Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Massachusetts

Hello,

I lived in a ~100 unit apartment building in downtown Boston. It is considered a luxury building and the rents are accordingly high.

Recently, the buildings owners decided to replace all the windows in every unit (despite the fact there was nothing seriously wrong with the old). At first they were giving each tenant an option, but later they backtracked on that and forced it upon every tenant. I have a problem with that, but that is not the main focus of this question.

They decided to use one of the units (remember, residential) as a storeroom for the duration of the project, which was three months. They stripped the apartment bare, so there was no flooring, just the bare cement. I consider this no longer a residential apartment and instead an industrial storeroom, but I'm not a lawyer :). This apartment was located above my apartment.

As a result, any and every noise made, which was consistent throughout the day and started between 7 and 7:30 am, was loudly transmitted to my apartment. I was bone fide miserable for three months and never got a good nights rest as I was consistently woken during sleep (and often during a REM cycle). It affected my work performance as an engineer.

I just renewed my lease and they refused to compensate me for this, and as a result I am considering taking them to small claims court in Boston. But not knowing much about tenant law I do not know if I have a case, and was hoping someone here might know.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

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