Notice to Quit for Massachusetts Evictions

The Supreme Judicial Court issued an important decision this week clarifying the notice to quit requirement for Massachusetts evictions. The decision, Cambridge Street Realty v. Stewart, is included below.

Cambridge Street Realty concerns several legal issues that are of importance to Massachusetts eviction law. Here, I’ll focus on the decision’s discussion of the notice to quit, which is a requirement for nearly all evictions in Massachusetts.

What is a Notice to Quit?

A notice to quit is a legal document informing a tenant that the landlord is terminating their tenancy. This is required for nearly all evictions in Massachusetts and requires the landlord to prove that it served one of these notices to the tenant, prior to starting an eviction. Failure to provide an adequate notice to quit is often grounds for dismissing an eviction case.

The time required in the notice to quit generally depends upon the type of tenancy and the reason for eviction. In Cambridge Street Realty, the tenant was in Section 8 housing, which is federally subsidized and generally has additional, specific requirements for such a notice. Here, the tenant alleged that the notice to quit was defective, but only raised this argument after the eviction case was over.

What Does a Defective Notice Mean For An Eviction Case?

The Court in Cambridge Street Realty needed to determine what impact a defective notice to quit has on an eviction. Here, the tenant argued that a notice to quit is a jurisdictional requirement, meaning that the failure to provide an adequate notice to quit could be raised at any time . . . even after the eviction is over.

The Court rejected this argument. While a notice to quit is a requirement for most evictions, a tenant must adequately raise a defective notice as part of their eviction defense. Failure to do so means that the tenant waived the right to challenge the eviction on these grounds. As such, a tenant is unable to come back to court later and attempt to reverse an eviction, by arguing that the original notice to quit was in error.

Practical Implications

Cambridge Street Realty is an important win for Massachusetts landlords. Making a notice to quit a jurisdictional requirement for evictions would have had precarious implications for landlords. Such an outcome could have conceivably allowed a tenant to void an eviction well after it occurred, leaving possession of a rental apartment in flux.

It would, however, be shortsighted to interpret Cambridge Street Realty as diminishing the notice to quit requirement for Massachusetts evictions. A tenant who does raise the adequacy of a notice to quit in court will be heard on this issue, and will be successful if the landlord provided the tenant with an improper notice. This is one reason, among many, that Massachusetts landlords should consider speaking with a landlord-tenant attorney for assistance with an eviction.

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