A Haverhill tenant reported her landlord to the board of health after she allegedly found evidence of a rodent infestation inside her apartment.
The health board inspected the apartment and subsequently issued a violation notice to the landlord.
In less than a month, the landlord sent a notice to quit to the tenant.
The eviction eventually went to trial where the tenant raised a retaliation defense per G.L. c. 239, Sec. 8A.
The pertinent portion of that statute states
It shall be a defense to an action for summary process that such action . . . was taken against the tenant for the tenant’s act of commencing, proceeding with, or obtaining relief in any judicial or administrative action the purpose of which action was to obtain damages under or otherwise enforce, any federal, state or local law, regulation, by-law, or ordinance, which has as its objective the regulation of residential premises, . . . or reporting a violation or suspected violation of law as provided in section eighteen of chapter one hundred and eighty-six
According to the SJC, “if a landlord commences an action within six months of such a complaint, a presumption of retaliation arises.” See Youghal, LLC v. Entwistle, 484 Mass. 1019, 1023 (2020).
Despite this, the trial judge ordered the tenant’s eviction, reasoning that “affirmative defenses are not available to the [tenant]” because the landlord terminated the lease for cause.
The tenant appealed.
The Appeals Court rejected the judge’s reasoning, writing
The landlord sent the notice to quit within a month of [the tenant’s] complaint to the board of health. Therefore, the statutory presumption of retaliation arose here, triggering the landlord’s obligation to prove by clear and convincing evidence that his action was not a reprisal against the tenant and that he had sufficient independent justification for taking such action, and would have in fact taken such action, in the same manner and at the same time the action was taken, regardless of tenants engaging in, or the belief tenants had engaged in protected reporting. (Citations and quotations omitted.)
The case was remanded to the trial level for further proceedings consistent with the court’s ruling.
The full text of the slip opinion is attached.