Understanding Your Lease Rights in Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, a landlord can collect only four payments before you move in: the first month's rent, the last month's rent, a security deposit of up to one month's rent, and the cost of a new lock and key. Since August 1, 2025, you owe a broker fee only if you hired the broker yourself. The landlord generally must pay for electricity, gas, and heating oil unless the service is metered or stored for your unit alone and a written rental agreement makes you pay, and water billing has stricter conditions. A lease clause that breaks these rules cannot be enforced against you.

What can a landlord charge before you move in?

Under Massachusetts General Laws (G.L.) chapter 186, section 15B, a landlord can require only these payments at or before the start of a tenancy:

• the first full month's rent;
• the last full month's rent, at the same rate as the first;
• a security deposit of no more than one month's rent; and
• the cost to buy and install a new lock and key.

The list is closed. Legal Tactics, the tenant manual published by the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a legal aid organization, says holding deposits, application fees, pet fees, and similar charges are illegal. Since August 1, 2025, the same limit applies to anyone acting as the landlord's agent, such as a broker or property manager. Section 15B also voids any lease term that conflicts with it and any waiver of its protections.

Example: on $2,700 monthly rent, the most a landlord or its agent can collect at signing is $8,100 (the first month, the last month, and a $2,700 deposit) plus the actual cost of a new lock.

Massachusetts security deposit rights covers where the deposit must be held, the receipts you should get, and when the money comes back.

Do you have to pay a broker fee?

Only if you hired the broker. Under G.L. chapter 112, section 87DDD1/2, as amended effective August 1, 2025, a licensed broker on a rental can work only for the tenant or only for the landlord, and any fee is paid by the party that originally hired the broker and signed a contract with them. Legal Tactics adds that a broker working for the landlord cannot charge you application, background check, or credit check fees either.

In practice:

• If you answer a listing posted by a broker the landlord hired, the landlord pays that broker.
• If you sign a contract with a broker to find you an apartment, and you hired the broker before the broker started working with that landlord, you can be charged the fee you agreed to. The broker must give you a written notice about the fee, including whether you owe it if no tenancy results.

If you paid a fee the law did not allow, send the landlord or broker a written demand for a refund and keep a copy. Massachusetts rent protections explains the consumer protection demand letter and the damages a court can award.

Who pays for heat, hot water, and other utilities?

The landlord generally pays unless two things are true: the building is set up so your use is measured or supplied separately, and a written rental agreement makes you pay.

If your electric or gas meter also serves another apartment or a shared area such as a hallway, the landlord generally must pay that bill. In a building with two or three dwelling units, common hallway, passageway, foyer, or stairway lights may use an adjacent unit's electric service. If you pay for that unit's electricity, you can be required to pay for those lights only if your written rental agreement assigns that expense starting with a new tenancy. Legal Tactics lists a lease clause making you pay electricity or gas billed in the landlord's name, without a separate meter, as illegal. Legal Tactics also cites a court decision holding a landlord with no written utility agreement liable for heating costs the tenant had been paying.

Water has extra limits. A landlord can start charging for water only at the beginning of a new tenancy, and the bill must be based on your submeter reading at the rate the water company charges the building. The landlord cannot add a billing or administrative fee, charge you for common-area water, or shut off your water over unpaid water charges, and it must reduce the bill or refund charges for water lost to a repaired leak. If you knew or should have known about the leak, the required credit covers only water lost from the date you notified the landlord until the repair, so report leaks promptly.

Who pays what: utilities in your lease covers utility clauses in other states.

Which lease clauses does Massachusetts void?

A clause that breaks a law cannot be enforced, and Legal Tactics says the rest of the lease stays valid. The Attorney General's landlord-tenant regulations, 940 CMR 3.17, also make it an unfair or deceptive practice for a landlord to include a lease term that violates any law. Common examples:

The same regulations require a written lease to list the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the owner and anyone responsible for maintenance, plus the person authorized to receive legal notices and court papers. The landlord must give you a signed copy within 30 days after you sign, and a clause that raises the rent automatically must state clearly how the increase is set. Understanding your lease terms explains how standard clauses usually read.

How does a lease or tenancy at will end?

It depends on which you have:

• A lease runs for a fixed term and ends on its end date. If it is self-extending, meaning it renews automatically unless someone gives written notice by a deadline, you must give that notice on time or the lease runs for another term; Legal Tactics says leases usually require one month. If your lease has an option to renew instead, you give written notice only if you want to stay.
• A tenancy at will is a month-to-month rental, with or without a written agreement. Under G.L. c. 186, section 12, either side can end it with written notice of at least one full rental period or 30 days, whichever is longer. Legal Tactics says the period runs from when the landlord receives your notice, so with rent due on the 1st, the landlord must receive it by September 30 for you to move out by November 1. A landlord can end a tenancy at will for unpaid rent with a 14-day written notice. If you have not received another nonpayment notice from the landlord in the preceding 12 months, you can prevent termination by paying or offering the landlord the full rent due within 10 days after receiving the notice.

At the end of a lease, a landlord does not need a reason to end your tenancy, but it can remove you only with a court's permission. Massachusetts eviction protections covers that process.

If you need to leave before your lease ends, the landlord can try to hold you to the remaining rent, but Legal Tactics says it must make a reasonable effort to find a new tenant. Your options include:

1. Get a written surrender. Ask the landlord in writing to accept your "surrender" of the apartment on a set date, and get a written acceptance back. Once you return the keys by that date, the landlord cannot hold you to later rent.
2. End the lease after abuse. Under G.L. c. 186, section 24, if a household member is a victim of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, or stalking, you can end the lease by written notice given within 3 months of the most recent incident, or while a household member reasonably fears imminent serious harm. You must move out within 3 months of the notice, and your rent obligation ends 30 days or one full rental period after you leave, whichever is later. Co-tenants who stay remain bound, and the landlord may ask for proof such as a protective order, a court or police record, or a statement from a qualified third party.
3. Document bad conditions. Under G.L. c. 111, section 127L, if a local housing inspector certifies State Sanitary Code violations that may endanger or materially harm your health, safety, or well-being, make sure the landlord has written notice of the violations and an opportunity to repair. The landlord has 5 days after notice to begin repairs or contract for them in writing, and 14 days to substantially complete them, unless the inspector orders a shorter deadline. If the landlord fails to meet these requirements, you can end the lease and move out within a reasonable time, owing only the fair value of your use of the apartment. This option does not apply if you, your household, or guests caused the conditions, or if you unreasonably denied access and prevented repairs.
4. Offer a replacement. Send the landlord, in writing, the name and contact information of anyone willing to take over the apartment, so the landlord has a way to reduce its losses.