Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Massachusetts
I rent one bedroom in a 2-bedroom home; the homeowner (landlord) lives in the other bedroom. We have just begun our second 12-month lease; after the first expired, we renewed. The lease states that we split all utility bills, one of which is heat. Up until a few weeks ago, there was a heater in every room in the house except my bedroom, and we had been arguing about putting a heater in my room until I wrote a written request with a copy of Mass law stating that it was required for a heater to be in every room. Now, the landlord blasts the heat all day and night long, even though neither of us are home during the day, and when I try to turn the heat off, he calls me up swearing at me telling me that he just spent $1100 on putting a heater in my room and the heat is going to stay on. I understand that there is a minimum and maximum temperature, but even when the heater is off for hours at a time, the thermostat still reads between 60 and 65 degrees. Finally, last night, he put a lock box on the thermostat, and I don't have a key. My question is whether he is allowed to lock the thermostat when I share half of the utility costs.
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