Utilities Not Included

Searching for an apartment is not as simple as it may first appear.  One of the areas where the search gets more complicated is figuring out what typ e of housing you are searching for.  To make this a little bit easier, we've broken things down into five types of housing you'll encounter. Apartments:   Apartments seems pretty straight forward, but there are really three things that someone can mean when they are renting an apartment: (1) Apartment in an Apartment Complex .  This is your classic apartment.  The entire building is usually owned and managed by one person or company.  Benefits of this kind of housing are that your landlord or management company can help you navigate conflicts with your neighbors.  Heat and hot water are often also included in your rent.  Drawbacks are that the rent is a lot less negotiable since the management company or landlord is used to renting out many similar apartments. (2) Apartment in a Condominium Complex .  At first th

If your landlord is refusing to make repairs or you still haven't gotten your security deposit back from a lease that ended in August, you might be considering taking your landlord to housing court.  Housing Court just plain sounds intimidating.  What is housing court and what can you expect if you go there? According to Mass.gov: The Massachusetts housing courts were established to handle cases involving residential housing.  In addition to summary process (eviction) cases, the courts’ jurisdiction includes small claims cases, consumer protection cases, and civil actions involving the health, safety, or welfare of the occupants or owners of residential housing, including cases with personal injury, property damage, breach of contract, and discrimination claims. According to Mass.gov there are the advantages of using a mediation process: Time:   It almost always takes less time to mediate a dispute than it does to try a case, in question-and-answer form, with objec

Your lease is a contract, obligating you to pay rent for the entire term.  If you want to break the lease you will be responsible for the landlord’s damages (the remaining unpaid rent).  Fortunately, the landlord cannot just sit back and wait for the lease to end and then sue you for the unpaid rent. Rather, a landlord must mitigate losses by trying to rent out the unit as soon as possible.  If you must break your lease, try to find someone else to move in the unit.  If you do, the landlord will have no damages, and they cannot sue you.  Keep in mind, the landlord does not need to accept any applicant who walks in the door.  The landlord is entitled to be equally as selective with the next tenant as he or she was with you.  Still, you can help the situation a lot by offering your landlord a replacement tenant.

The best way to avoid battling over who pays how much rent is to decide on a plan in the beginning stages of your housing search.  Here are a few options for splitting rent: The Traditional Route   Split rent straight down the middle.  Every roommate pays the same share of rent and utilities.  It does not matter if someone has a room they think might be better suited to be a closet, or if one roommate doesn’t watch TV, you’re all in it together, so you all pay the same. Shared Space Discount   Each bedroom pays a portion of the rent.  If you have a two bedroom apartment with three roommates, the two that are sharing a room pay half the rent compared to the third roommate.  Maybe half isn't fair, but you can negotiate the discount among yourselves. Square Footage   This can get complicated, but not all bedrooms are created equally.  Often apartments will have a master bedroom that is significantly larger than the other.  In cases when spacing is extremely skewed sp

If you are leasing a house or apartment, your landlord or property manager should not be showing up unannounced.  Once a valid lease has been executed, the lessor (landlord) and lessee (tenant) are bound by the terms of the agreement as well as the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment (implied by the law).  Quiet enjoyment is the right of the lessee to use the premises free of disturbances and interference by the landlord or third parties.  The most basic example of quiet enjoyment is that your landlord should not be showing up at or entering your apartment unreasonably.  In fact, landlords or third parties may only enter your apartment at reasonable times and upon reasonable notice.  Specifically, they should only need to enter your apartment for the following reasons: To show the apartment to prospective tenants, purchasers, lenders or their agents;  To inspect the premises;  To make repairs;  To inspect within 30 days of the end of the tenancy to determine damages to b

Your landlord typically has the right to prohibit all pets or restrict the types of pets allowed.  For example, they may be ok with birds but not allow cats or dogs.  However, a landlord may not prohibit trained service animals used by physically or mentally disabled people, or emotional support animals, as provided by the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act .