Filing a Tenant Petition
If you decide that you want a receiver, you need to go to court. If there is a housing court in your area, go there. Housing courts have more experience in dealing with receiverships than other courts do. If there is no housing court, you must go to the local district or superior court.11When you go to court, it is best to bring as many other tenants from your building as possible. Tell the court clerk you would like to file a Tenant Petition for Enforcement of the State Sanitary Code. The purpose of a tenant petition is to give tenants a way to enforce the state Sanitary Code. Some courts have tenant petition forms that you can simply fill out. You can also use Form 14: Tenant Petition.12
When you fill out the petition, you will need to know your landlord's name and address. If your landlord does not live in the building and there is no on‑site manager, the law requires the landlord to post her name and address in the building.13
In the petition you must specifically request the court to appoint a receiver. You must also describe the bad conditions. Attach copies of the Board of Health reports or, if an inspection has not been made yet, the date you requested an inspection. It is best to get an inspection before you file a petition.14
Getting an Order of Notice
When you file the tenant petition with the court, the clerk's office must issue a document called an "Order of Notice."15This document requires the owner to:
- Appear in court for a hearing at a designated date and time within 14 days; and
- File an answer to the petition and include the names and addresses of any mortgageesor lienors of record.
Serving the Petition and Order of Notice
You must then take a copy of your tenant petition and the order of notice to the sheriff or a constable, who must deliver (serve) these documents on your landlord. This delivery must be done at least seven days before the hearing date stated in the Order of Notice. The original Order of Notice (indicating the delivery details by the sheriff or constable) must be filed with the court. If your tenant petition asks for the appointment of a receiver, then the owner must (within three days) provide you with a written list of all the mortgagees and lienors of record. You must then send a copy of your tenant petition and notice of the hearing date, time, and place to each of the mortgagees and lienors by certified mail at least 14 days before the hearing (or less than 14 days if the court so orders).16
Payment or Waiver of Fees
There is a court fee to pay for filing a tenant petition and a fee for serving the petition on your landlord.17If you are a low-income person, you can file a form asking the court to waive or eliminate the fee.18This form is called an Affidavit of Indigency.
Preparing for the Hearing
As soon as you file a tenant petition, you should begin researching who might be a good receiver, so that when you go back to court, you are prepared to give the judge your recommendation. (See How to Get a Good Receiver in this chapter.) It is also important to take to court any evidence showing the conditions of the building and any evidence that shows tenants' efforts to get the landlord to make repairs in order to demonstrate to the court that a receiver is necessary.
The Hearing
When you go to court for the hearing, you should be prepared to tell a judge how bad the conditions are and why you need a receiver.
Read Chapter 15: Using the Court System for information about how to prepare for court. On the day that you go to court, bring any information or pictures that will help the judge understand how your landlord has not properly managed the building.
Since receivership is a remedy of last resort, you may want to first ask the judge to order you to pay your rent (or a percentage of your rent) to the court19and give the landlord another chance to make the repairs herself according to a written repair schedule approved by the court. If your rent is subsidized by a housing authority or other entity, you could also ask the court to order the subsidy provider to pay the subsidy into court.20
The Receivership Order
If the court decides to appoint a receiver, a judge must prepare a receivership order. This order says: (1) who the receiver is, and (2) what powers and duties the receiver will have.21
It is important for tenants to work together, and if possible with a lawyer, to develop a proposed order to give to the court. Your proposed order should outline what specific powers and duties you want a judge to include in a receivership order. For example, a receivership order can:
- Require that all funds received by a receiver first be used to make emergency repairs.22
- Require the receiver to install a security system for vacant units.23
- Order the receiver to make reasonable efforts to keep rents affordable.24
- Lower tenants' rents by 50% until repairs are made and the court orders tenants to pay more rent.25
- Require the receiver to submit monthly project reports to the tenants and the court, showing what money has been received and how money is being spent.
A receivership order could authorize the receiver to seek and obtain rental subsidies to be attached to some of the apartments.26
Endnotes
11. G.L. c. 111, §127C. G.L. c. 218, §19C provides that district courts have the power to appoint receivers. Receivers can also be appointed under G.L. c. 186, §14. See also G.L. c. 223, §130 for law on dissolution of certain attachments by a receiver.
12. See G.L. c. 111, §127C for the required content of the petition.
13. G.L. c. 143, §3S, and 105 C.M.R. §410.481. See also G.L. c. 244, §15A (lenders must notify tenants and others when taking possession of a building before foreclosure or transferring title to the building.)
14. Because receiverships are a remedy of last resort, it is best to have as much documentation as possible so that when you present a petition to the court, a judge will see what steps you have taken to get repairs made.
15. See G.L. c. 111, §127D.
16. See G.L. c. 111, §127I, ¶2.
17. The filing fee for a tenant petition is $2 (G.L. c. 111, §127D), plus the $15 surcharge (G.L. c. 262, §4C). Service costs vary, but are generally at least $25-30 per defendant.
18. G.L. c. 261, §27A-G.
19. If a tenant paid rent into court under G.L. c. 111, §127F (even where no receiver was appointed), then the tenant cannot be evicted except for tenant fault for the nine months after the court order has ended. See the uncodified statute at St. 1968, c. 404, and Olde Holyoke Development Corporation v. Morales , Hampden Housing Court, 90-SP-01291-H (Abrashkin, J., July 3, 1990).
20. In Belizaire v. Hsu and Chen , Cambridge District Court, Civil Action 0152-CV-0629 (Sprague, J., April 10, 2001), the court allowed the tenant's motion to authorize tenant and the Cambridge Housing Authority to pay the last agreed-upon rent into court.
21. See G.L. c. 111, §127I.
22. Rogers v. Smith , Boston Housing Court, CA-27890, CA-27891, CA-27892, CA-27893, Order for Appointment of Receiver (December 8, 1989).
23. Mena v. Shapiro , Hampden Housing Court, LE-3696-89 (Order of November 16, 1989).
24. Rogers v. Smith , see endnote 22.
25. Mena v. Shapiro , see endnote 23.
26. See paragraph 7 of the undated Order (issued in June 1987) in Pires et al. v. Ribeiro, Cambridge District Court, 2530/06 (Menton, J.), where the court authorized the receiver to obtain rental subsidies for all the units for a 10-year period. The receiver then obtained project-based Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) subsidies for most of the rental units. Although such subsidies are no longer available, there are Section 8 subsidies which could be attached to rental units.
Produced by Susan Hegel Created July 2008
