of y'all. This as well means that if there is damage to the rental, the landlord can hold y'all all responsible, even if only i of your housemates caused the damage.

If yous are considering signing a lease with housemate, it is important to make full out a Housemate Agreement outlining your rights and responsibilities with respect to your housemates.

Past police, at the beginning of your tenancy, your landlord tin only accuse you:

  1. Rent for the kickoff month;
  2. Rent for the concluding month;
  3. A security deposit equivalent to one calendar month'southward rent; and
  4. The actual toll of purchasing and installing a door lock and cardinal.

If you lot have been charged more than this, including being charged a central fee, an application fee, or a pet fee, please submit an intake form to request services from SLSO.

When your landlord takes your security eolith, the law requires that they give you a written receipt.  The law farther requires that, within 30 days of receiving the eolith, your landlord place the security eolith in an appropriately designated escrow business relationship which is both within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and exterior the reach of the landlord's creditors. Your landlord must then give you a second receipt showing the amount of the deposit, your landlord's name, the address of the premises, and the name of the bank and the account number where it is existence held.

Within 10 days of accepting the security deposit or your taking possession of the property, whichever is later, your landlord must provide to you a document chosen a "argument of condition." The statement of condition must be signed past your landlord and list all damage existing in the rental unit. If your landlord does not give you such a grade, y'all should make full one out anyway and return it to the landlord within the first few weeks of your tenancy.

If your landlord failed to handle your security deposit properly, yous may exist entitled to the immediate return of your deposit. If you believe your landlord has mishandled your deposit, please submit an intake form to request services from SLSO.

Depending on the circumstances, your landlord may be required to provide you with a different identify to live until the rental is ready to move into. They may as well be required to render the rent that yous paid for the showtime month of your tenancy. If you are in this situation, please submit an intake form to asking services from SLSO.

First, write to your landlord and tell them, in detail, about the bad weather condition. Then give them a reasonable amount of time to respond to you and make the necessary repairs. If your landlord refuses or fails to make repairs in a timely way, one option is to call or drop by the Board of Health for your town and enquire them to inspect the apartment.  The health and/or building inspector with then inspect your rental and issue a report directly to your landlord, ordering that repairs be made by a certain appointment. If your landlord still fails to brand repairs, they may exist fined by the town.

If your landlord is refusing or failing to make repairs in your rental, please submit an intake form to asking services from SLSO.

No. In every residential tenancy there is an "implied warranty of habitability." This means that your landlord promises that the rental will, at the very least, exist in compliance with the Country Sanitary Lawmaking. This is a right which you cannot waive. This means that even if you lot signed a lease with this clause, your landlord is even so responsible for making repairs. If you signed a lease saying that you take the rental "as is" and your landlord is refusing to brand repairs, please submit an intake form to asking services from SLSO.

There are a number of ways to force your landlord to make repairs chop-chop in emergency situations. If you lot are without ane of the basic necessities (h2o, heat, gas, electrical) as a result of your landlord's deportment (or inactions), please submit an intake form to request services from SLSO.

It is generally the landlord'southward responsibility to provide and pay for water. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Massachusetts police allows a landlord to charge for water if certain conditions are met, including entering into a written understanding with the tenant regarding payment, and installing submetering equipment and also water conservation devices for all faucets, showerheads, and toilets in the rental. The requirements of this police force must be strictly observed.

Don't assume your landlord has taken the proper steps before charging you for h2o. If your landlord has been charging yous for water illegally, you may be entitled to damages. If you have questions about paying for water, please submit an intake grade to asking services from SLSO.

It depends. Your landlord may require that you pay for common surface area lighting, but only if (1) the building contains fewer than four units; (2) you lot have signed an agreement with your landlord saying that you lot will pay for electrical, to which the mutual area lighting is wired; and (3) your landlord informs the occupants of the other units that you are paying for the lights in the common expanse.

If you take questions nearly paying for common area lighting, please submit an intake form to request services from SLSO.

Unless there are separate meters for each rental unit and a written rental agreement between you lot and your landlord saying you will pay for water, hot water, heating fuel, electricity or gas, they are required to provide and pay for these essential utilities.If you are paying for any of these utilities and they are 1) not separately metered, or ii) you accept non agreed to it in writing, please submit an intake course to request services from SLSO.

The type of tenancy yous have may determine whether or not your landlord can raise your rent, though regardless of the type of tenancy, your landlord must follow very specific steps when attempting to raise your rent. In general, if you have a written charter, the landlord cannot raise the rent during the lease term.  If you are a tenant at volition, however, the landlord can terminate your tenancy by giving y'all a proper full rental period notice to quit and offering you a new tenancy at the increased rental price. Notation that even if your landlord does not do this correctly, simply you pay the new rent amount, you may be considered to have accepted the new rental rate.

If your landlord is attempting to raise your rent, please submit an intake form to request services from SLSO.

No. Your landlord cannot charge you a late fee unless your hire is over 30 days tardily.  They also cannot lock you out of your rental without a court order if you take not paid your rent. This is generally called a "self-help" eviction and is illegal in Massachusetts.

If you are locked out, your landlord is threatening to lock y'all out, or you have been charged a fee for paying your hire less than 30 days late, please submit an intake course to request services from SLSO.

It depends. The answer is generally no; your landlord needs to requite you proper notice (unremarkably at least 24 hours in accelerate) before entering your rental.  Notwithstanding, in emergencies (e.g., busted pipes) your landlord tin enter without your permission.

You are required by law to requite your landlord, his agents, and his employees "reasonable access," to make repairs to the rental. Your lease may also require you to allow the landlord, his agents, and his employees to enter to inspect the premises and/or testify the property to a prospective tenant, purchaser, mortgagee, or their agents before your charter ends. Your landlord also has the right to inspect the rental within the terminal 30 (30) days of your tenancy or after either of you has given notice of an intention to terminate the tenancy.

Where your landlord has the right to enter, reasonable notice must be given to you that an entry volition be made at a specific and reasonable time.  If your landlord gives reasonable observe and has the right to enter, just you lot unreasonably refuse to grant them access, they tin ask the court to order you to let them into the rental.

If your landlord has entered your flat without find or permission, please submit an intake form to request services from SLSO.

A lease is a contract and is thus non usually easily cleaved. By signing the charter, you contracted with the landlord to alive in the house. There are circumstances where a tenant may have skilful cause to suspension a lease.  If you need to break your lease, delight submit an intake form to request services from SLSO.

Yes. Your landlord must pay you interest on your last month's hire at the rate of five% per twelvemonth or other such lesser amount of interest as has been received from the bank where the deposit has been held. This interest should exist paid to you annually, unless your tenancy is terminated early, in which instance you should receive all accrued interest within xxx days of the termination. At the cease of each year of your tenancy, your landlord should give you a statement indicating the amount of interest accrued.  Your landlord can either requite y'all the coin or notify y'all that you lot can deduct the amount of the involvement from your next rental payment. Involvement does non accrue for the last calendar month for which yous paid rent in advance. If subsequently thirty days from the end of each yr of your tenancy, you accept non received interest that was due to you or a notice telling you lot that you could deduct the interest from your side by side rental payment, you can deduct the interest from your next rental payment.

If your landlord doesn't pay you the involvement accrued on your last month'southward hire within xxx days subsequently the terminate of your tenancy, yous may be able to file a claim against your landlord and recover damages in an amount equal to three times the amount of interest you were supposed to receive, along with your court costs and chaser's fees.

It depends. Your landlord must pay you interest on your security deposit if he holds information technology for 1 year or longer from the beginning of your tenancy. Your landlord must pay yous interest at a rate of 5% per year, or other such lesser amount of interest he has received from the bank where the deposit was held. This interest must be paid to you annually, unless your tenancy is terminated early, in which case you should receive all accrued interest inside xxx days of the end of your tenancy.

At the end of each year of your tenancy, your landlord must give you a statement indicating the name and address of the banking company where your security deposit is being held, the amount of the deposit, the account number, and the amount of involvement payable by your landlord to yous. At that time your landlord can either give you the coin or notify you that you can deduct the amount of the interest from your side by side rental payment. If afterward thirty days from the end of each year of your tenancy, you have not received interest that was due to you or a discover telling you that you could deduct the involvement from your next rental payment, you tin deduct the interest from your next rental payment.

The constabulary requires that a landlord care for your security deposit with not bad care, an obligation that begins at the inception of your tenancy.

If your landlord wants to deduct coin from your security eolith at the terminate of your tenancy, they can only do so for whatever unpaid rent or water charges which have not been validly withheld past you, any unpaid increase in real estate taxes that you lot have agreed to pay, and a reasonable amount necessary to repair any damage you lot or your guests caused to the rental. They cannot deduct for "reasonable wear and tear." In the event the landlord does deduct coin from your deposit, they must comply with multiple requirements, including giving you an itemized listing of deductions, along with receipts, estimates, or invoices for the cost of repairs.

If your landlord has deducted money from your security deposit, or is refusing to give it dorsum entirely, please submit an intake form to request services from SLSO.

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