Using best practices to
screen and select good tenants is the most important thing a Massachusetts
landlord can do to avoid costly non-payment and eviction problems down the road,
as I have posted about on this Blog. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure.
In my 17 years of practice, I
have come across a sub-set of tenants which are extremely dangerous to
Massachusetts landlords. They should be avoided like the Plague. I like to call
them Professional Tenants.
Let me give you the profile
of a typical Professional Tenant. (This is a generalization based on my
personal experience, but it’s fairly accurate).
■History of eviction history and/or delinquency with prior landlords
■Surprising (and dangerous) knowledge of Massachusetts landlord-tenant
law
■Background in real estate, engineering, contracting
■Marginal to bad credit: prior history of nonpayment collections,
judgments or bankruptcies
■Gaps in rental history
■Non-existent or incomplete prior landlord references
The Professional Tenant’s
Scheme
Shortly after moving in, they
will start to complain about small issues with the rental property. Some will
complain to the local board of health to have the landlord cited for code
violations. (The state Sanitary Code can trip up even the most conscientious
landlord.) Then the Professional Tenant will stop paying rent, claiming they
are “withholding rent” due to bad property conditions. Of course, these tenants
completely ignore the smart practice that any withheld rent be placed in an
escrow account. Then the Professional Tenant will assert the landlord violated
the last month rent and security deposit law, and ask for their deposit back, trying
to set up the landlord for a triple damage claim.
In the meantime, months go by
and the Professional Tenant has failed to pay any rent and the minor code
violations, if any, are repaired. The landlord is forced to start eviction
proceedings, only to be met with a slew of counterclaims and defenses from the
Professional Tenant. The Professional Tenant then sends the landlord a myriad
of document requests and interrogatories which automatically delays the
eviction hearing by 2 weeks. If the Professional Tenant is really savvy, they
will demand a jury trial, which in most small District Courts can delay the
eviction by weeks and typically months. Meanwhile, the entire time, the
Professional Tenant has still not paid any rent.
Months and thousands of dollars
in attorneys’ fees later, the landlord finally gets his day in court. And the
Professional Tenant doesn’t show up, leaving the landlord with a worthless
judgment for thousands in unpaid rent and a trashed apartment.
Screen and Screen Again
The sad thing is that because
Massachusetts landlord-tenant law is so tenant friendly, there is not much a
landlord can do to avoid this situation, other than not rent to the
Professional Tenant in the first place! Once a landlord has signed a lease with
a Professional Tenant, they are stuck until the tenant violates the lease. My
advice to landlords is to make screening the most important thing you do as a
landlord, and do the following:
■Invest in good credit history checks.
■Follow up with landlord references
■Check employment info
■Check prior bankruptcies
■If someone seems fishy, they probably are
If you find yourself stuck
with a Professional Tenant, give me a call. There are certain things an
experienced eviction attorney can do to prevent or minimize these shenanigans.
At least you will be fighting back against what I perceive as scam artists.
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