What a Lynn lease cannot say: the clauses the law voids, and what you can do if yours has one

A lease is a contract, and most of what it says is up to the two people signing it. Not all of it. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 186 names specific kinds of lease clause and says each is void — a landlord cannot enforce it even though the tenant signed underneath. Other pages on this site quote some of these one at a time, where they come up: the late-fee clause, the up-front charges, the lockout statute. This page puts the whole set in one place, quotes the sections the other pages do not, and says what the texts give a Lynn tenant whose lease contains one anyway. Every section quoted here was fetched from the Legislature's site and read on November 15, 2026.

What this page is: the lease clauses that Massachusetts statutes and the Attorney General's regulation take out of a Lynn lease, each quoted from and linked to its official text. It is not legal advice — it reads the texts, not the court decisions applying them, and when a clause in your own lease matters, use the free legal help on our tenant rights page.

The formula: “against public policy and void” — and what void does and does not do

Five sections of chapter 186 — §15, §15A, §15C, §15F and §16 — each say that a lease provision of a described kind “shall be deemed to be against public policy and void.” The security-deposit section says it a little longer: “Any provision of a lease which conflicts with any provision of this section and any waiver by a tenant or prospective tenant of any provision of this section shall be deemed to be against public policy and therefore void and unenforceable” (§15B(8)). Two more, §15E and §21, say a waiver “shall be void and unenforceable.” Three things follow from the words themselves. First, they act on the clause: none of the eight sections says the rest of the lease falls with it, so the tenancy, the rent and the term stand. Second, the wording of the clause does not matter — §15, §15A and §16 each reach an agreement made “by the use of any words whatsoever.” Third, none of the sections makes its protection depend on the tenant having objected before signing. What most of them do not contain is a penalty for merely printing such a clause in a lease; where money is attached, it comes from the deposit section, the lockout section, or the Attorney General's regulation, each covered below. Source: M.G.L. c.186 §15B — security deposits; subsection (8) · M.G.L. c.186 §15 — non-liability clauses · M.G.L. c.186 §15A — waiver of notices

“The landlord is not responsible for…” — liability waivers, c.186 §15 and §15E

The clause most often found near the end of a printed lease — the tenant holds the landlord harmless for injury or damage — is the first one the chapter voids. Section 15, in full: “Any provision of a lease or other rental agreement relating to real property whereby a lessee or tenant enters into a covenant, agreement or contract, by the use of any words whatsoever, the effect of which is to indemnify the lessor or landlord or hold the lessor or landlord harmless, or preclude or exonerate the lessor or landlord from any or all liability to the lessee or tenant, or to any other person, for any injury, loss, damage or liability arising from any omission, fault, negligence or other misconduct of the lessor or landlord on or about the leased or rented premises or on or about any elevators, stairways, hallways or other appurtenance used in connection therewith, shall be deemed to be against public policy and void.” Read what it covers and what it does not. It covers the landlord's own “omission, fault, negligence or other misconduct”, in the unit and in the shared parts of the building, toward the tenant “or to any other person” — a guest on the stairs is inside it. It does not make a landlord answerable for a loss nobody's fault caused; a tenant's belongings ruined by a burst pipe the landlord could not have prevented are still the tenant's loss, which is the gap renters insurance exists to fill. Section 15E closes a related defense. An owner sued by a tenant or occupant injured by a defect in a common area may not argue “that said defect existed at the time of the letting of the property, if said defect is at the time of the injury a violation of the building code of the city or town wherein the property is situated” — and “Any waiver of this provision in any lease or other rental agreement shall be void and unenforceable.” So “tenant accepts the premises as is” does not excuse a code-violating stairway. Section 15 says “real property”, not “residential”; on its words it is not limited to apartments. Source: M.G.L. c.186 §15 — non-liability of landlord; provisions in lease · M.G.L. c.186 §15E — injuries due to defects violating building code; waiver

Giving up notice, a jury, or the words “constructive eviction” — c.186 §15A and §15F

Section 15A: “Any provision of a lease or other rental agreement relating to residential real property whereby a lessee or tenant enters into a covenant, agreement or contract, by the use of any words whatsoever, the effect of which is to waive the notices required under section eleven or twelve, shall be deemed to be against public policy and void.” Those are the two notice sections of the same chapter. Section 11 covers unpaid rent under a written lease: “fourteen days' notice to quit, given in writing by the landlord to the tenant”. Section 12 covers a tenancy at will: written notice “equal to the interval between the days of payment or thirty days, whichever is longer”, and fourteen days' written notice for unpaid rent. A lease line reading “tenant waives notice to quit” is therefore void as to those notices; the eviction page walks through those notices and what happens after them. One limit, stated because the section states it: §15A names the notices of §11 and §12 only. What notice a fixed-term lease owes before it is ended for some other breach is a matter of the lease's own terms and of court decisions this page has not read. Section 15F voids two more clauses in a residential lease — one in which “the tenant agrees to waive his right to trial by jury in any subsequent litigation with the landlord”, and one agreeing “that no action or failure to act by the landlord shall be construed as a constructive eviction”. The same section holds the second Massachusetts lockout remedy, three months' rent or three times the damages, and voids any agreement exempting the landlord from it; that half is quoted on the eviction page and not repeated here. Source: M.G.L. c.186 §15A — waiver of notices; validity · M.G.L. c.186 §11 — termination of lease for nonpayment of rent · M.G.L. c.186 §12 — notice to determine estate at will · M.G.L. c.186 §15F — provisions restricting litigation or landlord liability

Money clauses: a late fee before day 30, extra charges at signing, tax escalators, automatic increases — §15B, §15C, 940 CMR 3.17

Four money terms are regulated by name. (1) Late fees: no lease may impose interest or a penalty until rent is thirty days overdue (§15B(1)(c)) — quoted and worked through on the late-fees page. (2) Charges at or before move-in: the statute's list is closed — first month, last month, a deposit of at most one month's rent, a lock — and is on the cost-to-move-in page. Both rules sit inside §15B, so subsection (8) above voids a lease clause that conflicts with either, and the section adds a consequence. A landlord forfeits “his right to retain any portion of the security deposit for any reason” if he “uses in any lease signed by the tenant any provision which conflicts with any provision of this section and attempts to enforce such provision or attempts to obtain from the tenant or prospective tenant a waiver of any provision of this section” (§15B(6)(c)). Note the two halves: the conflicting clause must be used and an attempt made to enforce it, or a waiver sought. The triple-damages subsection, (7), lists clauses (a), (d) and (e) of subsection 6 — not (c). (3) Tax escalators. A clause passing a property-tax increase through to the tenant during the lease is void unless it “expressly sets forth (1) that the lessee shall be obligated to pay only that proportion of such increased tax as the unit leased by him bears to the whole of the real estate so taxed, (2) the exact percentage of any such increase which the lessee shall pay, and (3) that if the lessor obtains an abatement of the real estate tax levied on the whole of the real estate of which the unit leased by the lessee is a part, a proportionate share of such abatement, less reasonable attorney's fees, if any, shall be refunded to said lessee” (§15C). If the stated percentage turns out to exceed the unit's true share, the landlord returns the excess “plus interest calculated at the rate of five per cent per year from the date of collection.” (4) Automatic increases. The Attorney General's regulation makes it an unfair or deceptive practice to include a term that “Fails to state clearly and conspicuously in the rental agreement the conditions upon which an automatic increase in rent shall be determined.” That is a rule about how an increase clause must be written, not a cap on rent; Massachusetts has none, as the rent-increase page explains. Source: M.G.L. c.186 §15B — security deposits; subsections (1), (6), (7), (8) · M.G.L. c.186 §15C — lease payments based on real estate tax increases · 940 CMR 3.17 — Attorney General's landlord-tenant regulation (Cornell LII mirror of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations)

“This lease ends if a child moves in” — c.186 §16

Section 16, in full: “Any provision of a lease or other rental agreement relating to real property whereby a lessee or tenant enters into a covenant, agreement or contract, by the use of any words whatsoever, the effect of which is to terminate, or to provide that the lessor or landlord may terminate, such lease or agreement if the tenant has or shall have a child or children, who shall occupy the premises covered by such lease or agreement, shall be deemed to be against public policy and void.” It reaches both forms of the clause — a lease that ends itself and a lease that lets the landlord end it — and both tenses, a child the tenant “has or shall have.” The text of §16 carries no exemption of its own. It is also narrower than it may look: it voids a termination clause, and says nothing about refusing to rent to a family in the first place. That is the anti-discrimination statute, chapter 151B, with its own exemptions and its own lead-paint rule, set out on the fair-housing page. Source: M.G.L. c.186 §16 — leases or rental agreements restricting occupancy of children

One more named waiver — and the regulation that reaches every other unlawful term

Section 21 of the chapter gives a tenant the right to learn, in writing and within fifteen days of asking, which company insures the building against fire; its last sentence is “A waiver of this section in any lease or other rental agreement shall be void and unenforceable.” The right itself is on the renters-insurance page. Beyond the named clauses there is a general rule, and it is short. Under 940 CMR 3.17(3)(a) it is an unfair or deceptive act or practice for an owner to include in any rental agreement any term which “Violates any law”. The same paragraph names two of the clauses above a second time: a term that “Contains a penalty clause not in conformity with the provisions of M.G.L. c. 186, s. 15B” and one that “Contains a tax escalator clause not in conformity with the provisions of M.G.L. c. 186, s. 15C”. What that adds is not another way of saying void. A void clause simply cannot be enforced; an unfair or deceptive practice is something a tenant can bring a claim about, under the statute in the next section. What a written lease must affirmatively state under the same regulation — the owner's and repair person's names, addresses and telephone numbers, and the signed copy owed within thirty days — is on the cost-to-move-in page. Source: M.G.L. c.186 §21 — disclosure of insurance information; waiver · 940 CMR 3.17 — Attorney General's landlord-tenant regulation (Cornell LII mirror of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations)

If your lease has one of these clauses: what the texts give you

Three things, in ascending order of effort. First, the clause is not owed. A late fee charged on day five, a “hold harmless” line raised after a fall on an unlit stair, a waiver of the notice to quit: each can be answered by pointing at the section that voids it, in a letter or before a judge. Second, where the clause conflicts with the deposit section and the landlord tries to enforce it, §15B(6)(c) costs the landlord the right to keep any of the security deposit. Third, the consumer statute. Because including an unlawful term is an unfair or deceptive practice under the regulation, c.93A §9 applies, and it starts with a letter: “At least thirty days prior to the filing of any such action, a written demand for relief, identifying the claimant and reasonably describing the unfair or deceptive act or practice relied upon and the injury suffered, shall be mailed or delivered to any prospective respondent.” If the claim then goes to court and succeeds, “recovery shall be in the amount of actual damages or twenty-five dollars, whichever is greater; or up to three but not less than two times such amount if the court finds that the use or employment of the act or practice was a willful or knowing violation”, or that the refusal to settle was in bad faith. Be plain about the size of that: a clause that was printed but never enforced may have caused no measurable damage, and twenty-five dollars is then the floor the statute sets. The remedy matters most when the clause was actually used — a fee collected, a deposit kept, a notice skipped. Free legal help for Lynn tenants is listed on the tenant-rights page. Source: M.G.L. c.93A §9 — consumer remedy: demand letter, damages, fees · 940 CMR 3.17 — Attorney General's landlord-tenant regulation (Cornell LII mirror of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations) · M.G.L. c.186 §15B — security deposits; subsection (6)(c)

What a lease may still say — and what this page did not read

Most of a lease is untouched by all of this. Rent, the length of the term, who pays which utility (within the rules on the utilities page), whether pets are allowed (with the assistance-animal exception), whether you may sublet (the lease decides), and a requirement to carry renters insurance are all terms Massachusetts leaves to the parties, and a clause is not void merely because it is one-sided. The limits of this page: it quotes statute and regulation text only. No court decision interpreting §15, §15A, §15C, §15E or §16 was read for it, and courts decide how far each reaches — whether a particular sentence in a particular lease has “the effect” the statute names is exactly the kind of question they answer. The deposit section does not apply to “any lease, rental, occupancy or tenancy of one hundred days or less in duration which lease or rental is for a vacation or recreational purpose” (§15B(9)). Subsidized and public housing leases carry federal lease rules on top of these, which this page does not cover. It is not legal advice. Source: M.G.L. c.186 §15B — security deposits; subsection (9)

Page last updated November 15, 2026 · rent index data through September 2026.