Read the Lease Carefully
You are a legal tenant whether or not you have a written lease. Many tenants do not have written leases.
If you do plan to sign a written lease, read it carefully. A landlord may try to rush you into signing a lease. She may say that all leases are "standard" and that you should not bother reading it. There may be a lot of small print and words you do not understand. Don't let a landlord intimidate you or stop you from reading the lease. Even if you are nervous or feel shy, be firm and polite and tell her you want to read the lease. You may want to bring the lease home and go over it with a friend or lawyer.
Endnotes
1 . G.L. c. 186, §15D. Violators can be fined up to $300. See G.L. c. 93A, §1 et seq 940 C.M.R. §3.17(3)(c). Failure to comply with this provision may make the lease voidable by the tenant. A party's secret signature to a lease, unrevealed to the other party, is not valid or binding. Henchey v. Rathbun, 224 Mass. 209, 211 (1916). As noted by E. Schwartz, Lease Drafting in Massachusetts §1.9 (1961), the tenant's signature on a lease is an offer that dies if the landlord doesn't sign within a reasonable period, but the tenant is bound as a tenant at will by signing.
2 . Marchesi v. Brabant, 338 Mass. 790, 790 (1959) (rescript); Berman v. Shaheen, 273 Mass. 343, 344 (1930); Murray v. Cherrington, 99 Mass. 229, 230 (1868). Exceptions to the ending date rule are some subsidized housing leases, which are leases even though they continue indefinitely.
3 . These rights are described in 940 C.M.R. §3.17(3)(b)(3); G.L. c. 186, §15B.
4 . 940 C.M.R. §3.17(3)(b)(1) and (2); G.L. c. 143, §3S; and the state Sanitary Code, 105 C.M.R. §410.481, require absentee owners to post and maintain a sign at least 20 square inches in size near the mailboxes or elsewhere inside the building, which has on it the name, address, and phone number of the owner or her manager or agent. This is not required, however, if the manager or agent lives in the building. The name, address, and phone number of the managing trustee or partner of any realty trust and president of any corporation must also be posted. Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to $50 per day.
5 . 940 C.M.R. §3.17(3)(a)(3). This type of clause is known as a rent acceleration clause and is considered to be a penalty and therefore unenforceable. Commissioner of Ins. v. Massachusetts Accident Co., 310 Mass. 769, 771 (1942).
6 . For various statements of the landlord's duty to mitigate damages, see Edmands v. Rust & Richardson Drug Co., 191 Mass. 123, 128 (1906); Woodbury v. Sparrell Print, 198 Mass. 1, 8 (1908) (landlord "owed to [the tenant] the duty to use reasonable diligence and to make the loss or damage to the [tenant] as light as [the landlord] reasonably could." Loitherstein v. IBM, 11 Mass. App. Ct. 91, 95 (1980). See also Cantor v. Van Noorden Co., 4 Mass. App. Ct. 819, 819 (1976) (rescript); but see Fifty Assocs. v. Berger Dry Goods Co., 275 Mass. 509, 514 (1931). Note that the Boston Housing Court has, at least twice, found a clear obligation to mitigate, in Bridges v. Palmer, Boston Housing Court 07326, p. 8 (Daher, C.J., May 24, 1979), and Grumman v. Barres, Boston Housing Court, 06334, p. 7 (Daher, C.J., March 1, 1979). See also Gagne v. Kreinest, Hampden Housing Court, 92-SC1569 (December 6, 1991) (a landlord who did not advertise a vacant unit in the newspaper had not mitigated her damages).
7 . Leardi v. Brown, 394 Mass. 151, 160 (1985). See G.L. c. 93A, §9(3), and 940 C.M.R. §3.17(3)(a)(1).
9 . Torrey v. Adams, 254 Mass. 22, 28 (1925).
10 . Although these statements may not be admissible in court, judges will sometimes consider them, especially where the tenant is not represented by an attorney. Try to have the witnesses sign this statement as follows: "Signed under the penalties of perjury this ____ day of ______, 200 _ ."
12 . Landlord who owned a nearby cocktail lounge that disturbed tenants was found liable for breach of quiet enjoyment. Blackett v. Olanoff, 371 Mass. 714, 718 (1977). See also Humphries v. Brown, Hampden Housing Court, 90-SP1426 (July 17, 1992) (landlord violated the tenant's right to quiet enjoyment under G.L. c. 186, §14, by failing to take steps to prevent tenant's upstairs neighbor from disturbing him).
13 . G.L. c. 186, §15B(1)(c). If a lease clause requires a penalty before you are more than 30 days late, it is void and your landlord cannot collect under it even if you are more than 30 days late in paying your rent. You may not be charged for service of a notice to quit based on non-payment of rent Commonwealth v. Chatham Development Co., 49 Mass. App. Ct. 525 (2000) (landlord's act of charging tenants a $25 dollar constable fee upon service of a 14-day notice to quit for nonpayment of rent, prior to the entry of a judgment in any eviction action, was a violation of G. L. c. 186, s. 15B(l)(c).
14 . The Boston Housing Court has noted that such a discount clause "appears to be, in substance, a late fee charge which is prohibited by G.L. c. 186, §15B(1)(c)." Patriquin v. Atamian, Boston Housing Court , SP-19648-K, p.4 (King, J., August 27, 1981).
15 . G.L. c. 186, §15B(1)(c), which says that "no lease . . . shall impose any interest or penalty for failure to pay rent until thirty days after such rent shall have been due."
16 . This clause describes two types of obligations you may have to a landlord after you leave an apartment. One is called "damages." This means that as soon as you leave, the landlord may sue you for the difference between the rent you agreed to pay for the remainder of the lease and the "fair rental value" of the apartment. The other type of obligation is called "indemnification." This means that at the end of a lease, a landlord may be able to sue a tenant for the amount of money the landlord has lost because the tenant has left. Generally, the landlord cannot sue on both grounds—damages and indemnification. Gardiner v. Parsons, 224 Mass. 347, 350 (1916); Cotting v. Hooper, Lewis and Co., 220 Mass. 273, 274 (1915). The landlord's choice in this matter is critical, for it determines when one can bring suit. Commissioner of Ins. v. Massachusetts Accident Co., 310 Mass. 769, 772 (1942); Hermitage Co. v. Levine, 248 N.Y. 333, 337 (1928) (Cardozo, C. J.). A landlord must also use "reasonable efforts" to find a new tenant to keep down her losses due to having the apartment empty. Also, if a lease states that a landlord can recover attorney's fees if she sues a tenant for breaking a lease, state law says that a tenant can also recover attorney's fees if a tenant sues a landlord and wins the case, even if the lease does not provide for this. G.L. c. 186, §20. Public and subsidized housing tenants may not be charged court costs or attorney's fees unless there is an actual judgment from the court. Springfield Housing Auth. v. Oldham-King, 12 Mass. App. Ct. 935, 935 (1981) (rescript).
17 . Krasne v.Tedeschi and Grasso, 436 Mass. 103, 109 (2002), Baldacci v. Copley Management, 32 Mass L. Rptr 391 (November 3, 2014).
19 . G.L. c. 186, §12. Waiver of notice to terminate tenancy in a lease is void. G.L. c. 186, §15A. The landlord has the burden of showing that the tenant actually received the notice to quit, Ryan v. Sylvester, 358 Mass. 18, 19 (1970).
20 . 940 C.M.R. §3.17(3)(b)(2).
22 . You have a legal argument that your landlord has waived this clause of the lease. You should check your lease, however, to see if there is a clause preventing waivers. You can also argue that having a pet is not a serious breach of the lease. See Allen Park Assocs. v. Lewandowski, Hampden Housing Court, 89-SP9400, p. 7 (Abrashkin, J., May 8, 1989), where the judge found that management's employees knew that the tenant had a dog, and therefore management had acquiesced in the dog's presence and had waived its right to evict under the no-pet clause of the lease.
23 . 105 C.M.R. §410.010(a); 940 C.M.R. §3.17(1).
24 . G.L. c. 186, §15B(4)(iii) and (6)(e).
25 . The measure of damages is stated as the reasonable cost to the landlord to put the premises in the required condition. Corbett v. Derman Shoe Co., 338 Mass. 405, 414 (1958); Ryan v. Boston Housing Auth., 322 Mass. 299, 302 (1948). See Weeks v. Wilhelm-Dexter Co., 220 Mass. 589, 592 (1915). A landlord may be able to bring a separate court case for damages actually caused by the tenant, even if the landlord has violated the security deposit law. See also Jinwala v. Bizzaro, 24 Mass. App. Ct. 1, 7 (1987).
26 . G.L. c. 186, §15B(1)(a); 940 C.M.R. §3.17(6)(e).
27 . A landlord need not act reasonably in withholding assent where a tenant must obtain assent in writing to sublet under a lease. Slavin v. Rent Control Board of Brookline, 406 Mass. 458, 463 (1990). However, a landlord cannot unreasonably withhold consent if the lease says she can't. Adams, Harkness, Hill, Inc. v. Northeast Realty Corp., 361 Mass. 552, 557 (1972).
28 . The landlord must bring a summary process action to evict you and is subject to civil and criminal penalties for failing to do so. G.L. c. 186, §§14, 15F; 940 C.M.R. §3.17(5). Summary process must be used to regain possession. G.L. c. 184, §18 and G.L. c. 266, §120. The primary summary process statute is G.L. c. 239, §1.