How to handle security deposits, evictions, lease termination, and habitability issues — for renters and landlords.
Massachusetts caps residential security deposits at one month’s rent, requires 5% annual interest, and gives landlords 30 days after a tenancy ends to return the deposit with an itemized list of any deductions.
Every Washington eviction starts with a written notice, and the required period depends on the reason: 14 days for unpaid rent, 10 days for a lease violation, 3 days for nuisance, and 60 to 90 days for no-fault grounds under RCW chapters 59.12 and 59.18.
How Washington law treats squatters: when long-term possession becomes ownership through adverse possession, and how owners remove unauthorized occupants who are not tenants.
Washington evictions follow a four-stage court process: a written notice, an unlawful detainer lawsuit, a show-cause hearing, and a sheriff-served writ of restitution. Here are the notice periods and the timeline.
Washington releases a tenant from the rest of the rent only for specific reasons, military orders, domestic violence or harassment, or a unit the landlord won’t make livable. This article covers each ground, the notice it takes, and what a tenant still owes when none applies.
Massachusetts has no general right to break a fixed-term lease early. The statutory grounds that end rent liability without penalty, what each requires, and what happens when none applies.
The Massachusetts implied warranty of habitability requires landlords to keep rentals fit to live in under the State Sanitary Code. It covers what the standard includes and the remedies tenants can use to force repairs.
How Massachusetts notices to quit work: the 14-day nonpayment notice, the 30-day (rental-period) no-fault notice, tenant cure rights, and the accompanying form landlords must attach for nonpayment.
Adverse possession in Massachusetts requires 20 years of open, continuous occupation. Here is how the doctrine works, why squatting is civil rather than criminal, and how owners recover possession through summary process.
Massachusetts sets no list of mandatory lease clauses, but it strictly limits what a lease can charge at move-in and what it must disclose. Here is what the law requires and what it voids.
An orientation to landlord-tenant law in Massachusetts: the governing statutes, security deposit limits, lease rules, habitability standards, and how the court eviction process works.
Washington’s Residential Landlord-Tenant Act sets what a written lease must contain, the disclosures a landlord must attach, and the lease terms the state refuses to enforce.