Inherited tenant at will

[David R.]

Hi All,

I have been under the impression that, when a property with existing tenants is sold in the state of Massachusetts (and elsewhere in the country, but I am looking for information specifically regarding MA), any existing rental agreements between the seller and tenants are automatically assigned to the new owner. This goes for any existing leases, and tenant-at-will agreements. This would imply that any terms and conditions of the existing leases and TAW agreements are in place after the sale until a new rental agreement is signed (or the tenant moves out).

Is this correct? I’m second guessing this now because I realized that the MA landlord/tenant law book (DiBlasi) I’ve been using for reference states that this is true for leases, but I can’t find specifically where it says if this applies to TAW agreements.

I’ve also been looking for the answer on the mass.gov website, but have had no luck in locating the answer.

Can someone point me to an official reference to the applicable law?

Thanks, and enjoying being a new member!

[Dan Smith]

Hey @David R. - MA Landlord here!  You are correct that any leases that were in place when you bought are still in effect.  If they are TAW or M2M then you are free to make changes with appropriate notice, if they are in a lease with an end date, then you're stuck with whatever that lease says until the end date.  Depending on what you want to change, all you technically need is a 30 day notice to make any changes that you want to make.  (A notice would be 30 days, or the start of the next month, whichever is longer).  

BUT before any changes or notices, I would recommend you consider the following:

1) If you want to make a change to the lease, how much trouble will that stir-up with the tenant?  Is it worth the potential conflict?

2) If the potential conflict is greater than you want to deal with, is it best to just end the tenancy and find new ones? (only applicable if TAW/M2M)

3) Make sure you present the document with either i)- certified mail, or ii)- get a signed copy from the tenant.  Since you live there, it's easiest to just present the document and have them sign a duplicate saying they received it. PM me if you want an example.

4) Think about how long the tenant has been in the property (and how they will perceive your changes), when I bought a property with tenants that had lived there for 8 years - they certainly felt as if the property was theirs to do as they pleased, long story short - the changes I made to both rent and expectations of non-unit areas upset them greatly and it was best to just end their lease and let them move somewhere else.

Happy to help further if you have specifics!