Boston University Medical Campus
Housing Resources

Basic Tenant’s Rights

When you rent an apartment, you are (usually) entering into a legal arrangement with a landlord. You are paying for a service – housing. Because renting an apartment is a little bit different than buying a soda, both Boston and Massachusetts have a number of statutes, laws, and policies that specify what you as the tenant are entitled to, and what your landlord is entitled to as well.

In any housing situation, it is important to know your rights and responsibilities as a tenant. The following information is a summary of some of your basic rights as a tenant in Massachusetts. These represent only a basic overview of the major rights and responsibilities. The organizations listed on the left-hand sidebar have much more information about housing rights and responsibilities.

As a tenant you have the right to lawful and exclusive possession of your apartment. Your landlord must give you reasonable notice before entering your apartment. Generally, this means a 24-hour notice to determine a mutually convenient time. A landlord that unreasonably enters your apartment may be guilty of criminal trespassing. By law, you are required to provide a landlord with reasonable access to your apartment for the following reasons:

• to inspect the premises
• to make repairs
• to show the apartment to prospective purchasers or tenants
• in accordance with a court order
• if the premises appears to have been abandoned
• to inspect the premises within the last 30 days of tenancy if you have paid a Security Deposit in order to determine the amount of damage

A rental increase may be any amount the landlord wishes to charge. Rent for a tenant with a lease can be increased only when the lease term expires. Tenants at will may face a rent increase at any time, as long as notice is received at least one full rental period, but not less than 30 days, before it becomes effective.

You do not have to accept an increase in rent. As long as you continue to pay the old rent, you cannot be evicted for non-payment of rent. The landlord can still take you to court on this issue, but not for non-payment. If you are unhappy with a proposed rent increase, but would like to stay in your apartment, you should try to negotiate with the landlord rather than battle it out in court. The landlord may be willing to accept a smaller increase or agree to do repairs or make improvements in the apartment. Once you work out an acceptable agreement, get the landlord to put it in writing.

All tenants are entitled to a safe and habitable living environment throughout their entire tenancy. The State Sanitary Code protects the health, safety and well-being of tenants and the general public. The state of Massachusetts’ sanitary code is the standard for determining if a property is currently meeting habitability guidelines. The Inspectional Services Department is required to sign off on every rental housing unit to ensure that it still meets the necessary code. If you think your apartment is not up to code, call the ISD at 617-635-5322. A landlord can be fined or sued for renting a unit that is out of code.

Eviction is the process by which a landlord or property owner removes a tenant from his or her property due to breach of contract or other legal dispute. Evictions are time consuming, costly, and exceptionally unpleasant affairs. Evictions can show up on your credit report and increase the interest rate on school loans, credit cards, and mortgages. Most landlords try to avoid evictions in many situations, because of the expense and inconvenience of having to initiate the process. However, being a bad tenant can make your landlord more willing to evict you.

The only person who can evict you from your apartment is a judge. All landlords must go to court and obtain permission from a judge in order to evict you. Eviction is a long and expensive process. If there is a chance that mediation can solve the problem before it has to go to court, then you should strongly consider that option.

If you have a lease, you cannot be evicted unless:

• Your lease has expired and you are living in the property without a lease (squatting, essentially).
• You are not paying your rent.
• You are in violation of your lease, and the lease states that such violations may be cause for eviction (like you are subletting without your landlord’s permission).
• You use the apartment for illegal purposes (like selling drugs).

If you do not have a lease, or are a tenant-at-will, a landlord can start an eviction proceeding much easier.

During an eviction proceeding, a landlord or property owner must serve the tenant a Notice to Quit. State statutes mandate how this notice must be served to the tenant to ensure that he or she is properly notified. A Notice to Quit is a request from the landlord for the tenant to vacate the apartment unit by a particular date.

If the notice was served because the tenant did not pay rent, he or she has 14 days to revive the lease by paying all back rent owed. If this is paid, the tenant cannot be evicted. If the tenant does not pay the back rent owed, and is served a subsequent Notice to Quit, the landlord no longer has to accept payment. Notices to Quit for other lease violations aside from non-payment of rent have different time requirements; many leases include provisions for 7 day notices.

If the tenant has not moved out by within the time frame stipulated in the Notice to Quit, the landlord can file a Summary Process with the district or housing courts of Boston. The courts will set a date for a hearing, and the landlord must inform the tenant of that date. Both sides may present their case in court. If the tenant is found to be at fault, the judge can order the tenant to leave the unit.

The Nuisance Statute
Landlords who have proof of tenant activity that is illegal are required by law to attempt to evict the tenants. If they do not, they can face fines and jail time. The activities include using an apartment unit for:

1. Prostitution
2. Lewdness
3. Illegal Gambling
4. The sale of alcohol
5. The sale of controlled substances
6. Illegal possession of a weapon/firearm
7. Use of an explosive or incendiary device

Landlords attempting to evict a tenant under the Nuisance Statute do not have to serve them with a Notice to Quit, and can proceed directly to court. Landlords need to have copies of a police report indicating that such activities were taking place in the apartment.

If you feel conditions exist that may violate the State Sanitary Code call your landlord and advise him/her of the problem and request repair. In addition, put your request in writing so you have documented evidence of your request.

Some violations are considered emergency violations of the sanitary code. Your landlord has to take immediate actions to fix problems of this sort, which include:

• No heat
• No water
• No waste removal/drainage
• Flooding

If the landlord does not take action to fix these violations of code, contact your landlord and let them know that you are going to get in touch with Inspection Services. If they still do not reply, contact the city’s Inspectional Services Department and let them know about the issues. They will send out an inspector who will investigate the situation. Use the housing code checklist to indicate violations and be sure the inspector takes notice. Be sure the inspector gives you a copy of the report before leaving your apartment. A few days later, you should receive another copy of the report and repair order in the mail stating that the landlord has been notified of the code violations and must fix them within a specified amount of time. If the landlord has not solved the problem within the time frame that the Inspectional Services Department gives them, the ISD can take them to court.

For most maintenance issues, though, calling the ISD is not necessary. For other breaches of the code, or issues that require fixing, call your landlord and ask them to repair the damage. Your lease should stipulate who is responsible for the physical maintenance of your apartment. If the landlord has an outside company or contractor doing repairs, you may need to contact that company directly. If your landlord is unresponsive to your requests, send him or her a request for the repairs in writing, and send it certified mail (so you get a dated receipt of when it was delivered). If, after receiving the receipt, you still don’t get any response from your landlord, or the problem is still not fixed, call him or her one final time to indicate that you will be contacting the ISD.

If you are having significant maintenance issues with your landlord, especially issues that materially endanger your health, you may also have a number of other options available to you:

1. Withhold Rent
   If repairs are not fixed within a reasonable amount of time you may withhold a portion of your rent as a means of forcing repairs. This is a serious step and should be dealt with carefully. You may want to get some legal advice before proceeding since the landlord could try and evict you for non-payment of rent.
2. Repair and Deduct
   To repair and deduct may be another option. In this case you would make emergency repairs and be entitled to deduct up to four months future rent to pay for the work. At this stage of remedy, if you qualify under “repair and deduct” you may also choose to treat the lease as broken, and move rather than undertake the necessary repairs. Again, this is a serious step. It is wise to seek legal council before proceeding with this type of action.

Retaliation The state of Massachusetts provides some security for a tenant who has had to report his or her landlord to the ISD, or make use of one of the above remedies for a major issue of habitability. A tenant cannot be legally evicted for:

• Informing the landlord about violations in the sanitary code.
• Contacting Inspectional Services
• Joining/organizing a tenant’s group in the building
• Legally withholding rent
• Repair-and-deducting rent
• Pursuing legal action against the landlord for violations.

Any eviction actions undertaken by a landlord within six months of a tenant performing one of the above actions is considered by law to be “retaliatory,” and the landlord will have to prove that they are not or else the claim is dismissed.

In many of these situations that would normally involve the courts and lawyers, mediation might be a better process. The Rental Housing Resource Center offers free mediation to tenants and landlords involved in a dispute. Mediation can often help landlords and tenants meet in a compromise that does not involve fees, lawyers, or broken leases and evictions. Call the RHRC to schedule a mediation appointment or to learn more about the service: 617-635-RENT.

Mediation is an informal process in which a mediator meets with the parties and works with them to come to an agreement that they both find satisfactory. A good mediator will be familiar with landlord-tenant law, will provide an unbiased sounding board, will act as a buffer between the parties if necessary, and will be able to help put an agreement in writing. Coming to such an agreement often requires willingness to compromise on both sides. Everything said during mediation is confidential and cannot be used against the other party in court.