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Tenants
have recourse during condo conversion
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Dear
Ms. Roher: Our landlord gave us an eviction notice telling everyone in
the building that we have to leave so that he can renovate our
apartments. However, we have heard through the grapevine that he is
planning to sell the six apartments as condominiums. What are our rights
in this situation?
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Dear
Reader: While tenants who receive an eviction notice should always try
to get legal advice, there is a particular reason to do so if you
suspect that the building may be converted to condominium or cooperative
ownership. A special law protects tenants who live in a building
undergoing such conversion.
The law was enacted 20 years ago, when many buildings in the Boston area
were being converted to condominiums, raising the cost of housing and
displacing long-term tenants. Conversion was less common then in our
part of the state. But now that the real estate market has heated up in
this region, some apartment owners in Fall River see the opportunity to
make a quick profit by selling off their buildings as condos. It is
therefore very timely and important to look at how the law protects
tenants from being forced out by condo and co-op conversion.
To change a single parcel of real estate into separate units that can be
bought and sold or held by a cooperative of share owners, the
building’s landlord must record certain legal documents, known as the
Master Deed or Articles of Organization, at the Registry of Deeds. The
filing of such documents triggers five rights on the part of tenants
lawfully living in the building at the time of the conversion.
1. Tenants are entitled to generous advance notice before being required
to move. All tenants are entitled to a one-year notice before a condo
conversion eviction case can be filed in court. (This contrasts with the
usual requirement of one month’s notice.) Households containing a
person 62 or older or a handicapped person, and low- or moderate-income
households (i.e., roughly $34,000 per year or lower) are entitled to two
years’ notice.
2. All the tenants must be given a 90-day period to choose to buy their
units on terms at least as good as those offered to the general public.
3. Elderly, handicapped and lower-income tenants who don’t exercise
the right to purchase are entitled to help from the landlord in finding
a new place to rent in the same city at the same price. If the landlord
doesn’t succeed in locating such comparable housing, the tenants may
be entitled to an additional two years before being required to move
out.
4. During the time the tenants are allowed to remain in the property,
their rent cannot be increased by more than the cost of living and any
property tax "escalator clause" in their lease.
5. If the tenants leave voluntarily within the advance notice period,
the landlord must reimburse their moving expenses up to $750 ($1,000 for
elderly, handicapped and lower-income tenants).
Tenants must remain current in their rent in order to qualify for these
protections. The unit may be converted and sold while the tenants are
still living there, but the new condo owner takes the unit subject to
these duties to the occupants.
This law intentionally makes condo conversion slower and more expensive
for landlords. So unscrupulous landlords may try to get around it in
various ways: by sending eviction notices before filing the Master Deed
or Articles of Organization; by letting the building deteriorate until
the tenants stop paying rent; or by harassing tenants to move out
without being formally evicted. This is not legal.
The tenants’ rights law applies whenever a building’s owner has the
"intent to convert," which can be shown by his actions even if
not expressly admitted. Any eviction or "constructive
eviction" (code violations or harassment so bad as to make a
situation uninhabitable) done with the intent to empty a building to
convert it to condo or co-op ownership is against the law. In fact, it
is both a civil wrong and a crime.
But the law doesn’t enforce itself. Tenants must be aware of what is
happening and willing to seek affirmative court orders or contest
premature eviction cases. When so many tenants face a common landlord
problem, joining together to hire a lawyer is both good economics and
good strategy.
Deborah Roher is a former legal services attorney practicing in Fall
River. She welcomes questions from readers about legal issues affecting
low-income and working people. You can write to her at P.O. Box 2984,
Fall River, MA 02722 or call 508-672-1383. This column is intended to
furnish general legal information only and does not substitute for
seeking advice from an attorney or other trained advocate if you have a
particular legal problem.
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| ©The
Herald News 2003 |
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