Walk It Through: The Complaint
A presumption for six months, three months' rent for a lockout, and notice for a tenancy at will.
A tenant reports a broken heater to the city housing inspector, and soon after the landlord sends a notice ending the tenancy.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One apartment and one complaint. Unpaid rent, a written lease with its own term, and the summary process case itself are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Notice to quitThe landlord's written notice ending a tenancy; for unpaid rent, a fourteen days' notice ends either a lease or a tenancy at will.
- Summary processThe court action through which a landlord recovers possession after a notice to quit.
- Tenancy at willA tenancy without a lease term, ended for a reason other than rent by written notice of the interval between rent days or thirty days, whichever is longer.
- Quiet enjoymentThe tenant's right a landlord may not interfere with, including by willfully failing to furnish water, heat, light, power, gas or other required services.
- Unlawful evictionRemoving or shutting out a tenant other than under a valid court order. The tenant may recover possession or end the agreement, and recovers three months' rent or three times the damages either way.
- ReprisalA landlord's threat or action against a tenant for enforcing housing law, reporting a code violation, complaining in writing, or joining a tenants' union. A notice ending the tenancy within six months after is presumed to be one.