Lease and housing rights links
Other Resources for Lease Questions and Legal Concerns
Massachusetts has a huge number of organizations, websites, and phone lines to help tenants with issues about housing law. The information on this site only covers the most basic discussions - most tenants will find that, if they experience conflict with a landlord, that it won’t fall into an easily categorized problem. If you find that you are having a problem with your landlord, your lease, or your apartment, and you can’t find the information to help you resolve the problem on this site, you should check out one of the other organizations listed here.
Below are a number of different websites, organizations, and telephone numbers you can call if you have questions about your housing, your landlord, your lease, or other components of renting housing in the Boston area. They specialize in helping tenants or renters in Boston. If you have the time, it may not hurt to contact more than one of them, just to get a full understanding of your unique issue.
Legal Resources — State Resources — City Resources
Role of the OHR
The OHR can help direct students, faculty and staff to the resources necessary to resolve disputes with landlords or roommates, understand lease issue and provisions, and understand the process of mediating a conflict. If there’s a problem with your living situation and you aren’t sure of the best place to go to take care of it, the OHR can usually point you in the right direction.
However, we do not employ any lawyers in the office, and the OHR cannot provide legal advice, nor represent anyone in housing court. We do have connections with certain attorneys, and can suggest other lawyer-referral programs as needed for individual students.
Legal Resources
- MassLegalHelp
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MassLegalHelp is a non-profit organization that works with underserved populations in the state. Their website has a good selection of sample letters or forms you can use to communicate with a landlord, as well as some good basic information. They also host probably the single best guide to tenant’s rights in Massachusetts, called Legal Tactics: Tenant’s Rights in Massachusetts. The booklet is divided up into a number of different chapters that cover sections of landlord/tenant rights and disputes.
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- MassTenants.net
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MassTenants.net is a coalition of several community organizations and grassroots groups working to get tenants informed of their rights in Boston. They have good general information about tenants’ rights, but some really good links and resources for organizing tenants and for learning more about housing court, in particular. If you have an issue that you think will reach the housing court level, check out this site to get some more information about how the process works.
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- Website of Attorney A. Joseph Ross
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Attorney Ross has worked in the Boston area for a number of years, and drafted the current rent-withholding laws currently in place. His website has a ton of great links to other organizations, but the most helpful part of the site if the excellent guide How to Be a Tenant in Massachusetts and Not Get Ripped Off. Look for the link on his homepage, under the “2007 Edition” header.
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- SearchLaw.com Legal Forms
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SearchLaw.com is a large law-resources portal that provides access to statutes, legal forms, and specific case information. If you want, you can buy a number of the different housing law/landlord communication forms they have available, but you can also download a free sample version of most of them in an Adobe .PDF form. These forms can give you a good idea of what a moving out notice might look like, or how to properly challenge a rent increase in writing.
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- Live Justice
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Live Justice is a project of the Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts, nominally serving the Worcester area. The site has good basic information, but really shines in the ’self-help’ section, where you can find all sorts of questions about very specific housing law issues. If you really need to find the answer to a specific question, Live Justice can save you some time by helping you focus your information searching.
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- Legal Advocacy and Resource Center of Massachusetts
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LARC serves as a clearinghouse and information source for under-served populations in Massachusetts. They provide basic information through a hotline, and help direct people to other legal resources they may need. Their hotline is great for quick questions about housing concerns.
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- Rental Housing Online
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A major online resource for the entire world of rental housing since the mid-1990s, Rental Housing Online contains a ton of information about different laws, best practices, and new policies in rental housing. Its information is not always specific to Massachusetts, though, and some information requires a membership to access.
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- NeighborhoodLaw.org
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In a similar vein as MassLegalHelp, this site has good information about tenants’ rights in Massachusetts. It also has a lot of good connections to actual documents, like the text of new carbon monoxide detector laws or changes in the water code. The site can be a bit hard to navigate at times, though.
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State of Massachusetts Resources
- Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations
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The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (OCABR) is the state consumer-protection agency. They have a fairly extensive write-up of tenant responsibilities from the perspective of state law. It can be bland reading, but it’s also very clear, and it gives you the specific sections of the Massachusetts general law, or statutes, that each right or responsibility comes from.
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- State of Massachusetts Attorney General’s Homepage
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The Attorney General of Massachusetts (currently Martha Coakley) is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth. The office’s website has a couple of good resources: the first is Consumer Hotline you can call to report breaches in the law, or get clarifications about housing issues. The line is staffed 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This is the main avenue Massachusetts resident will use to file a formal complaint against a company, or a landlord (at the state level).
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- Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure
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The state of Massachusetts requires a number of different professionals to be licensed in order to legally practice their trade here. Real estate is one of the trades moderated by this office. If you intend to work with a realtor or a broker to find housing, you can check to make sure they have an active license with the state at this site, as well as check up on any active complaints the firm or the individual agent might have logged against him or her. It’s generally a good idea, when you begin working with a realtor, to make sure they are officially licensed by the state.
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- Massachusetts Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service
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The Massachusetts Bar Association hosts a web and phone-based lawyer referral program where members of the public can contact the Bar and find a lawyer capable of taking their case. If you find yourself in a situation where you must have legal representation, this service can help you find a legal professional who can represent you, and give you an idea of what the fees might be.
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City of Boston Resources
- Rental Housing Resource Center
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A department of the city of Boston that provides information, workshops, and assistance for residents trying to understand the rental housing market. They produce the Good Neighbors Handbook, the most concise and easy-to-read description of housing law that the OHR has come across so far. Aside from the booklet, the RHRC also has a quick caller hotline (617-635-RENT) for basic housing questions, and offers mediation services for residents. The RHRC is one of the best resources for housing concerns in the Boston area, and for most of your housing concerns, they should be the first place you contact.
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- City of Boston’s Inspectional Services Department
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The ISD is responsible for certifying all rental properties in Boston are habitable. They maintain the state sanitary code and perform apartment inspections. While they don’t offer much in the way of legal assistance for tenants, they are the office you will call (if you live in Boston itself) if you think your apartment isn’t up to the standards it needs to be. They will send out an inspector to see your place, and if necessary, order your landlord to make repairs. More information about ISD is included in the left-hand sidebar.
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- Boston Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service
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Much like the Massachusetts Bar Association’s service, the Boston Bar has a system to help residents find the legal professional best suited to assist them. The Boston Bar’s service can often locate a local attorney who can help you, and who is familiar with Boston’s housing policies as well.
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- Massachusetts Housing Court website (Boston branch)
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This is the official website of the Massachusetts Court system, and specifically the Boston branch of the housing court (located physically by Government Center, downtown). Aside from the basic information about the court’s phone numbers and hours of operation, the website also has a number of resources on the left-hand side, including a good section on housing court forms you might need, mediation, and self-help. Sometimes, if you can’t find the information about a legal issue regarding housing anywhere else, the clerks at the housing court can help you figure out what to do.
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