Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Massachusetts

Our landlord wants to enter our apartment for asbestos abatement, but it requires that we leave the apartment between the hours of 8AM and 5PM. We will also have to remove our cat. I also have a 1 year old daughter and we stay at home all day. Besides the inconvenience, I have expressed my concerns regarding the safety of the abatement and requested that they wait until we have moved out. We are more than willing to find another place to live and are actively searching. If we move within the next 6 weeks it will leave them enough time to finish before their deadline. We live in a community of over 100 apartments and we happen to be the at the beginning of the project. They plan to finish within the next 3 months and have no cooperated with us in our attempts to request that they just wait until we vacate the apartment. I have left messages with the president of the company and he has yet to return any phone calls. We live in Massachusetts. Is it our right to refuse permission for the contractors to enter? What legal rights do the owners have if we refuse to leave?


Asked on 2/05/10, 10:18 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Christopher Vaughn-Martel Charles River Law Partners, LLC

I think you have a good basis in demanding that all renovation work be suspended until after you move out of the apartment. Will the remediation only take one day, or will they be in your unit day after day? If not, and they are determined to go ahead, you might demand that they put you up in a hotel. If you would like legal representation in this, please feel free to contact my office. 617-357-4898.

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Answered on 2/10/10, 10:46 am


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