Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I recently served my tenant with a non-renewal of lease letter. She is on a month to month but on the lease she signed if she was to decide to leave she would need to give me 60 day notice and if I was to give her notice to vacate I would need to give her 60 days’ notice also. She received the letter on 2/28. She just text me and told me she would be leaving in 2 weeks. She paid partial rent in feb and still owes 100.00. She still has not paid for March. I do want her to leave no doubt but now she will probably just leave and not pay for March. I am not too worried about April I know I could probably take her to court for that but not sure if I want anything to do with this person. I guess my question is, I live in Massachusetts, do I have a right to keep her security deposit as unpaid rent and if so how would I go about doing that? Thanks in advance

Yes you can keep the rent for the unpaid rent, but if you have a good relationship you can send a notice for a demand for rent. Usually the tenant will honor that and pay what is owed. Please make sure that you keep communication open so that the tenant knows that you are aware and you know where they stand. Too often it is a lack of communication that brings stress.

Posted by Derrick D, PA on Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Thank you Derrick!

Posted by Sinead G, MA on Tuesday, March 3, 2015