Not sure what the free rent trick is?

The tenant has spent too much, and has no money to pay the rent. The tenant does not pay it. The landlord sends the tenant an eviction notice. The tenant replies by calling in the local inspector, who gives the landlord a list of code violations to repair. Those code violations justify a claim of “rent withholding.” Now the tenant cannot be evicted, on the (false) assumption that the tenant has complained to the landlord about repairs and the landlord has done nothing.

Unlike most kinds of civil lawsuits, state law does not require escrowing the unpaid rent nor proving the landlord was notified previously about repairs.  Obviously, the landlord is in a hurry to do repairs. But the tenant refuses to let repair persons in: “I’m sick,” “not now,” “call me another time,” or the tenant is simply not home. Every delay means more rent withholding and more free rent to the tenant. If the landlord finally manages to get in and do the repairs, new code violations are immediately found. Previous repairs are undone, or the tenant willfully causes damage. More code violations, more obstruction of repairs, more rent withholding, more free rent – it goes on as long as the tenant can get away with it – months, often many months, occasionally years.

Inspectors can’t stop it, they just report violations. Judges don’t stop it for a long while, and few order escrowing. The landlord-tenant relationship becomes a vicious fight as the landlord gets socked with no rent, costly and unnecessary repairs, and often attorney’s fees as he or she struggles to do repairs. In the end, the judge rules that most of the unpaid rent is owed to the landlord, but the tenant just walks off, pocketing all the unpaid rent. Collecting it is a long, arduous, expensive, and usually fruitless process.

The free rent trick is a fraud and a scam. Its effect is to foster and support a hostile, anti-landlord culture in Massachusetts.

Does anyone seriously think:

• That tenants do not take advantage of this defect in the law?
• That landlords should be required to give free housing to indigent and non-indigent tenants alike in such a costly, wasteful way?