Hi y’all,
I live in Massachusetts, and am currently renting an apartment. Now my roomate and I have being paying rent for 3 months so far, but have still not gotten a copy of our lease. We keep calling our landlord and asking, and he keeps on telling us its on the way. What, if anything, can we do to be sure that we get this good ol’ document; would it be reasonable to hold our rent until we get the lease?
I’m not sure about the laws in Mass. but you certainly have to wonder what advantage your landlord has over you, by witholding a lease. My best guesses are:
~ He can kick you out on your tuches any time he likes
~ He can increase the rent any time he likes
~ You have no proof that he won’t charge you more for having more than one person living in the apartment
The mind boggles. Consult your rental board, if you have one. Failing that, I’d send him a registered letter giving him ten business days to respond. List your understanding of the lease agreement. Include price, people living in the apartment, term of lease, etc. Of course, I’m not a lawyer nor a specialist in this. That’s just what I’d do.
In most states (I am not sure abot Mass.), if you never signed anything, you would be considered to be renting as a tenant from month-to-month. If you don’t want to be in that situation, give the landlord at least 30 days notice and move out at the end of any given month. You will only need to pay rent through the end of the month in which you last lived at the address. To get on an annual lease, tell the landlord that if he does not get you a lease by X date, that you will give notice of intent to vacate. If s/he doesn’t get you the lease by that time, s/he probably doesn’t want you there and will be happy to have you move out.
The laws related to terminating a month-to-month rental can be complicated and can cut both ways. You and/or the landlord must give at least a month’s notice before terminating the landlord/tenant relationship, and you must pay rent until the end of the month in which you last live in the apartment. Also, if you give the landlord the ultimatem described above, be sure to actaully give notice at the expiration of the ultimatum period. If you fail to give actual notice, the risk is that you will be considered a hold-over tenant. Then you will be on the hook for extra rent. BE SURE ALL NOTICES ARE IN WRITING AND MADE THROUGH CERTIFIED MAIL–RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED.
For more complete information about tenant rights, contact the city/county/state housing authority in your area. They usually have information booklets/pamphlets available for apartment renters which sets forth their legal rights and obligations.
Have you actually seen the lease when you signed it? If so, then more than likely such a document exists, and you cannot demand to be taken off or out of your lease, etc. Of course, this largely depends on the laws of the state of MA. I know of no law, at least federal, that allows a tenenat to break rent for not having a copy of their good and proper lease delivered to them. In most states that I know of, if there indeed does exist a lease (legal, proper and all that), then breaking it in the way suggested thus far is not legal. Getting your lease from your landlord is a different matter entirely (apart from the normal do I have to pay rent-type questions). There should be a state board governing residential property and leases (sorry, not sure what it’s called). Not paying your rent, even in renter-friendly states like IL won’t curry any favor and will most likely get you evicted.
Why do you want your lease (apart from being knowledgeable about when to move and if you’re violative of any housing requirements of the landlord)? Assuming that you know everything on the lease, and assuming your getting great rent, you can be a month-to-month lessee. My studies in property law seemed to not favor such type of situations, but I remember when I was getting great rent during law school and I wanted to keep paying that great rent, but when my lease came up, they wanted 25% more in rent (ouch!) Needless to say, i had to move. But, if I could have kept that rental payment stable…well, it was fun while it lasted. In these type of situations, default rules b/t lessor and lessee apply (usually cuts pretty neutral).
IANYL and all other standard disclaimers apply.