Tenant Screening
Also in
Show Endnotes
Reviewed
Reviewed
Text
Before you look for a place to live it is important to understand how landlords do tenant screening and what your rights are. Every landlord screens tenants differently. Because so much information is available on the internet, some landlords may use that information to reject tenants just because they were at some point involved in a court case regardless of the result of the case.
There is a new law in Massachusetts that will go into effect in May 2025 which allows tenants in certain types of eviction cases with certain outcomes to seal their eviction record. Tenants must file a motion. It is not automatic. For more see Chapter 2: Tenant Screening and the Eviction Sealing section on MassLegalHelp.