Types of tenancies

If you have a written agreement to rent for a specific time period at a specific amount of rent, you are a tenant with a lease. Usually leases last 1 year. 

Things to know:

• Your rent cannot be raised during the time period in your lease.
• Make sure you know if you have to renew your lease or if it renews automatically from year-to-year.
• Your landlord cannot evict you during your lease term, unless you have violated the lease or not paid your rent.
• If your building gets sold during your tenancy, the new landlord has to honor the agreements in your current lease. 

If your agreement with your landlord is a month-to-month tenancy, you are a tenant at will. Your agreement can be written or spoken. Most tenants are tenants at will. 

If your landlord wants to raise your rent, they must give you at least 30 days’ advance written notice to end your tenancy at the existing rent.

Your tenancy ends when your lease ends or your landlord sends you a Notice to Quit. If your tenancy ended but you are still in your apartment, you are a tenant at sufferance.

The biggest difference between a tenant at sufferance and other tenants is that a landlord does not need to give you a Notice to Quit if they want to evict you. But if the landlord wants to evict you, they must go to court, and you must receive a Summons and Complaint. They can only move you out with a court’s permission. See Eviction Basics and Notices to Quit.

There are many different government housing programs.

• Public housing is owned and run by a housing authority. It can be state or federal.
• Subsidized housing is owned by a private landlord or company that gets money from the state or federal government to keep rents affordable.  
• Vouchers are payments from the state or federal government that you can use to rent housing in the private market.  

If you are a tenant in public or subsidized housing, you have special protections against rent increases and eviction. To learn more, see Public & Subsidized Housing.

If you live in a mobile home or a manufactured home, you have special protections. For more, see Legal Tactics, Chapter 16: Mobile Homes.

If you are in a program that provides transitional housing and services while you look for permanent housing, you are a tenant in transitional housing. Some tenants in transitional housing may have protections against evictions. But others do not have the right to defend an eviction in court. This includes tenants who are in Emergency Assistance shelters.

If you:

• rent a single room that is not an apartment and 
• at least 4 other people who are not related to the landlord rent rooms there, 

you are a tenant in a rooming house. Your rights depend on how long you live there. For more, see Legal Tactics, Chapter 15: Rooming Houses.

As a renter in Massachusetts, you have certain rights no matter what type of tenancy you have. These include the right to:

• A safe and habitable place to live with heating, hot water, and electricity. See Legal Tactics, Chapter 1: Before You Move In.
• Ask the landlord to repair things that do not work or fix any unhealthy conditions. See Getting a Landlord to Make Repairs.
• Privacy. The landlord is only allowed to enter your apartment if you give them permission, if it is an emergency, or if they have a court order. Even if repairs are needed, they must notify you first. See Landlord's Right to Enter Your Home.
• Stay in your apartment until you move or a judge orders you to move out. See Eviction Basics and Notices to Quit.
• Refuse to pay illegal fees. See Illegal Retaliatory Rent Increases.
• Take your landlord to court if they do something illegal. See Legal Tactics, Chapter 13: When to Take Your Landlord to Court.
• Protection from discrimination based on race, whether you get public benefits, or whether you get a housing subsidy. See Discrimination in Housing.