State Specific Question About: MASSACHUSETTS (MA)

Tenant is argumentative and very hard to get along with. He supposedly has PTSD from serving in a war. I have finally had it and just want him to leave. The first line in the lease says: "This is a monthly lease beginning May 1, 2016". I think that line means the lease expires on its own at the end of each month?

Does this mean I should just have a constable serve a 30-day notice before the first of next month?

Do I need to have a reason why I want him to leave? I would rather not deal with his anger and just keep it simple if possible.

If you can offer advice, I am all ears and would appreciate it!

THank you in advance!

Did you write this lease? What did you expect it to be a lease or a monthly agreement? A lease is for a specific term and is renewable or converts to a monthly agreement. A monthly agreement, renews every month until one party notifies the other.

From what you wrote it appears as though your tenant is on a month to month rental agreement. Before the start of the next monthly rental period 10/01/2015) you need to notify your tenant in writing that you are terminating the agreement effective October 31, 2016. This notice does not have to be delivered by a constable or a sheriff. You just need to be able to prove that they received the notice on or before the start of the next rental period.

If they do not vacate on or before 10/31/16, you will need to have either a constable or a sheriff serve them with a summons to appear in court.

Sounds like you can give him 30days notice.

Out here in Kentucky on a month to month lease it's 30 days notice to end lease. No reason is needed, you are not continuing the lease.

Not to be argumentative, but your tenant was in "*A* war?" How about a 13-year war with multiple, sometimes back to back, tours of duty?

PTSD is a real issue. We used to call it "Shell Shock" remember that?

Sometimes telling the story to others smooths the way.

If the tenant is on a month to month lease, you can terminate.

Thank you for your responses. Much appreciated.

Steve [MA]: Can you confirm that I don't need to make reasonable accomModations for this tenant?

He has a va attorney who bilked his last landlord (who happens to be, which I didnt know at the time, my plumber) for four months worth of rent. This guy was bad enough that my plumber just paid him just to get rid of him.

THis tenant has:

Cut locks off my doors

found paint in the basement and painted my hardwoods

left his abandoned vehicle in the driveway so now only two of three tenants have a parking spot.

Brought fleas into the house (but I cant prove it) He is the only one who has animals (a cat)

Loaded my basement with stuff even though the lease says no storage, I let him use one pallet but he still took over the whole basement including my area. I had to build a physical wall to limit how much space he could occupy.

screamed at me when the plumber came to fix his shower telling me that I can never use that plumber again. THat is how I found out that he was my plumbers previous tenant.

Brought stray kittens into the house (my neighbors have seen it but I have not).

Sends me vulgur, long argumentative emails while I am trying to work my M-F job.

No one can come into the house without him ineterrogating them. He says it is part of his PTSD but no one wants to deal with him - they want to be left alone. He is one of those people who get physically into your private space.

He is capable of doing physical harm - he brags that when he grew up in the foster care system, he broke one of the adults' arms. He is a black belt in on eof the martial arts.

HE has served time in jail. HE snuck under the radar when I screened him but a lot of it was expunged because of his age and/or his PTSD. That is totally on me that he got in. I am just trying to fix it and get him out of my apartment and life before someone gets hurt.

Thank you!

Thank you for your responses. Much appreciated.

Steve [MA]: Can you confirm that I don't need to make reasonable accomModations for this tenant?

He has a va attorney who bilked his last landlord (who happens to be, which I didnt know at the time, my plumber) for four months worth of rent. This guy was bad enough that my plumber just paid him just to get rid of him.

THis tenant has:

Cut locks off my doors

found paint in the basement and painted my hardwoods

left his abandoned vehicle in the driveway so now only two of three tenants have a parking spot.

Brought fleas into the house (but I cant prove it) He is the only one who has animals (a cat)

Loaded my basement with stuff even though the lease says no storage, I let him use one pallet but he still took over the whole basement including my area. I had to build a physical wall to limit how much space he could occupy.

screamed at me when the plumber came to fix his shower telling me that I can never use that plumber again. THat is how I found out that he was my plumbers previous tenant.

Brought stray kittens into the house (my neighbors have seen it but I have not).

Sends me vulgur, long argumentative emails while I am trying to work my M-F job.

No one can come into the house without him ineterrogating them. He says it is part of his PTSD but no one wants to deal with him - they want to be left alone. He is one of those people who get physically into your private space.

He is capable of doing physical harm - he brags that when he grew up in the foster care system, he broke one of the adults' arms. He is a black belt in on eof the martial arts.

HE has served time in jail. HE snuck under the radar when I screened him but a lot of it was expunged because of his age and/or his PTSD. That is totally on me that he got in. I am just trying to fix it and get him out of my apartment and life before someone gets hurt.

Thank you!

OK got it. Keep all correspondence give him 30 days to cure his violations of the lease. Then start eviction process. If the VA atty is like VA DRs just get a better atty.

This isnt going to be easy so dig in and get started.

In the 5 or so months he has been "your" tenant it appears as though he is the one in charge & not you. For your own sake as well as the sake of your other tenants, it's time for you to retake control of your property.

Even with the added info you have shared IMO there is no reason that you can't end his MTM rental agreement & issue a 30 day notice to quit. Since you don't seem to have any eviction experience, I highly recommend that you find an attorney to handle this. If you don't have one, I suggest that you try to find one thru your local LL group or perhaps make a visit to Housing Court to see which attorney handles these type of things. You definitely don't want to use any attorney who does not have real world experience in LL / tenant matters.

What part of MA is the property located in?

It has actually been 17 months.. 12 months on a years lease and

then I changed it to MTM.

this is in New Bedford MA. It kind of threw me when someone on here said I need to make reasonable accommodations for him. What exactly does that mean??