Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Re: Can a tenant be evicted if property has lead paint?

Yes and no. It depends on why you want to evict the tenant and whether the tenant wants to fight the eviction with a lawyer.

So, why do you want to evict the tenant? If the reason is that you don't want to have children in an apartment with lead in it, it's probably not the way to go and it will backfire. If the reason is that the tenant doesn't pay the rent or is making trouble in other ways, then it's possible but can still be fought successfully.

About 7 years ago, I had a child and lived in an apartment that had lead in it. The landlady was old and didn't want to delead. Her smart-aleck nephew, thinking he was being savvy and helpful to her, recommended that they evict us before we could make trouble and cause them to have to spend serious money on deleading. It backfired. (I wasn't yet a lawyer, but I hired one.) First, it took them months to bring us into court. Then they lost their case there, then they lost a motion to reconsider, then they realized that had to resign themselves to spending the money (which -- guess what! -- they had after all) and deleading the place, then we had a presumption of retaliation in our favor which would have given us 6 more months but in fact we stayed another 2 years. The landlady who had lived downstairs then moved out to a nursing home, we found a place to buy and we left, all on our own schedule.

Two comments for you. a) The cost of deleading has gone way down due to some recent changes in the law. b) Deleading usually involves putting in new windows which greatly and immediately enhance the value of the building. c) Even if he really has no money, if there's no mortgage, the owner can easily afford to delead using an equity loan. There are companies beating down the door of every homeowner trying to give them an equity loan. If he's very old, the right company or lender will probably be happy to let them take out the loan and make no payments ever, just letting the loan and interest accrue for the rest of his life. Send me the address by e-mail and I'll be able to see for myself (I have an online service) the tax assessor's valuation of the property and the mortgages on it.

Does he live in the same property? Is it 3 or fewer units? Does he own other units elsewhere?

A judge might say that if a person is old they should just get out of the business of being a landlord; it's not an excuse to meeting legal obligations.

If the reason for eviction is something other than the deleading, especially if it is for non-payment, you might want to have a lawyer involved. You can e-mail or call me for more information.