Massachusetts Tenant-Landlord Law

Federated state of the Northeastern USA, 21,456 km², 6,437,193 residents (2006 estimate), 300 residents / km², capital: Boston. Borders: New Hampshire and Vermont (N), Atlantic Ocean (E), Connecticut and Rhode Island (S), New York (W).

  • TOPSCHOOLSINTHEUSA: Lists of ACT, SAT, TOEFL, GMAT, GRE, and LSAT test centers of Massachusetts. Also includes best graduate schools in Business, Law, Medical, and Engineering in Massachusetts.

State Overview

Federated state of New England whose coast is divided into Cape Ann, in the bay of Massachusetts and in that of Cape Cod, delimited to the S and E of the homonymous peninsula, beyond which there are the Nantucket Sound (arm of the sea that separates the mainland from the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket) and Buzzards bay. AW of the flat coastal strip the territory rises in a series of reliefs belonging to the Appalachian system and that towards W form the ridges arranged in the NS direction, among which are the Berkshire, Hoosac and Taconic mountains. There are numerous streams; the main ones are Connecticut, Taunton and Merrimack. The forest covers ca. 68% of the territorial surface and supplies construction timber. The population is agglomerated in small-sized urban centers; among these they exceed 100,000 inhabitants, in addition to the capital, Worcester and Springfield. Important cities follow, such as New Bedford, Cambridge, Fall River, Lowell, Newton, Lynn, Brockton, Somerville and Quincy. Massachusetts’ main economic resources are agriculture (cereals, vegetables, fruit, tobacco, fodder), cattle and poultry farming, fishing, forestry and especially industry. The latter, favored by the wealth of energy (hydroelectric plants are on Merrimack in Lawrence and Lowell and on Connecticut in South Hadley) is particularly active in the textile, mechanical, shipbuilding, electrotechnical, metallurgical and chemical sectors. An industry requalification was sought in high technology sectors (IT, biogenetics, space industry). Developed commercial activities, which revolve around the hub of Boston, and tourist activities (Cape Cod peninsula). State University is located in Amherst, but in Massachusetts there are some of the most prestigious universities in the United States: Northeastern and Boston University in Boston; in Cambridge the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the most famous polytechnics in the world, and Harvard University.

  • AbbreviationFinder.org: Offers list of phrases and slangs abbreviated as MA including Massachusetts, and other most commonly used acronyms besides Massachusetts.
  • COUNTRYAAH: Interested in doing research on towns or cities in Massachusetts? This link below will take you to a full list of cities and complete profiles of each in Massachusetts.

History

Massachusetts was the first settlement of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower (1620). The colony consolidated itself decisively with the arrival (1629) in Salem of eleven ships carrying 900 colonists, including J. Winthrop, which owes the foundation of Boston and seven other cities. The development of the colony was so rapid that soon a part of its inhabitants, driven also by the desire to escape the rigid theocracy that the Puritans had implanted there, were able to emigrate and found new colonies better suited to their ideals of freedom and of religious tolerance (Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Haven, Maine, New Hampshire). The colonists soon gained an enviable degree of prosperity. Church and school were held in high esteem since the early years of the colony, where in 1636 Harvard was founded, the first university on the continent; in Massachusetts the first press (1639) of British North America was also built. Autonomous towards Great Britain, in 1688 he successfully opposed the attempt of James II to consolidate real power in the colonies; later he played a leading role in the preparation and conduct of the revolution, to which he gave some of the most eminent leaders (J. Otis, Samuel and John Adams). In Massachusetts some of the most significant episodes of the war of independence took place: the Boston Tea Party (1773) and the drafting of the Intolerable Act (1774). With a Constitution in 1780, he ratified the federal statute in 1787. With the conquest of independence, the history of Massachusetts merges with the American one, over which it also exercised an often decisive influence.

Below you will see top cities in Massachusetts.

Quincy (Massachusetts)

City ​​(85,000 residents) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), in the southeastern sector of the Boston metropolitan area, on the bay of the same name in Boston Bay. Boston’s satellite port, it is home to extractive (granite), chemical, engineering, shipbuilding and electronics industries. Airport.

Somerville

City ​​(76,200 residents) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), in the north central sector of the metropolitan area of Boston, on the right of the Mystic River. Metalworking, textile, wood, paper, tanning and food industries.

Brockton

City ​​(95,200 residents) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), 30 km S of the capital Boston, in whose metropolitan area it is included. It is home to footwear, mechanical, textile, rubber, wood (furniture) and musical instruments industries.

Lynn

City ​​(78,500 residents) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), 15 km NE of Boston, of which the metropolitan area is part, on the bay of Massachusetts. Active fishing port, it is home to footwear, tanning, paper, pharmaceutical and electrotechnical industries.

Newton

City ​​(82,600 residents) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), on the western outskirts of Boston. Residential center formed following the aggregation of 14 villages, it is home to the mechanical, electrical engineering, paper and rubber industries.

Lowell

City ​​(100,973 residents in 1996) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), 40 km NW of Boston, at the confluence of the Concord River in the Merrimack, which forms the Pawtucket Falls (10 m) here. Textile, clothing, chemical, mechanical, electrotechnical, publishing and leather industries.

Fall River

City ​​(92,600 residents) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), 75 km SSW of Boston, port at the mouth of the Taunton River, in the bay of Mount Hope. Textile, tanning, rubber, clothing, electrotechnical and mechanical industries. Airport.

Cambridge (Massachusetts)

City ​​(95,300 residents) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), included in the northwestern section of the Boston metropolitan area, on the left of the Charles River. Developed around the University of Harvard (1636), as a residential and industrial center (engineering, food, chemical, wood, paper, tanning and clothing complexes), it is home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and numerous colleges and libraries. Founded in 1631 under the name of New Towne, which it kept until 1636, in 1639 the first typography of the USA was opened there. § Cambridge is home to the Harvard University Art Museums, which also function as a study center. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum collects collections of Far Eastern, Islamic and Greco-Roman art; the Busch-Reisinger Museum, founded in 1902 as a center of Germanic studies, mainly houses works of painting and sculpture of the sec. XV-XX, notable among which are those of German and Austrian expressionist art. The most important, and one of the largest in the USA, is the Fogg Art Museum, with collections of medieval and Renaissance western sculpture, of Italian painting (Simone Martini, A. Lorenzetti, Angelico, Giovanni di Paolo Botticelli, Lotto, Tintoretto), of French (Poussin) and Spanish (Ribera, Murillo) painting. The collection of impressionist and postimpressionist works (Monet, Degas, Manet Van Gogh) and Picasso and Braque are remarkable. Finally, the section of prints and drawings is particularly important (50,000 pieces, from the 15th century to the present day, including splendid examples of Mantegna, Pollaiolo, Carpaccio, Michelangelo, Veronese, Guercino, Rubens).

New Bedford

City ​​(99,900 residents) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), 80 km SSE of Boston. Fishing port on Buzzards Bay, it is home to textile (cotton, silk), mechanical, shipbuilding, electrical engineering, rubber and glass industries. Airport. Founded in 1640, it was an important base for whaling.

Springfield (Massachusetts)

City ​​(149,948 residents in 1996) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), 130 km to WSW of Boston, 21 m on the left bank of the Connecticut River; with the adjacent centers of Chicopee and Holyoke and other minors it constitutes a metropolitan area of ​​576,561 residents Seat of numerous cultural institutions (S. College, 1885), it is a node of traffic of primary importance, with textile, mechanical, chemical, rubber, electrical engineering, wood, paper and firearms industries. Airport.

Worcester (USA)

City ​​(166,350 residents in 1997; 437,000 residents the metropolitan area) of the State of Massachusetts (USA), 60 km to WSW of Boston, 150 m on the Blackstone River. It is an important commercial and financial center, also home to numerous engineering industries (motor vehicles, aircraft parts, turbines, railway materials), textiles, electrical engineering, chemicals, tanning, paper and wood. Clark University (1887). Airport.

Boston (Massachusetts)

City (555,447 residents In 1998; 5,819,100 residents The metropolitan area, including Salem, in 2000) of the northeastern United States, capital of the State of Massachusetts, 280 km NE of New York. Spread over a series of small peninsulas, connected by bridges and underwater tunnels, which extend into the well-protected bay of the same name, branching of the bay of Massachusetts (Atlantic Ocean), to which the estuaries of the Charles and Mystic rivers converge. It has a temperate climate, with an average rainfall of 1100 mm, well distributed between the various months of the year; abundant snowfall. A place of considerable importance in the economy of the city is occupied by commercial activities: the port, well protected within the bay and connected to the dense network of urban communications, is one of the most important among those fishing in the United States and in general, it is among the largest in the country; main exported goods are food products, machinery, manufactured goods; the imports mainly concern coal, iron ores, sugar, oil and its derivatives, timber. Manufacturing activities have had an intense development, especially with regard to the textile industries (woolen mills, cotton mills), clothing, footwear, rubber, paper and publishing. Alongside trade, other tertiary activities are fundamental in the city economy, in particular the credit and insurance branches. The city is served by Logan International Airport. Boston is also an important cultural center, home to some universities (including the famous Harvard University, founded in 1636, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), numerous university colleges, museums and libraries. AS Boston’s Peninsula Capo Cod, whose east coast is a protected naturalistic oasis, represents one of the most exclusive tourist destinations.

The city, founded in 1630 by a group of Puritan colonists who left England in 1629 under the leadership of John Winthrop, emerged from the early years of its existence, dominated by a clerical and commercial aristocracy, as a center of wealth and culture. From 1684 he fought a tenacious struggle with the British government that threatened to repeal the Massachusetts Bay Card, granted at the time to Winthrop and on which the free city institutions were based. The contrast, which ended in 1689 with a compromise, resumed later when the Bostonians began to directly challenge British sovereignty, highlighting characters of national importance (Adams, Hancook, Warren, Revere). Here the resistance to taxes imposed by the English Parliament was born and in 1770 the city was the scene of anti-British demonstrations that resulted in the so-called Boston massacre, when, on March 5, the citizens clashed with the troops of the British army. In 1772 the “correspondence committees” were created to ensure the connection between the revolutionary provinces; in 1773 the Boston tea party signaled the insurrection against Britain and this is considered the starting point of the war of independence. Boston, where the first provincial convention (revolutionary assembly) arose in 1774, was occupied in 1775 and freed by Washington troopsin 1776. In the post-independence period the city underwent a profound evolution: growing economic prosperity was matched by a development of conservative tendencies in politics which culminated under the presidency of Jefferson, during which Boston, federalist and conservative, placed himself at the opposition. In the religious field, Puritanism gave way to rationalism and unitarianism, advocated by men such as Freeman, Channing, Emerson and Elliott. Assumed the status of a city in 1822, it then played a leading role at the time of the Secession war, rejecting any compromise with southern slavery. In the first half of the century. XIX, the phenomenon of immigration profoundly changed the sociological equilibrium of Boston, where the introduction of largely Catholic elements (the newcomers were mostly Irish, Russian, Italian, Balkans, Scandinavians) determined a significant decrease in the influence of Puritanism. In the sec. XX Boston has progressively lost its national pre-eminence and, while remaining a thriving center, equipped with important cultural institutions, has reduced to one of the many large cities in the United States.

Boston grew in the century. XVII modeled on medieval London. Baroque style spread from the early eighteenth century (Old North Church, 1723; King’s Chapel by P. Harrison, 1750-58). The greatest neoclassical architect is Ch. Bulfinch (Massachusetts State House, 1795; Tontine Crescent). Between the second half of the century. There are numerous examples of revivals in the 19th and early 20th centuries, from the neo-Romanesque of HH Richardson ‘s Trinity Church (1877) to the neocinquecentism of the Boston Public Library of McKim, Mead and White (1888-95; the interior is decorated by Puvis de Chavannes, Sargent, Abbey and Elliott). Typical of the first half of the century. XIX are the popular neighborhoods or slums (in the South End, north of the Charles River, etc.). Only after the middle of the century was the planned building type, typical of New England, called three decher, introduced

(balcony houses with common facilities and a room for each family). Green spaces were built starting in 1893, while the center was joined to the suburbs in a single metropolitan complex. Although after 1920 (when the city reached its maximum expansion) there was a demographic contraction and in economic activities, Boston remains, thanks to educational equipment, cultural institutions and art collections, one of the major cultural centers of the United States. § In the sec. XVIII-XIX the original environment underwent profound transformations with the drying up of marshy areas, the regulation of the course of the Charles river and the lowering of the hills to give space to the growth of residential areas, the installation of railway lines and the expansion of the port areas. From the morphological point of view the city began to transform itself from the middle of the century. XIX. Adopting a very advanced public transport policy gradually favored the formation of new settlements in suburban areas up to a distance of 15 km from the city center. Therefore, the move away from middle and high income classes from central areas has been taking place for more than a century. The construction after the Second World War of a large motorway ring (Route 128) outside the administrative limits of the city, while giving new vigor to the location of industrial plants in the area, did not contribute to the solution of the problems of the urban center. This, which is the place of concentration of the poorest classes, has been partially invested by urban renewal programs. These programs are also due to the renovation of the representative center of the city with buildings ofRudolph, Kahlman, TAC However, the policy of increasing private transport at the expense of public transport adopted in the last decades of the century. XX seems to have definitively transformed the compact structure of Boston into the widespread structure of a vast metropolitan area, whose planning studies were conducted by the Boston Redevelopment Autority, the Massachusetts Transportation Commission and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

The Museum of Fine Arts, one of the most important in the United States, houses several departments. The sections dedicated to Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian and Islamic art are very important. Remarkable are the departments of classical art (which cover all sectors of Greek, Roman, Etruscan art), Egyptian art and decorative arts (silver, ivory, porcelain, furniture) and sculpture. But the painting department is undoubtedly one of the most significant in the museum: the section of French art imposes itself between the end of the century. XIX and sec. XX (Delacroix, Courbet, Corot and the impressionists Monet, Renoir, Sisley, etc.). Equally important is the section of American art of the century. XIX (romantic and realistic painting, Homer, Whistler, Mary Cassatt). For Europeans well represented are the Spanish (portraits of El Greco and Velázquez), Venetian (masterpieces by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and the great eighteenth-century masters such as Canaletto, Guardi, Tiepolo), Dutch and Flemish (it is preserved here the masterpiece of R. van der Weyden San Luca paints the Virgin). There are also examples of baroque and rococo quality in France (Poussin, Lorrain, Boucher) and the great English portraitists of the century. XVIII (Gainsborough, Romney, Reynolds). Finally, the sector of European art of the century should be mentioned. XX (Picasso, Braque, the German expressionists) and the department of prints and drawings. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, housed in a Venetian Gothic building and open to the public since 1925, preserves the works collected by Isabella Gardner with the advice of the critic B. Berenson. Naturally Italian painters from the 15th century dominate here. XIV to the sec. XVI (Beato Angelico, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Botticelli, Pollaiolo, Raffaello, Tintoretto and Tiziano), but there are also important works by other European painters (such as, for example, Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Velázquez). Finally, the modern construction of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, with its museum, dedicated to the president assassinated in 1963, originally from Massachusetts.

The affirmation of the arts of the scene was long and difficult in this stronghold of Puritanism. The shows were banned from 1750 to 1793, because judged as a source of immorality and only the repeal of the so-called blue law changed the situation: within a few decades several public theaters were built, the first and most important of which were the Federal Street Theater, inaugurated in 1794 and demolished in 1852, and the Haymarket, active from 1796 to 1803: the latter was entirely dedicated to opera and ballet, while the former was also open to prose companies. The great theaters of the nineteenth century were however the Boston Theater (1854-1926) for the opera, the Tremont (1827-43) for the prose and above all the Boston Museum (still a Puritan echo in the name, 1847-93), who had his own company in which nationally renowned actors joined as guests (Booth made his debut there and W. Warren jr. made his career). In the nineteenth century Boston was the most important American center in the field of symphonic music, inspired by the great models of German romanticism; the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1881), which was led by eminent American and European musicians, was the first permanent American orchestra. With the new century, with the theatrical activity concentrated on Broadway, the theaters in Boston became gyms for testing new comedies or arenas for capillary exploitation of successful shows. The activity of the Boston Opera (inaugurated in 1909) and above all of the Symphony Hall was important and still is. Finally, there are some attempts at repertoire theater with local forces, such as the Toy Theater opened in 1911.

Mass. – General Laws, Chapter 186

Chapter 186, titled Estates for Years and At Will, covers issues relevant to landlords and those leasing from them. Filter through the index.

Website: http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/gl-186-toc.htm

Mass. – Housing Information and Resources

Title describes the contents of this directory provided by the state Neighborhood Legal Services org. Harbors forms, articles and tutorials.

Website: http://www.neighborhoodlaw.org/housing.htm

Mass. – Massachusetts Rental Housing Information

Gloss over news, law outlines, org. details and legislative bulletins pertaining to Mass. law. Features links to related resources.

Website: http://cses.com/RENTAL/massachusetts.htm

Mass. – Nat’l Fair Housing Advocate, Mass. Agencies

Directory furnishes contact information for the state’s agencies charged with addressing housing discrimination matters. Adds email addresses.

Website: http://www.fairhousing.com/resources/finder/massachusetts.ht

Mass. – Resources for Renters

Individuals renting in this New England state can pore over a directory of organizations and publications targeting tenants. Contains links.

Website: http://directory.tenantsunion.org/massachusetts.html

Mass. – Tenant Rights and Responsibilities

Consumer Affairs & Business Regulation expounds on such issues as types of tenancy, paying rent, and legal rights and remedies. Link to law text.

Website: http://www.state.ma.us/consumer/Pubs/tenant.htm

Mass. – Tenants Rights, First, Last & Security

Legal Services for Cape Cod and Islands hones in on the topic of rent payments, in this guide for those moving in or out of current leases.

Website: http://www.lscci.org/tenant.htm

Massachusetts Tenant-Landlord Law

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