Need advice ASAP please! Boston, Massachusetts landlord issue

[Taralyn]

I have a friend who had a bad falling out with her current roommate and is trying to move out. She has already found a place and put down a deposit at that new place. However, her current (soon to be old) landlord told her that she needs to pay for October rent even though this landlord did not make my friend and her roommate sign a lease. A deposit for her current (soon to be old) apartment was drawn up and a deposit was taken, but the lease was never signed. As of right now, my friend's roommate will still be living in the current apartment.

Does my friend have to pay for October rent if there was never a signed lease or verbal agreement stating that she would have to do so when moving out?

They need to pay for the time they were there.

If there was no lease and absolutely no other agreement, then she may not need to pay more.

He may try to argue it was month to month and requires 30 days notice but that still requires some basic agreement and it appears there was none here.

The above poster is incorrect. If no agreement is signed and the only agreement is verbal, the state enacts a month to month agreement, covered by state laws, to protect the tenant. This is backed up by case law. The fact that the person paid rent to the other consitutes a LL-Tenant relationship and entitles both to the protections of a month to month tenancy. Normally this is for the tenant's protection in that it keeps a bad LL from telling a tenant to vacate without proper notice. But the protection goes both ways. If the tenant wants to move, they need to give the state required amount of notice for a month to month (or at-will tenancy) to the LL prior to vacating. If the tenant did not do this, he/she is liable for the rent for this notice period.

Mass. law states a tenant at will must give the interval between rental payments or 30 days notice, whichever is longer. So the tenant must give at least 30 days notice and pay for that period.

My landlord first decided that she wanted to move back into my apartment, so after 7 months, I had to move. THEN she changed her mind and said I could stay. That was great, BUT she refused to weather-strip the apartment last winter and I wanted her to weather strip it for THIS winter so I wouldn't be paying to heat the outside again. Curiously, she then decided to stick to her original plan and move back in.

Then I ran into her husband in my basement (they enter all the time without telling me beforehand), and asked him why they had changed their mind and he said "Heidi said you had all these demands, and we didn't want to deal with it".

So, I was retaliated against for wating repairs to keep the elements (wind) out the apartment.

This is only the latest of their terrible management - what can I do? How do I report them??

Frustrated in Massachusetts

Check Boston city ordinances for an amount of notice required prior to entering. Mass. state law has no notice requirements. If you can't find one, they have no legal requirement to give you advance notice before the come.

There is no law that requires a LL to weatherstrip the apartment. She can flatly deny your request to weatherstrip. Sorry. Unless you have a lease, the LL can terminate your month to month agreement for any or no reason.

You have to check your facts, because the info you posted is wrong.

The law as it reads:

PART II. REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS

TITLE I. TITLE TO REAL PROPERTY

CHAPTER 186. ESTATES FOR YEARS AND AT WILL

Chapter 186: Section 15B. Entrance of premises prior to termination of lease; payments; receipts; interest; records; security deposits

Section 15B. (1) (a) No lease relating to residential real property shall contain a provision that a lessor may, except to inspect the premises, to make repairs thereto or to show the same to a prospective tenant, purchaser, mortgagee or its agents, enter the premises before the termination date of such lease. A lessor may, however, enter such premises:

(i) in accordance with a court order;

(ii) if the premises appear to have been abandoned by the lessee; or

(iii) to inspect, within the last thirty days of the tenancy or after either party has given notice to the other of intention to terminate the tenancy, the premises for the purpose of determining the amount of damage, if any, to the premises which would be cause for deduction from any security deposit held by the lessor pursuant to this section.

A LL may enter to inspect, repair, show to a prospective tenant, purchaser, or mortgagee. NO provision is listed to give specific notice prior to entering. As I said, check Boston city ordinances for an amount of notice required prior to entering. Mass. state law has no notice requirements.