Massachusetts Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in Massachusetts
Massachusetts law prohibits cities and towns from enacting rent control of any kind, allowing only a narrow opt-in scheme in which owner compliance is voluntary and the municipality must compensate owners from general funds — a pathway no municipality uses.
Cited to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40P, § 4 · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full Massachusetts rent-increase rules →
Massachusetts landlord-tenant laws by topic
Massachusetts security deposits
Massachusetts caps security deposits at one month's rent — and at move-in a landlord may collect only first month, last month, that deposit, and the cost of a new lock and key, nothing else.
Massachusetts rent increase notice
Massachusetts has no statute dedicated to rent-increase notice, but for tenants at will (month-to-month) the mechanism is built into the termination statute: a landlord raises rent by giving a written notice under G.L. c. 186, § 12 equal to the rent-payment interval or 30 days, whichever is longer — and the statute expressly allows that termination notice to include an offer of a new tenancy at different terms, which is how the rent-increase-by-notice-to-quit works.
Massachusetts late fees
Massachusetts law forbids any late fee, interest, or penalty on unpaid rent until the rent is a full 30 days overdue — the longest mandatory grace period in the country — and any lease clause purporting to charge earlier is void and unenforceable.
Massachusetts entry notice
Massachusetts sets no minimum hours of advance notice for landlord entry — the law instead restricts the purposes: a lease may permit entry only to inspect, make repairs, or show the unit to a prospective tenant, buyer, or lender, and beyond that a landlord may enter only with a court order, when the unit appears abandoned, or to inspect for deposit-deduction damage in the final 30 days of the tenancy.
Massachusetts eviction process
Massachusetts eviction — called 'summary process' — starts with a 14-day written notice to quit for nonpayment and runs, at its statutory fastest, about six to seven weeks from notice to lockout.
Massachusetts application & screening fees
Massachusetts does not allow a rental application fee: before a tenancy begins a landlord or the landlord's agent may require only rent for the first full month, rent for the last full month, a security deposit of no more than one month's rent, and the cost of a key and lock.
Massachusetts deposit interest
Massachusetts requires interest on a security deposit held for a year or longer, at five percent a year or the lower amount the bank actually paid on the account, whichever is less.
Massachusetts habitability & repairs
Massachusetts sets its habitability standards by regulation rather than by a single statute: the State Sanitary Code, 105 CMR 410.000, tells owners what a dwelling must have, and a landlord who falls short faces both code enforcement and private remedies.
Massachusetts lease termination
Massachusetts asks for three months' notice to end a tenancy at will, and the familiar 30 days is a floor that applies only where rent is payable at intervals of less than three months.
Massachusetts mobile home park laws
Massachusetts regulates manufactured housing communities under the Manufactured Housing Act, G.L. c. 140, §§ 32A-32S: a community may end a lot tenancy only on the five grounds the act lists and only after thirty days' certified notice with a chance to cure, closing a community or changing its use takes two years' written notice plus a payment to each resident of either their moving costs or the appraised value of the home, and a group representing at least fifty-one per cent of the home owners holds a right of first refusal when the community is sold.
Massachusetts Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Massachusetts metro area and county.
Changes since last full verification
The Verified date above (July 8, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).
- Correction, September 5, 2026 — Corrections from official reads: Tennessee's Jones v. VCPHCS I premises were office space, not a clinic; South Dakota's 2024 SB 90 was signed March 26, 2024 (three places said March 14) and § 16-2-58.2 was amended, not added, by 2026 ch. 93; Massachusetts' fee-in-lieu-of-deposit proviso came from St. 2024, c. 150, § 50, not St. 2025, c. 9 (which extended the move-in limit to the landlord's agent); Georgia's Alexander v. Steining holds that a rent-increase notice is itself the 60-day termination notice, so the higher rent cannot begin until the period has run; Missouri's § 441.043(2) preemption list is now stated in full.
- Updated, August 12, 2026 — Massachusetts' standing federal-shutdown eviction moratorium is now recorded. G.L. c. 239, § 17 (St. 2025, c. 73, § 54) switches on during a federal shutdown: no nonpayment termination or notice to quit against a documented impacted federal worker, a certification requirement on every summary process complaint, no default judgment, tolled deadlines, a 30-day continuance right, a late-fee bar with a credit-reporting bar (§ 17(e)), and landlord access to last month's rent held under c. 186, § 15B (§ 17(g)). Since July 1, 2026 a partial shutdown also triggers the section (St. 2026, c. 137, § 84). The section is not yet in the online General Laws, so the session laws are cited. The eviction page's discretionary-stay wording also now tracks the statute's current 'person with a disability' terminology (St. 2026, c. 102).
How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Massachusetts General Court site (malegislature.gov): G.L. c. 186, § 15B read in full (current text including the St. 2025, c. 9, §§ 54-55 amendments effective 2025-08-01), c. 186, § 12 read in full, c. 186 chapter index and c. 40P location confirmed on malegislature.gov, cross-checked against the Mass.gov official law-library pages on security deposits and landlord-tenant law (which also confirm c. 40P's continued force and the 2025 broker-fee change to c. 112, § 87DDD1/2).