Landlord Harrassment

[slane]

I live in Massachusetts. I moved in here 7 years ago with my boyfriend (his sister is my landlady). He died suddenly 3 & half years ago. I never paid a deposit, had a rental agreement of anything. My landlady asked me to move 10/1 because her daughter wants the apt. That's fine. She gave me until 11/30 to vacate. There is less thatn 1% of apts. available here, but I found one; unfortunately I can not move in until 01/15/01! Yesterday I received 4 letters: 1) raised my rent $300 as of 01/01 2)Banned visitors parking in driveway 3)wants a definate move out date (my realtor called her 2 weeks ago with that) 4)complained I am putting my trash in wrong area (it's been in the same place for 7 years!). She also has removed the filter from the dryer so I can't use that any more. Question: Is this considered harrassment legally & can she increase my rent by $300? Someone told me she could only raise it 8%. I currently pay $700. All of this is very upsetting because we were like sister-in-laws until her daughter moved in a couple of months ago.

[Edited by slane on 12-02-2000 at 09:55 AM]

 

[HomeGuru]

No harassment. You basically have no rights with respect to the rent increase as long as L gave you proper notice of the increase.

 

[slane]

Thank you for your response..I wasn't sure about the harrassment issue; everyone I know wanted to give free advise! I just wanted to get some sort of "legal" guidance. I now just look forward to my move out date of 1/15/01.

Sincerely,

slane

 

[Jack Mevorach, Esq.]

I do not know if there is any law in Mass that would regulate the amount of increase of rent. If not, it's free market.

Stopping use of dryer that you previously used may be a claim you have.

Other than that, you'll probably have to move.