Attorney Shivick discusses issues to consider when facing Retaliation by a Landlord against a Tenant in Massachusetts – as a defense to eviction and/or as a claim against the landlord. In order to obtain legal advice, you must consult a licensed attorney. Nothing in this video is a valid substitute for consulting with a licensed…
Read moreShivick’s Appellate Work Has Lasting Consequences: Massachusetts Debt Collection, Unauthorized Practice of Law, and Landlord Collection Abuse: A 2026 Update
Some businesses do not merely bend the rules. They build a business model around hoping consumers and tenants do not know the rules exist. That is especially true in the overlap between landlord-tenant law, debt collection, and Housing Court. A landlord obtains or claims a debt. A property manager tries to prosecute a case. A…
Read moreFY18 MA Budget Brings New Housing Court Map, Jurisdiction
With passing of the FY18 Massachusetts budget, the Massachusetts Trial Court has undertaken an expansion of its Housing Court system. What was formerly known as Western, Boston, Worcester, Northeast, and Southeast Housing Courts have been redistricted and rebranded to Western, Central, Eastern, Metro-South, Northeastern, and Southeastern Divisions of the Housing Court. New Housing Court Chief…
Read moreMassachusetts Landlord-Tenant Law Is Not Unfair: Ianello v. CMC and Tenant Rights Against Retaliation
he simple facts of that case show a landlord who decided it was a one way street, trampling over the Legislature and Courts in the childish tantrum, and unilaterally effectuated a partial actual eviction of the tenant from that exercise/conference room by locking the door indefinitely – when the legal remedy was eviction for non-payment of rent after determination of the tenancy – which may in itself be insufficient to rebut the Anti-Retaliation law, M.G.L. c.186 s.18 and M.G.L. c.239 s.2A.
Read moreCan a Massachusetts Landlord Force You Out? Constructive Eviction and Tenant Rights Massachusetts
Not every eviction begins with a notice to quit. Sometimes the landlord does not file a summary process case. Sometimes there is no constable, no court date, and no execution. Sometimes the landlord does something more cowardly and more chaotic: the landlord makes the apartment so difficult, unsafe, unlivable, or intolerable that the tenant leaves….
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