How to Best Document Early Lease Termination (MA)

Question

Hi guys,

I have a tenant who has requested to move out early due to COVID-19 related financial hardship.  Don't worry, I tried many times to work with them on options as I do not want to make someone homeless during this time but they are insisting.  As many BP members have pointed out, this is a better option than refusing early termination and not getting paid, so this has now become my policy (although I am accepting suggestions for lease riders for early termination for the future!).

My question is, how best to document this?  I have asked the tenant to email a formal letter asking to break the lease, forfeit last month's rent for April, and move out by April 30th.  They tried to send via certified mail but I am out of state for now.

I was thinking to write a lease termination contract encapsulating the tenant's letter with the fully executed lease as an attachment.  This would include the typical legal lingo but is there anything specific?  I will be basing this off templates my fiance has as a RE Agent in MA.

Thanks

Anthony

Michael K Gallagher · Answer

@Anthony Sherman Just my opinion, But I think you are thinking about it the correct way.  As long as the details of your agreement are on paper and signed I would imagine that would be enough.  However, I do not know what the tenant laws in Mass are so it might be worth either calling a local office or doing a basic google search to see if their are any details such as needing something to be notarized, or if there is a specific state template that needs to be filed.  I can't imagine that it would be require in this instance as it is a mutual decision but it is still probably work a quick search.