Pursue the Tenant
Tenant Disputes in Massachusetts
Throughout a tenant’s stay in your premises, many things can happen that would cause you to take legal action. For example, your tenant may enter sufferance, where they refuse to vacate the property after either their lease has ended, or they have been evicted. These specific situations are cause to hire a team of lawyers that has years of experience in the landlord/tenant law. At You Legal Rights Criminal Lawyers, we work for you, utilizing our vast knowledge and ability to help. What may sound like the correct proceedings may not always be legally correct. Before you take action, hire our team of attorneys to represent you and mitigate your situation.
Below you’ll find plenty of helpful information regarding pursuing your tenant in the event of a dispute or need for evacuation. Listen is a detailed order of operations to take if you are pursuing your tenant. If you have any questions along the way, call Your Legal Rights Advocates. Our vast knowledge of landlord and tenant disputes has helped our clients for years.
Notice to Quit
Many issues can arise out of living situations. In order to pursue the tenant, first, the landlord must serve the tenant an effective notice to quit. This must be:
- In clear writing
- Unambiguous language
- States the termination of the tenancy
- State the reason for the termination
- Demand the tenant vacate the premise within a stated amount of days
- Dated and signed
- Served upon the tenant
Summons and Complaint
After the appropriate notice to quit has been served to the tenant, the tenant has that designated time to vacate the premises. If after 14 or 30 days (whichever was decided) the tenant has not vacated the premises, the landlord then moves on to what’s called a Summons and Complaint. This must be filed after seven days but no longer than 30 and always on a Monday. The Summons and Complaint must be filed with the appropriate court, qualifying this as Entry Day.
- The summons and complaint
- A copy of the notice to quit
- Return of service notification from the constable (qualifying the tenant properly received both the notice to quit and the summons and complaint)
