Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Massachusetts

Imprisoned Tenant

We purchased the 2-family home that we live in 2 years ago and kept the tenant that lived in 1 of the apartments, per recommendation of the previous owner. Last April, the tenant (single male) moved his girlfriend and her baby into the apartment with our permission. Last June, our tenant assaulted this girlfriend and was sentenced to serve 2.5 years. The girlfriend has remained living here since then, seemingly to ''hold'' the apartment for her him. She has NEVER paid us the rent on time and has requested many times for us to delay an increase in rent that we notified her of 3 months in advance. We don't want her living here anymore, but are unsure what to do; we cannot afford to keep delaying the rent increase and have already been late on our own mortgage payment 2x because she does not pay the rent on time. We have no written lease with her or her boyfriend. Our tenant-at-will agreement with her boyfriend was only verbal. (We know this wasn't too smart, but it worked for us at the time.) Do we have any obligation to the guy in jail? We have no way to contact him, so it doesn't seem possible to negotiate anything through him. What steps can we take to remove the girlfriend with whom we don't even have a lease agreement?


Asked on 4/29/03, 10:01 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Thomas Murphy Law Office of Thomas Murphy

Re: Imprisoned Tenant

If you have accepted rent payments from the girlfriend, even if late, then you have a tenancy-at-will relationship with her. You can terminate that tenancy for any reason or no reason (just not an illegal reason such as retaliation for her having complained about conditions in the apartment or discrimination), but you must give proper notice by serving her with a 30 day notice to quit. The timing and wording of the notice to quit are critical, so it would be advisable for you to get a lawyer.

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Answered on 4/29/03, 10:12 am


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