Re:Abundance Isn't Going to Happen Unless Politicians Are Sc...
by dugmartin on Thursday March 27, 2025 @03:43PM
(#43497323)
I live in "super-liberal Massachusetts" and have many friends who are small time landlords (1 or 2 properties) and a one that has 10+ units. All of them have horror stories of tenants abusing the system. All the small time ones are planning to get out and the one with 10+ units has a policy that at the first sign of trouble he just pays the tenant 3 months rent to leave as it is vastly cheaper and quicker than evicting.
The most common tactic for tenants is to break something safety related (window, door, stairs, etc) and then refuse to pay rent until it is fixed. The landlord can try to evict but the Housing Court will stop the eviction as soon as they find out the property is not "safe and habitable" (see https://www.mass.gov/info-details/tenant-rights). This can be repeated by the tenant with the bonus that the landlord now gets more fake safety violations racked up against them.
One simple thing could go a long way to fix this but was voted down by the legislature - re-establish a mandatory rent escrow system that the tenant must pay the rent to until the safety issue is fixed. It used to happen automatically but now Housing Court judges must approve it (https://masslandlords.net/policy/rent-escrow/) and they rarely do.
The sad thing is that due to these policies most of the rental property in my little town has been converted to AirBnBs/Vrbos and the stock that is left was gone up in price as supply has constricted.
Like anything, until you've been a landlord you don't know the hassle and stress they go through. I was a commercial landlord for a while and I got out - never again.
The most common tactic for tenants is to break something safety related (window, door, stairs, etc) and then refuse to pay rent until it is fixed. The landlord can try to evict but the Housing Court will stop the eviction as soon as they find out the property is not "safe and habitable" (see https://www.mass.gov/info-details/tenant-rights). This can be repeated by the tenant with the bonus that the landlord now gets more fake safety violations racked up against them.
One simple thing could go a long way to fix this but was voted down by the legislature - re-establish a mandatory rent escrow system that the tenant must pay the rent to until the safety issue is fixed. It used to happen automatically but now Housing Court judges must approve it (https://masslandlords.net/policy/rent-escrow/) and they rarely do.
The sad thing is that due to these policies most of the rental property in my little town has been converted to AirBnBs/Vrbos and the stock that is left was gone up in price as supply has constricted.
Like anything, until you've been a landlord you don't know the hassle and stress they go through. I was a commercial landlord for a while and I got out - never again.