Free Massachusetts Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable Massachusetts residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to M.G.L. c. 186, §15B — the closed list of move-in payments, the in-state bank account, the ten-day statement of condition and the treble damages that follow a slip.

Massachusetts M.G.L. c. 186 §15B Treble Damages Free PDF 2026 Edition

A Massachusetts residential lease agreement is the written contract governed chiefly by Massachusetts General Laws chapter 186, and above all by §15B — the security deposit section that Massachusetts courts apply with something very close to strict liability and that carries treble damages plus court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. Massachusetts is the state where a generic multi-state template is not merely inaccurate but actively dangerous, because §15B(6)(c) makes using a lease clause that conflicts with the section, and attempting to enforce it, a forfeiture event in its own right. The clause is the violation. On top of chapter 186 sit the lead law in chapter 111, summary process in chapter 239, and the Attorney General’s rental regulation at 940 CMR 3.17, made under the consumer protection act, chapter 93A — which is where two of the load-bearing duties actually live. This page states each rule from the codified text and generates a lease that matches it.

Complete the fields below to generate a Massachusetts residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the bank details, the statement-of-condition date and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling Massachusetts section at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening. Pair the signed lease with a Massachusetts move-in / move-out checklist, because in Massachusetts the written record of move-in condition is what §15B(4) tests every later deduction against.

Massachusetts recognises two core residential arrangements and the difference between them runs through every notice period on this page. A lease for a term — usually twelve months — runs to a fixed end date and expires by its own limitation. A tenancy at will, which Massachusetts practice calls a month-to-month tenancy, has no end date and continues from rental period to rental period until one side determines it under c. 186, §12. Chapter 186 is titled “Estates for Years and at Will”, which is exactly that division.

Three further arrangements sit inside those two. A sublease passes the tenant’s interest to a subtenant while leaving the original tenant liable to the landlord. A roommate or room rental is a tenancy in part of a dwelling; where the arrangement is in a licensed rooming or lodging house, c. 186, §17 converts occupancy of three consecutive months into a tenancy at will with the full protection of chapters 186, 111 and 239, excepting fraternity, sorority and educational dormitories. Occupancy of more than thirty consecutive days but less than three months, or in a dormitory for any period, is terminable on seven days’ written notice; and where the rent is daily or weekly, seven days’ written notice will terminate for a nuisance, substantial damage, or substantial interference with the comfort, safety or enjoyment of the landlord or other occupants — a notice that must specify the nuisance or interference relied on. A commercial lease is outside all of this, and Massachusetts has a specific trap on that point set out further down.

An oral tenancy is enforceable in Massachusetts as a tenancy at will, and the statute of frauds does not defeat it, but it is a poor idea for a different reason: almost every duty on this page is a duty to give the tenant something in writing, and an oral arrangement makes each of them harder to prove. Note too that c. 186, §15D specifically addresses the halfway case — a lessor who agreed orally to execute a lease and obtained the lessee’s signature must deliver a copy duly signed and executed by the lessor within thirty days, on pain of a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, with any waiver void.

Four things, and nothing else. M.G.L. c. 186, §15B(1)(b) is a closed list, and it is the most important sentence in Massachusetts residential landlord-tenant law for anyone drafting a lease. At or prior to the commencement of any tenancy, a landlord may require only:

• Rent for the first full month of occupancy.
• Rent for the last full month of occupancy, calculated at the same rate as the first month.
• A security deposit equal to the first month’s rent — and only provided the deposit is held as subsection (3) requires and the tenant is given the statement of condition subsection (2) requires.
• The purchase and installation cost for a key and lock.

There is no lawful application fee, no processing fee, no pet fee or pet deposit, no cleaning fee, no administrative fee, no move-in fee, no amenity fee and no holding fee at or before the start of a Massachusetts tenancy. Collecting one is not a drafting infelicity; it is a violation of §15B, and §15B(8) makes any lease provision conflicting with the section void and unenforceable as against public policy.

The August 2025 amendment. The introductory words of §15B(1)(b) were rewritten by the acts of 2025, chapter 9, sections 54 and 55, effective August 1, 2025. The paragraph now reads that no lessor or agent of the lessor may require a tenant or prospective tenant to pay, to the lessor or to an agent of the lessor, any amount in excess of those four items. That is the change that ended the practice of loading a broker’s fee onto a tenant who never engaged the broker. It matters for a second reason too: the official malegislature.gov page for §15B still publishes both the pre-amendment and post-amendment versions of that paragraph side by side, with bracketed effectivity notes. A page built from the first block is a year out of date, and none of the templates currently ranking for this query carries the amendment at all.

After the tenancy starts, §15B(1)(d) closes the other door: no landlord or successor in interest may at any time thereafter demand rent in advance in excess of the current month’s rent, or a security deposit in excess of the amount the section allows. And the payment in advance made under the section binds all successors in interest, which is what makes the transfer rules in §15B(5) and (7A) work.

The fee in lieu of a deposit. The same 2025 amendment authorises — but does not itself create — a fee in lieu of a security deposit. The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities may promulgate regulations permitting one, and the statute prescribes what any such regulations must contain: the fee must be optional for both parties, the tenant must be able to opt out at any time by paying the deposit instead, the fee must be disclosed in the lease as wholly or partly non-refundable and acknowledged by the tenant in writing, it must be offered to every approved applicant regardless of income, race, gender, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, immigration status, household size or credit score, those factors may not be used to set its amount, the money must be applied to unpaid rent or unit damage under the tenant’s lease, and the fee together with any deposit may not exceed one month’s rent in total. Until those regulations are in force the ordinary deposit rules are the only lawful route, and this page does not treat the fee as currently available.

One month’s rent, and even that is conditional. §15B(1)(b)(iii) permits a security deposit equal to the first month’s rent provided the deposit is deposited as required by subsection (3) and the tenant is given the statement of condition required by subsection (2). Read that as a warning rather than a formality: the lawfulness of the deposit itself is tied to the two compliance steps that follow it.

There is no furnished-apartment uplift. A figure that circulates widely — one month’s rent plus an additional amount reflecting the value of the furnishings — does not appear anywhere in the current codified text of §15B, and a landlord who relies on it is over the cap.

The deposit also does not become the landlord’s money. §15B(1)(e) provides that a security deposit continues to be the property of the tenant, shall not be commingled with the assets of the lessor, and is not subject to the claims of any creditor of the lessor or of the lessor’s successor in interest, including a foreclosing mortgagee or a trustee in bankruptcy. The only interest the tenant gives up is the right to more interest than subsection (3)(b) provides.

In a separate, interest-bearing account in a bank located within the Commonwealth. That is the whole of §15B(3)(a)’s first requirement, and the geography is not decorative — a deposit sitting in an out-of-state account is not held as the section requires. The account terms must place the deposit beyond the claim of the landlord’s creditors, including a foreclosing mortgagee or a trustee in bankruptcy, and must provide for its transfer to a subsequent owner of the property.

Then comes the receipt. Within thirty days after the deposit is received, the landlord must give the tenant a receipt indicating the name and location of the bank in which the deposit has been placed, and the amount and account number of the deposit. The consequence of missing it is stated in the same paragraph: “Failure to comply with this paragraph shall entitle the tenant to immediate return of the security deposit.” No damage claim, no cure period — the money goes back.

Failing to hold the deposit in a proper account is also the first of the three failures that carry treble damages under §15B(7). This is the single most expensive mistake in the Massachusetts deposit code, and it is committed by every landlord who banks a deposit into an operating account.

Separately, §15B(2)(b) requires a signed receipt at the moment the deposit is taken, stating the amount, the name of the person receiving it and, where an agent takes it, the name of the lessor, the date received, and a description of the premises. Two receipts, then, on two different clocks: one at payment, one within thirty days once the bank is known.

The document that decides the move-out dispute. Under §15B(2)(c), a landlord who accepts a security deposit must, upon receipt of that deposit or within ten days after the commencement of the tenancy, whichever is later, furnish the tenant a separate written statement of the present condition of the premises. It must contain a comprehensive listing of any damage then existing, including but not limited to any state sanitary or state building code violations certified by a local board of health or building official or adjudicated by a court. It must be signed by the landlord or the landlord’s agent. And it must carry, in twelve-point bold-face type at the top of the first page, the notice the statute writes out in full — telling the tenant to read it, to sign it if correct, to attach a separate signed list of any damage the tenant believes exists if it is not, and warning that a failure to return the list within the specified period may later be treated by a court as agreement that the list is complete and correct.

The tenant then has fifteen days after receiving the statement, or after moving in, whichever is later, to return it or to submit a separate signed list. If the tenant submits a list, the landlord has fifteen days from receiving it to return a copy with either the landlord’s signed agreement or a clear statement of disagreement attached.

The payoff is in §15B(4): no amount may be deducted from the security deposit for any damage listed on that statement, or on any separate tenant list the landlord signed, unless the landlord subsequently repaired the damage and can prove the renewed damage was unrelated to the prior damage and was caused by the tenant or someone under the tenant’s control. A landlord who never issues a statement of condition has no baseline at all, and a tenant who never returns one has, by the statute’s own warning, weakened the argument at move-out. This is why the move-in inspection is a legal step in Massachusetts rather than good practice.

Yes — and on last month’s rent too, on a different clock. Massachusetts runs two interest duties in parallel and most summaries describe only one.

The security deposit (§15B(3)(b)). A landlord who holds a deposit for one year or longer from the commencement of the term must, beginning with the first day of the tenancy, pay interest at five per cent per year, or such lesser amount of interest as has been received from the bank, payable to the tenant at the end of each year of the tenancy. At the end of each year the landlord must give or send a statement showing the name and address of the bank, the amount of the deposit, the account number and the interest payable, and must at the same time pay the interest or notify the tenant that it may be deducted from the next rent payment. If thirty days after the end of a tenancy year the tenant has received neither payment nor notice, the tenant may deduct the interest from the next rent. Where the tenancy ends before an anniversary, all accrued interest is due within thirty days of termination.

Last month’s rent (§15B(2)(a)). Rent taken in advance for the last month is not a security deposit and does not count against the deposit cap — but it carries its own regime. The receipt must be given at the time of the advance payment and must state the amount, the date received, its intended application as rent for the last month, the name of the person receiving it and, for an agent, the name of the lessor, a description of the premises, a statement that the tenant is entitled to interest at five per cent per year or such lesser rate as the bank paid, and a statement that the tenant should provide a forwarding address at the end of the tenancy. Interest here runs from the first day of the tenancy with no one-year qualifying period, is paid over each year with a statement, and is deductible from the next rent if not received within thirty days of the year end. No interest accrues for the last month itself. And the sanction is specific: if the landlord fails to pay the interest due within thirty days after termination of the tenancy, the tenant is awarded three times that interest, together with court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.

Thirty days. §15B(4) requires the landlord, within thirty days after the termination of occupancy under a tenancy at will or the end of the tenancy specified in a valid written lease, to return the security deposit or any balance. Exactly three deductions are permitted:

• Unpaid rent or water charges which have not been validly withheld or deducted under any general or special law — the qualification matters, because rent withheld under c. 239, §8A or spent under c. 111, §127L is not “unpaid rent” for this purpose.
• An unpaid increase in real estate taxes the tenant is obliged to pay under a tax escalation clause that conforms to c. 186, §15C.
• A reasonable amount necessary to repair damage caused by the tenant, or by a person under the tenant’s control or on the premises with the tenant’s consent — reasonable wear and tear excluded.

For damage, the landlord must provide within the same thirty days an itemized list of damages, sworn to by the landlord or the landlord’s agent under the pains and penalties of perjury, itemising in precise detail the nature of the damage and of the repairs necessary to correct it, together with written evidence — estimates, bills, invoices or receipts — indicating the actual or estimated cost. The statute closes with a sentence that removes any residual discretion: “No deduction may be made from the security deposit for any purpose other than those set forth in this section.”

One preserved right sits alongside all this. Nothing in §15B limits a landlord’s right to recover from a tenant who wilfully or maliciously destroys or damages property, to the forfeiture of a security deposit, where the cost of repair or replacement exceeds the deposit.

This is the question the ranking templates answer wrongly, and the distinction is worth reading twice.

§15B(6) — forfeiture. A landlord forfeits the right to retain any portion of the security deposit for any reason, and the right in any tenant action to recover the deposit to counterclaim for damage to the premises, if the landlord:

• (a) fails to deposit the funds in an account as required by subsection (3);
• (b) fails to furnish the tenant, within thirty days after the termination of the occupancy, the itemized list of damages in compliance with the section;
• (c) uses in any lease signed by the tenant any provision which conflicts with any provision of the section and attempts to enforce it, or attempts to obtain from the tenant or prospective tenant a waiver of any provision of the section;
• (d) fails to transfer the deposit to a successor in interest, or otherwise comply with subsection (5), after succeeding to an interest in residential real property; or
• (e) fails to return the deposit or the balance to which the tenant is entitled, with interest, within thirty days after termination of the tenancy.

§15B(7) — treble damages. “If the lessor or his agent fails to comply with clauses (a), (d), or (e) of subsection 6, the tenant shall be awarded damages in an amount equal to three times the amount of such security deposit or balance thereof to which the tenant is entitled plus interest at the rate of five per cent from the date when such payment became due, together with court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.”

So: the wrong account, the un-transferred deposit on a sale, and the late return treble. A late itemized list under (b), and a conflicting lease clause under (c), forfeit the deposit but are not automatically trebled by subsection (7). That is not a reason to relax about (b) and (c) — forfeiting the entire deposit and every counterclaim for damage to the unit is a severe outcome on its own, and a §15B breach is routinely pleaded in the alternative as an unfair or deceptive practice under chapter 93A, which carries its own doubling or trebling for a wilful or knowing violation, plus attorney’s fees. But it is the distinction a competent Massachusetts lease is drafted around.

Two further forfeiture-adjacent rules complete the picture. §15B(2)(d) requires the landlord to keep, for each unit for which a deposit was accepted, a record of the damage, the date occupancy ended, whether repairs were made with their dates, cost and receipts, and copies of every receipt and statement of condition given; that record must be available for inspection by a tenant or prospective tenant during normal business hours and kept for two years after the tenancy ends, and a wrongful failure to make it available entitles the tenant to immediate return of the deposit with accrued interest. And §15B(5) requires a landlord transferring the property to hand the deposit and accrued interest to the successor, who must notify the tenant in writing within forty-five days giving the lessor’s name, business address and business telephone number and those of any agent.

§15B(9) supplies the only exemption in the section: it does not apply to a lease, rental, occupancy or tenancy of one hundred days or less that is for a vacation or recreational purpose.

Massachusetts sets no notice period at all — and that is the point most pages get backwards. There is no twenty-four-hour rule and no forty-eight-hour rule anywhere in the General Laws. What §15B(1)(a) does is restrict the purposes for which a residential lease may permit entry before the lease ends. A lease may permit the lessor to enter only to inspect the premises, to make repairs, or to show the unit to a prospective tenant, purchaser, mortgagee or its agents. Three further grounds sit outside the lease: entry in accordance with a court order; entry where the premises appear to have been abandoned; and entry to inspect, within the last thirty days of the tenancy or after either party has given notice of intention to terminate, for the purpose of determining the amount of damage that would be cause for a deposit deduction.

A lease clause purporting to allow entry for any other reason is exactly the kind of conflicting provision that §15B(8) voids and §15B(6)(c) penalises. 940 CMR 3.17(6)(e) mirrors the same closed list as a consumer-protection duty, so entry outside it is also an unfair or deceptive act under chapter 93A. And entry used to pressure or harass a tenant is an interference with quiet enjoyment under c. 186, §14 — three months’ rent or actual and consequential damages, whichever is greater, plus costs and fees, with a criminal penalty attached.

The practical drafting answer is therefore the opposite of what a multi-state template supplies. Do not recite an hour count Massachusetts has not enacted. State the statutory purposes, commit to reasonable advance notice at reasonable times as a matter of contract, and use the Massachusetts notice to enter property form so there is a record of it.

No interest and no penalty may be imposed until the rent is thirty days overdue. §15B(1)(c) is one sentence long: “No lease or other rental agreement shall impose any interest or penalty for failure to pay rent until thirty days after such rent shall have been due.” Massachusetts does not cap the size of a late fee. It delays it — by a full month.

940 CMR 3.17(6)(a) restates the rule from the consumer-protection side, making it an unfair and deceptive practice for an owner to impose any interest or penalty for late payment of rent unless the payment is thirty days overdue. So the familiar template clause — a five-day grace period and a fee on the sixth day — is not merely unenforceable in Massachusetts; charging under it exposes the landlord to chapter 93A damages, doubled or trebled for a wilful or knowing violation, plus attorney’s fees.

Massachusetts also supplies no statutory dishonoured-cheque fee for residential rent. A charge that functions as a penalty for late payment is caught by the same thirty-day bar. If rent is chronically late, the remedy Massachusetts actually gives is the fourteen-day notice to quit, and our Massachusetts late rent notice and fourteen-day notice to pay rent or quit cover the sequence.

There is no rent-increase statute in Massachusetts, so there is no statutory notice period. Under a lease for a term the rent simply cannot be changed during the term. On a tenancy at will, changing the rent means changing the tenancy, and the way to change a tenancy at will is the notice under c. 186, §12 — three months, or the rent interval or thirty days whichever is longer where rent is payable more often. That section expressly provides that the written notice may include an offer to establish a new tenancy for the same premises on terms different from that of the tenancy being terminated, and that the validity of the notice is not affected by including the offer. That is the mechanism Massachusetts actually supplies for a rent change.

There is also no local rent cap to consult. M.G.L. c. 40P, the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act, provides that no city or town may enact, maintain or enforce rent control of any kind, except that a municipality accepting the chapter may adopt regulation meeting three narrow conditions the section sets out. That is why Massachusetts, for all its tenant protections, has no statewide rent ceiling.

What Massachusetts does have is a presumption. A rent increase served within six months of protected tenant activity raises the reprisal presumption in c. 186, §18 and c. 239, §2A, rebuttable only by clear and convincing evidence. Our Massachusetts rent increase notice is built around that sequence.

A tenancy at will. c. 186, §12: estates at will may be determined by either party by three months’ notice in writing; and if the rent reserved is payable at periods of less than three months, the time of such notice is sufficient if it is equal to the interval between the days of payment or thirty days, whichever is longer. For an ordinary monthly tenancy that means a full rental period — which in a thirty-one-day month is thirty-one days, not thirty. That “whichever is longer” is what makes a flat thirty-day notice unsafe.

c. 186, §13 then adds a floor on possession. Where a tenancy at will of premises occupied for dwelling purposes is terminated without fault of the tenant, no action to recover possession may be brought and the tenant may not be dispossessed until a period equal to the rent interval or thirty days, whichever is longer, has expired from the tenant’s receipt of written notice; in a rooming house where rent is payable weekly or daily, seven days. The tenant remains liable for rent at the same rate while occupying. And — a rule that catches purchasers — a tenancy at will of a dwelling is not terminated by operation of law by conveyance, transfer, leasing or foreclosure.

A lease for a term expires on its date. A tenant who stays on without the landlord’s assent becomes a tenant at sufferance; Massachusetts has no double-rent holdover statute, and the route to possession is summary process. c. 239, §1A does allow a residential lessor to file before the term ends, but only on a written lease of at least six months with a designated termination date, a signed copy annexed to the summons, not before the last date for a renewal notice and in no case more than thirty days before the designated termination date, with registered-mail notice to every defendant within twenty-four hours and substantial grounds set out in the writ — and no execution may issue before the day after the designated termination date.

Early termination by a victim of domestic violence. c. 186, §§23 to 29 let a tenant or co-tenant terminate on written notification to the owner that a household member is a victim of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault or stalking, given within three months of the most recent act, or where a household member is reasonably in fear of imminent serious physical harm. The tenant must quit within three months or the notice is void. Liability for rent or use and occupancy is discharged for thirty days or one full rental period after the quitting date, whichever last occurs, prepaid rent for any later period is refundable, and a full and specific §15B statement and refund are due within thirty days. The owner may request proof — a chapter 209A or 258E order, a court or law enforcement record, or written verification from a qualified third party — and must keep it confidential. Other tenants remain liable. c. 186, §28 makes any waiver of §§23 to 27 void.

Our Massachusetts notice of non-renewal and tenant notice to vacate cover the ordinary endings.

Massachusetts nonpayment runs on fourteen days, but the cure right differs by tenancy, and this is where secondary summaries go astray most often.

Under a written lease — c. 186, §11. Upon the tenant’s neglect or refusal to pay rent due under a written lease, fourteen days’ notice to quit given in writing is sufficient to determine the lease, unless the tenant, on or before the day the answer is due in the landlord’s action to recover possession, pays or tenders to the landlord or the landlord’s attorney all rent then due, with interest and costs of suit. The cure right therefore runs into the litigation, and it is not limited to once a year.

On a tenancy at will — c. 186, §12. Fourteen days’ notice determines the tenancy, provided that the tenancy of a tenant who has not received a similar notice within the preceding twelve months is not determined if the tenant, within ten days after receiving it, pays or tenders to the landlord, the landlord’s attorney, or the person to whom the tenant customarily pays rent, the full amount of any rent due. And §12 requires the notice itself to contain the statutory notification about that right, in the words the section supplies. If the notice omits it, the tenant’s time to pay or tender is extended to the day the answer is due — though the omission does not otherwise invalidate the notice.

A commercial section that is not a residential one. c. 186, §11A is titled “Termination of lease for nonpayment of rent” and is frequently listed alongside §11 in residential summaries. Read its first line: it applies to a written lease of premises for other than dwelling purposes. It is a commercial section, its cure right applies only where the landlord terminates by fourteen days’ notice rather than under the lease’s own provisions, and it has no application to a residential tenancy at all.

Both sections require a court, where the nonpayment was caused by a failure or delay of the federal government, the Commonwealth or a municipality in mailing or delivering a subsistence or rental payment, cheque or voucher, to continue the hearing not less than seven days and, if the arrears with interest and costs are tendered in that time, to treat the tenancy as not having been terminated.

Waiving those notices is void. c. 186, §15A voids as against public policy any provision of a residential lease whose effect is to waive the notices required under §11 or §12.

Possession comes only from a court. Recovery of possession is by summary process under c. 239, never by self-help. Removing or excluding a tenant except pursuant to a valid court order triggers c. 186, §15F: the tenant may recover possession or terminate the tenancy and, in either case, recover three months’ rent or three times the damages sustained, plus the cost of suit including reasonable attorney’s fees. Attempting to regain possession by force without benefit of judicial process is separately a crime under c. 186, §14. c. 239, §§9 to 11 permit a discretionary stay of execution on deposit, and c. 239, §12 makes any lease waiver of those stay provisions void for residential premises. Our Massachusetts notice to cure or quit and unconditional quit notice cover the non-payment grounds.

The habitability standard is not in the lease and not in chapter 186. It is the State Sanitary Code, Chapter II — Minimum Standards of Fitness for Human Habitation, at 105 CMR 410, adopted under M.G.L. c. 111, §127A and enforced by local boards of health. Massachusetts also recognises an implied warranty of habitability in every residential tenancy. A lease cannot contract out of either.

The most-cited provision is the heat standard at 105 CMR 410.201: during the heating season, which runs from the sixteenth of September to the fourteenth of June, the owner must provide heat in every habitable room and every room containing a toilet, shower or bathtub at not less than sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit between seven in the morning and eleven at night and not less than sixty-four degrees between one minute past eleven at night and one minute to seven in the morning — and the temperature may at no time exceed seventy-eight degrees during that season.

Written notice of an unsafe condition — c. 186, §19. A landlord of any real estate except an owner-occupied two- or three-family dwelling must, within a reasonable time after receiving written notice from a tenant sent by registered or certified mail of an unsafe condition not caused by the tenant, the tenant’s invitee or a person occupying through the tenant, exercise reasonable care to correct it. No notice is needed for unsafe conditions in a part of the premises not under the tenant’s control, and a notice from a board of health or other code enforcement agency satisfies the requirement. A tenant or other person rightfully on the premises who is injured as a result of the failure has a right of action in tort. Any waiver in a residential lease is void. c. 186, §15E adds that an owner cannot defend a common-area injury claim on the ground that the defect existed at the time of the letting, where the defect violates the local building code at the time of the injury.

Repair and deduct — M.G.L. c. 111, §127L, capped at four months’ rent. The Massachusetts limit is expressed in rent, not dollars. The right unlocks only when every condition is met: violations of the standards of fitness for human habitation, or of other applicable law, that may endanger or materially impair the health, safety or well-being of the tenant, so certified by the board of health, the local code enforcement agency, the commissioner of housing inspection in Boston, Worcester or Cambridge, or by a court; the owner notified in writing; and the owner having failed to begin all necessary repairs, or to contract in writing with a third party for them, within five days of that notice, and to substantially complete them within fourteen days — or within any shorter period a board, agency or court has ordered.

The tenant may then repair, and deduct the cost from rent subsequently due, up to four months’ rent in any twelve-month period or period of occupancy, whichever is shorter, computed on the highest monthly rent during that period. Where the violation affects more than one unit or a common area, four months’ rent is the total across all affected tenants. Alternatively the tenant may treat the lease as abrogated, pay only the fair value of use and occupation, and vacate within a reasonable time.

The section also has guardrails for the owner. An excessive or unreasonable deduction is recoverable in contract but not in an action for possession, and the criteria for unreasonableness include the alternatives available to the tenant, the urgency of the repair, and the quality and cost of the work. No owner may increase rent because of repairs made under §127L except by court order, and c. 186, §18 applies to any such increase. The right does not extend to conditions caused by the tenant, the tenant’s household, guest or business invitee, and is lost where the tenant has unreasonably denied access. A lease waiver of §127L is void — with one exception: a covenant in a lease of two years’ duration, not counting renewals, in which the tenant undertakes defined repairs or renovations in consideration for a substantially lower rent.

Rent withholding — M.G.L. c. 239, §8A. In a summary process action brought on a notice to quit for nonpayment, or where the tenancy was terminated without the tenant’s fault, the tenant may raise by defence or counterclaim any claim arising out of the property, rental, tenancy or occupancy for breach of warranty, for breach of a material lease provision, or for violation of any other law — including the difference between the agreed rent and the fair value of use and occupation, and amounts reasonably spent under §127L. Proof that the premises violate the standard of fitness and that the conditions may endanger or materially impair health, safety or well-being creates a presumption in the tenant’s favour, and proof of written notice of a board of health inspection creates a presumption that the owner knew.

The outcome rule is the one landlords underestimate: there is no recovery of possession where the amount found due the landlord equals or is less than the amount found due the tenant. Where the landlord’s figure is higher, the tenant may still keep possession by paying the balance to the clerk within one week of written notice of it. Any provision purporting to waive §8A is against public policy and void.

Massachusetts is unusually penalty-heavy, and the penalties are spread across several chapters rather than gathered in one place.

Quiet enjoyment — c. 186, §14. A landlord required by law or by the express or implied terms of the tenancy to furnish water, hot water, heat, light, power, gas, elevator service, telephone service, janitor service or refrigeration service who wilfully or intentionally fails to furnish it when necessary to the proper or customary use of the dwelling; or who directly or indirectly interferes with another’s furnishing of those services; or who transfers responsibility for a utility bill to the occupant without the occupant’s knowledge or consent; or who directly or indirectly interferes with the quiet enjoyment of residential premises; or who attempts to regain possession by force without benefit of judicial process — shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than three hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than six months. The same person is also liable for actual and consequential damages or three months’ rent, whichever is greater, plus the costs of the action including a reasonable attorney’s fee, all of which may be applied in setoff or recoupment against a claim for rent. The Superior and District Courts have equity jurisdiction to restrain violations. Any waiver in a lease is void, outside two narrow exceptions for government-imposed service restrictions and interruptions during necessary repairs or from natural causes beyond the landlord’s control.

Unlawful ouster — c. 186, §15F. Three months’ rent or three times the damages sustained, plus the cost of suit including reasonable attorney’s fees. The same section voids a jury-trial waiver and any clause agreeing that no act or failure to act by the landlord is a constructive eviction.

Reprisal — c. 186, §18. Damages of not less than one month’s rent and not more than three months’ rent, or the actual damages sustained, whichever is greater, plus the costs of suit including a reasonable attorney’s fee.

Security deposit — c. 186, §15B. Three times the deposit plus five per cent interest, court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees for a clause (a), (d) or (e) failure; forfeiture of the whole deposit and of any counterclaim for damage for any of the five; three times the interest on last month’s rent, plus costs and fees, for a failure to pay it within thirty days of termination.

Lead — c. 111, §197A(e). All damages caused by the failure, plus a penalty not to exceed one thousand dollars, and an unfair and deceptive act under chapter 93A where the owner is engaged in trade or commerce. c. 111, §199A adds that refusing to rent to, refusing to renew, or evicting families with children on lead grounds is an unlawful practice under chapter 151B and also violates chapter 93A and c. 186, §18.

Smaller fines. Not more than three hundred dollars for failing to deliver the orally agreed lease under §15D; not more than five hundred dollars for failing to disclose the fire insurance information under §21.

And on top of all of it — chapter 93A. c. 93A, §2(a) declares unfair or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce unlawful, and §2(c) is the authority under which the Attorney General made 940 CMR 3.17. c. 93A, §9 supplies actual damages or twenty-five dollars, whichever is greater, doubled or trebled where the violation was wilful or knowing or where relief was refused in bad faith on a written demand, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The tenant must send a written demand for relief thirty days before filing — but that requirement does not apply where the claim is asserted as a counterclaim or cross-claim, which is precisely how it arrives in most eviction cases.

Only under M.G.L. c. 186, §22, and the conditions are cumulative. This section is missing from every ranking template and it is a live compliance trap in triple-deckers and small multifamily buildings.

Submetering equipment meeting American Water Works Association accuracy and testing standards must be installed by a licensed plumber at the landlord’s expense for every dwelling unit and for the common areas, so that all water used in the building is measured by both the primary meter and a submeter. Low-flow showerheads and faucets and ultra-low-flush water closets must be installed and functioning in the unit. The landlord must certify compliance to the board of health under the penalties of perjury. The unit becomes eligible only on the commencement of a new tenancy — first occupancy, or after the previous tenant left voluntarily or was evicted for nonpayment or breach — and never for a tenant relocated involuntarily within the same building or complex. There must be a signed written rental agreement that clearly and conspicuously provides for the charge and fully discloses the billing arrangement in plain language. The total charged may not exceed the landlord’s own calculated cost per unit of water.

And §22(j) is categorical: the landlord may not charge or recover any additional servicing, administrative, establishment, meter-reading, meter-testing, billing or submetering fee whatsoever, however denominated. The landlord may not shut off or refuse water service because a submetered charge is unpaid, retains the duty to maintain the water supply system and every submeter in good working order, and must credit or rebate a leak or a mis-reading submeter under §22(n) and (o).

Massachusetts does not gather its prohibited terms in one list the way a uniform-act state does; it scatters them, and it attaches a distinctive consequence. Under §15B(6)(c), using in any lease signed by the tenant a provision that conflicts with §15B and attempting to enforce it — or attempting to obtain a waiver of any provision of the section — costs the landlord the right to retain any part of the security deposit and the right to counterclaim for damage to the premises. In most states a bad clause is simply void. In Massachusetts the bad clause is itself the violation. This lease may not, and does not, contain:

• Any provision conflicting with §15B, or any waiver of it — void and unenforceable as against public policy under §15B(8).
• Any move-in payment beyond the four permitted — §15B(1)(b).
• Any interest or penalty on rent before it is thirty days overdue — §15B(1)(c) and 940 CMR 3.17(6)(a).
• Any entry right beyond inspection, repairs and showing the unit — §15B(1)(a).
• Any exculpation or indemnity clause holding the landlord harmless or limiting liability for injury, loss, damage or liability arising from the landlord’s omission, fault, negligence or other misconduct on or about the premises or any elevator, stairway, hallway or other appurtenance — c. 186, §15, which is the non-liability section and is frequently mislabelled in secondary summaries.
• Any waiver of the §11 or §12 notices — c. 186, §15A.
• Any waiver of trial by jury, or any clause that no act or failure to act by the landlord is a constructive eviction — c. 186, §15F.
• Any waiver of the quiet-enjoyment protection — c. 186, §14.
• Any clause permitting termination because the tenant has or will have a child — c. 186, §16.
• A tax escalator clause that does not state the tenant’s proportionate share, the exact percentage, and the abatement refund — c. 186, §15C.
• Any waiver of repair and deduct — c. 111, §127L, save the two-year defined-repairs-for-lower-rent covenant.
• Any waiver of the rent-withholding defence and counterclaim — c. 239, §8A.
• Any waiver of the reprisal protection, the unsafe-condition duty, the common-area defect rule, the insurance disclosure, the lease-copy duty, or the domestic-violence protections — §§18, 19, 15E, 21, 15D and 28.
• Any waiver of the stay-of-execution provisions for residential premises — c. 239, §12.

The attorney-fee clause is permitted — but the law makes it reciprocal. c. 186, §20 does not ban a landlord fee clause and does not require the lease to say anything. Where a residential lease provides that the landlord may recover attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred as a result of the tenant’s failure to perform a covenant, or that amounts the landlord paid are payable by the tenant as additional rent, there shall be implied in that lease a covenant by the landlord to pay the tenant’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred as a result of the landlord’s failure to perform, and in the successful defence of any action or summary proceeding the landlord commenced arising out of the lease — recoverable in a separate action or by counterclaim. Any waiver of §20 is void as against public policy. A one-way Massachusetts fee clause therefore does not exist: drafting one for the landlord creates the tenant’s matching right automatically. The optional clause in the form above generates only the reciprocal version, which is the only version the law will read into the lease anyway.

Massachusetts spreads its lease disclosures across chapter 186, the lead law in chapter 111, and the Attorney General’s rental regulation. Two of the most important are not in the General Laws at all, which is why a page assembled from the statute book alone is incomplete.

Statement of condition — c. 186, §15B(2)(c). Within ten days of the start of the tenancy or on receipt of the deposit, whichever is later, in twelve-point bold-face type, with the fifteen-day exchange described above.

Security deposit receipt — c. 186, §15B(2)(b). Signed, at the time of payment, stating the amount, the recipient, the lessor where an agent takes it, the date and a description of the premises.

Bank receipt — c. 186, §15B(3)(a). Within thirty days: the name and location of the bank, the amount, and the account number.

Last month’s rent receipt and interest notice — c. 186, §15B(2)(a). At the time of payment, with the statement of the five per cent interest entitlement and the forwarding-address reminder.

Owner and maintenance identification — 940 CMR 3.17(3)(b). The names, addresses and telephone numbers of the owner and of anyone responsible for the care, maintenance and repair of the property, and of the person authorised to receive notices of violations of law and accept service of process — stated fully and conspicuously in the agreement itself, in simple and readily understandable language.

Executed copy of the lease within thirty days — 940 CMR 3.17(3)(c), with c. 186, §15D. Yes, Massachusetts does require this, and no, it is not in chapter 186 for the ordinary written lease. The regulation makes it an unfair and deceptive practice to fail to give the tenant an executed copy of any written rental agreement within thirty days of obtaining the tenant’s signature on it.

Massachusetts Tenant Lead Law Notification — c. 111, §197A(d). The section is titled “Notice to prospective purchasers” and most of it concerns sales — another reason to read the statute rather than a citation list. The tenant duty is in subsection (d): before entering into a tenancy agreement the owner, or the person to whom rent is regularly paid, must provide the prospective tenant with the standard notification form and materials, completed with the owner’s or managing agent’s name, address and telephone number and the address and telephone number of the state childhood lead poisoning prevention program; a copy of the most recent lead paint inspection report, letter of interim control, letter of compliance or abatement plan applicable to the unit and to the common areas or exterior surfaces; and two copies of a statement certifying that the tenant received all of it, one for each side — and the statute expressly permits that certification to be included as a provision of the written tenancy agreement, which is how the generator handles it. The owner must also disclose any actually known location of lead-bearing paint, plaster or accessible structural material, including material that has been covered or encapsulated.

Federal lead-based paint — 42 U.S.C. 4852d. Required for any dwelling built before 1978, in addition to the Massachusetts notification rather than instead of it. Our Massachusetts lead-based paint disclosure form handles the federal side.

Fire insurance on written request — c. 186, §21. Within fifteen days of a written request from a tenant, lawful occupant, code or law enforcement official or municipal official, the landlord must disclose in writing the name of the company insuring the property against loss or damage by fire, the amount of insurance each provides, and the name of any person who would receive payment for a covered loss. A fine of up to five hundred dollars; a waiver is void.

Water submetering — c. 186, §22(f), and tax escalator — c. 186, §15C, each required whenever the corresponding charge is passed to the tenant, and each described in its own section above.

Massachusetts does not require a radon, flood-risk, mold, asbestos, methamphetamine, military ordnance, demolition, sex-offender registry, fire sprinkler or shared-utility disclosure in a residential lease. Each of those comes from another state’s statute book. Massachusetts also has no statewide infestation-disclosure statute, although renting a unit with a known infestation breaches the sanitary code and 940 CMR 3.17(1), and some municipalities impose their own bed bug rules.

Yes, and it is one of the strongest in the country. M.G.L. c. 186, §18 makes a person who threatens or takes reprisals against a residential tenant liable for damages of not less than one month’s rent and not more than three months’ rent, or the actual damages sustained, whichever is greater, plus the costs of suit including a reasonable attorney’s fee. The protected activities are broad: commencing, proceeding with or obtaining relief in a judicial or administrative action to enforce any law regulating residential premises; exercising rights under c. 164, §124D; reporting a violation or suspected violation of a health or building code, or of any other law regulating residential premises, to the board of health or, in Boston, the commissioner of housing inspection; reporting or complaining of such a violation in writing to the landlord or the landlord’s agent; organising or joining a tenants’ union; and making or expressing an intention to make a payment of rent to an organisation of unit owners under c. 183A, §6(c).

The presumption is the operative part. Receipt of a notice of termination other than for nonpayment of rent, of an increase in rent, or of any substantial alteration in the terms of the tenancy within six months after the tenant engaged in protected activity — or after any other person did so on the tenant’s behalf or in relation to the building — creates a rebuttable presumption that the notice or action is a reprisal. It is rebutted only by clear and convincing evidence that the action was not a reprisal, that the landlord had sufficient independent justification, and that the landlord would in fact have taken that action, in the same manner and at the same time, regardless of the tenant’s activity. Any waiver in a lease is void.

c. 239, §2A carries the same presumption into the eviction case as a defence to summary process, and extends the protected list to action taken under c. 209A, §3 or c. 258E, §3, to relief sought under c. 186, §§23 to 29, and to reporting domestic violence, rape, sexual assault or stalking, or a violation of a protective order, to police or law enforcement.

• Collecting a fifth payment at move-in. An application fee, pet fee, cleaning fee or administrative fee at or before the start of the tenancy breaches the closed list in §15B(1)(b).
• Letting a broker bill the tenant. Since August 1, 2025 the ceiling binds an agent of the lessor and covers payments made to an agent.
• Banking the deposit into the operating account. §15B(3)(a) requires a separate interest-bearing account in a bank located within the Commonwealth, and this is a treble-damages failure.
• Never sending the thirty-day bank receipt. The tenant is entitled to immediate return of the deposit.
• Omitting the account number from the receipt. The statute names it expressly alongside the bank and the amount.
• Skipping the statement of condition, or sending it late. Ten days, twelve-point bold-face, and it is the only baseline §15B(4) will let you deduct against.
• Deducting for something already listed on the statement of condition. Barred outright by §15B(4) unless the landlord repaired it and can prove the new damage is unrelated.
• Forgetting deposit interest, or paying it only at move-out. Five per cent a year with an annual statement where the deposit is held a year or longer.
• Forgetting last month’s rent interest entirely. It runs from day one with no qualifying period, and a failure to pay within thirty days of termination costs three times the interest plus costs and fees.
• Returning the deposit late. Thirty days, and this is the third treble-damages failure.
• Sending an unsworn itemized list, or one without estimates or receipts. §15B(4) requires it sworn under the pains and penalties of perjury with written evidence of cost.
• Selling the building without transferring the deposit. §15B(5), and the successor has forty-five days to notify the tenant.
• Charging a late fee on day six. No interest or penalty until the rent is thirty days overdue — §15B(1)(c) and 940 CMR 3.17(6)(a).
• Reciting a twenty-four-hour entry notice. Massachusetts has no hour count; it restricts the purposes instead, and a broader entry clause is a §15B(6)(c) forfeiture risk.
• Giving a flat thirty days to end a tenancy at will. §12 requires the rent interval or thirty days, whichever is longer — a full rental period.
• Omitting the ten-day cure notification from a fourteen-day notice to a tenant at will. The cure period is then extended to the day the answer is due.
• Relying on c. 186, §11A for a residential tenancy. It governs premises for other than dwelling purposes.
• Shutting off heat, hot water or electricity to force a tenant out. A crime under §14, plus three months’ rent or actual and consequential damages, whichever is greater.
• Changing the locks without a court order. §15F: three months’ rent or treble damages, plus costs and fees.
• Raising the rent within six months of a written complaint. Presumed a reprisal under §18, rebuttable only by clear and convincing evidence.
• Copying a one-way attorney-fee clause. §20 implies the tenant’s matching right and voids any waiver.
• Adding a jury-trial waiver or a no-constructive-eviction clause. Both void under §15F.
• Adding an exculpation or hold-harmless clause. Void under §15.
• Billing water without submeters, conservation devices, certification and an express written clause. And never with an administrative or meter-reading fee — §22(j).
• Giving only the federal lead pamphlet. Massachusetts requires its own Tenant Lead Law Notification, the most recent report or letter, and two signed certifications, under c. 111, §197A(d).
• Never giving the tenant an executed copy of the lease. Thirty days from the tenant’s signature — 940 CMR 3.17(3)(c).

A well-drafted lease decides who wins a dispute; screening decides whether there is one. Massachusetts is the state where that matters most, because so many of its remedies turn on the landlord’s own compliance long before the tenant’s conduct is reached — three times the deposit for the wrong bank account, three months’ rent for a lockout, one to three months’ rent for a rent increase served at the wrong moment. Verifiable income, a clean payment history and no prior eviction filings remain the strongest predictors of a quiet tenancy, and Massachusetts allows no application fee to fund the check, so the cost sits with the landlord and the decision should be made properly. Our tenant screening report covers credit, eviction filings, criminal background and employment verification. Screen first, paper the tenancy with this lease, and keep our Massachusetts pet and assistance animal guide to hand before writing a pet clause — remembering that a pet deposit at move-in is not one of the four permitted payments.

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