Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Massachusetts
We are apartment renters in Massachusetts, seeking advice on terminating our lease due to constant infractions of our Right to Quiet Enjoyment on the part of the neighboring tenants.
We are working professionals, they are a group of first-time apartment renters (undergrads at a local college). We had no issues with any other tenants in previous years (one year, college students occupied the same apartment, we had no problem), so we do not have a history of being "complainers".
These tenants have multiple parties a week, until 3am or after (on weeknights as well). We are constantly awakened by music, banging, laughing/yelling beneath our bedroom. They constantly bang, smash about the apartment (we have had several pictures and items fall to the floor from the impact). They smoke marijuana incessantly - we know this because the odor is prevalent in a common hallway when we enter the building, and in our very kitchen (the odor comes in through the heating vents).
We have tried to speak to them directly to resolve on several occasions, to no avail. We have emailed our landlord, and his emails and calls are ignored. We had not called the Police, for fear of retaliation (but we filed a report today, and plan on calling about future disturbances). We cannot take it anymore - well over 6 months of torture is enough. We cannot sleep, we are stressed beyond belief.
We are afraid that our landlord will hold us responsible for the remaining 6 months of our lease. We are not trying to terminate for convenience, we are trying to terminate for our health and sanity. This outcome should have easily been predicted, and we should not be punished for someone's choice to ignore reason.
What can we do to prevent being held liable for the remainder of the contract in this case? Should we try talking to him directly ourselves, or go straight to an attorney? We really cannot afford an expensive path (it's all we can do to try to manage to save up to get out of here).
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You need to notify the landlord in writing of the problem, include the police report if you have a copy. Inform the landlord of the history of the problem and that you are terminating the lease due to the ongoing nature of the situation.
Read the lease it controls as far as notice.
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