Getting and Reviewing Your Lease
When you rent an apartment, in most cases you are entering into a legal agreement with the owner of the property. The document that lays out your rights as a tenant, and the responsibilities of your landlord, is called a lease.
There are two basic types of tenancy: tenancy for a specified period of time and a tenancy-at-will. Tenancy-at-will is a very unusual type of tenancy, where the renter pays the landlord to live in an apartment on a month-to-month basis. This type of tenancy offers a lot of flexibility, but not a lot of security. Most tenants in the city of Boston are tenants for a specific period of time, and the amount of time they will live in the apartment and how much they will pay for it is covered in the lease. A lease is probably the most important part of your housing search, so it’s good to know where to go to ask questions about it. This section of the website is designed to give you the information you need to understand your lease, and to change it if necessary. Below is a basic description of a lease, and you will find more specific information in the sidebar to the left.
Leases
A lease is a formal agreement between a landlord and a tenant that enables the tenant to live in a rental unit at a set price, with certain restrictions for a specified amount of time. A lease is legally binding and recognized by the city and state. Most leases in Boston run for one year, although sometimes they are longer or shorter, depending on the specific agreement between the landlord and the tenant. A lease is not a way to ‘hold’ or ‘reserve’ an apartment. Once you have signed a lease, you have legally agreed to reside in that particular apartment. Do not sign more than one lease! You will be responsible for paying the rents in all apartments for which you sign a lease.
When you decide you’ve found an apartment that you are ready to rent and the landlord, property owner or realtor has accepted your application, the next step is to get and sign a lease. Do not feel pressured into signing your lease immediately when you receive it; take the time necessary to read the whole document. Most landlords and property owners use a fairly standard lease from the Rental Housing Agency (RHA), although special provisions are often included separately.
Despite any other provisions it may include, a lease in Massachusetts must include the following information for it to be valid:
- The apartment address that you are renting.
- The amount of your rent.
- The term of your lease (i.e., how long it is).
- The amount you paid to move in (security deposit, last month’s rent, etc.)
- The names, addresses, and phone numbers of your landlord, and whoever is directly responsible for maintaining the property in case repairs need to be made, and whoever the landlord has authorized to receive paperwork from housing court (which is often the landlord directly).
After reading the lease, if there are clauses in it that you do not understand or do not agree with, ask the landlord to either explain the section, or to remove it. You are perfectly within your rights to request some alterations to the lease if you feel they are unfair. Any changes that are made to the lease should be written in and initialed by both you and the landlord. Make sure any changes in provisions that are made are captured in writing. Verbal agreements do not hold up well if you are required to go to court in any way in the future.
Unless the provisions in a lease are illegal because they contradict city or state regulations, all the stipulations in a lease are legally binding. Keep this in mind as you look through your lease. If your landlord has promised to fix or repair certain sections of the apartment before you move in, make sure those repairs are mentioned your lease. If they have agreed to provide a refrigerator, check to ensure it is in the lease. If they are not, ask your landlord to include them. One important thing to know about your lease is that your landlord cannot legally charge you a ‘late fee’ for late payment of rent, unless it is specifically written into your lease, and the rent is over 30 days late. However, once you are 30 days late or later with rent payments, your landlord can begin an eviction process.
Once you sign a lease, you have secured that apartment for the duration of time specified in the document. Your landlord must give you (and each roommate) a copy of the lease within 30 days of it being signed, or else they are subject to fines and penalties.
Tenancy-At-Will
A much less common type of tenancy in Boston, a tenant-at-will generally has no lease and rents a unit from month-to-month. The landlord or tenant can end the tenancy at any time with 30 days notice, and the landlord can raise rent at any time with 30 days notice. This type of tenancy offers far fewer protections against changes in the rental market than a standard lease does. The advantage is that it’s also a lot more flexible – if you need to leave your apartment quickly, and don’t want to have to worry about breaking a lease, being a tenant-at-will gives you that option.
In the OHR’s experience, tenancy-at-will is uncommon in Boston. The Northampton Square tower on Albany Street and Northampton Street is one of the few large complexes that offer tenancy-at-will. Some of the landlords who offer tenancy-at-will will require a lease, which looks fairly similar to a long-term lease, except that the term is one month.
