By Elliott Topkins, Esquire
8/25/11
The Neglectful Landlord
A few months ago, I received a call from a client whose daughter lived with three other women in an apartment. The landlord, who had a chain of apartments in the Greater Boston area, was being neglectful. There was a rodent problem, a leak in the ceiling persisted, and in this winter of winters, the heating system often failed. Phone calls, letters, threats of non-payment of rent all were ignored. In desperation, we were called upon to try to make the situation better.
The women wanted to remain in the apartment. They all taught school in the area. They were friends and had found a location that was suitable. They wanted the landlord to be responsive to their needs and live up to the assumption which exists in all Massachusetts tenancies which provides that an apartment must be “habitable.” We started off with normal channels. We wrote a certified letter to the landlord, requesting a forum to explain the problems. This was unanswered. We sent another letter and advised the landlord that if remedial action was not commenced, we would advise our clients to withhold rent. Again, there was no response. We informed the health officers in the town involved and requested that they inspect the alleged problems. They conducted an inspection and cited the landlord for health code violations. The landlord agreed to address the problems, but nothing happened.
Our clients did not pay rent to the landlord, but kept the rent in a segregated account. The landlord sued, we defended. When we had our day in court, subpoenaed the health officer to testify, and presented the facts, we were able to obtain a four figure judgment against the landlord. The women are not leaving the apartment. We are confident that the landlord has learned a lesson and will take better care of health and safety issues in the future.
The Insouciant Trustee
One of our clients had recently lost her father. In a not untypical situation, her father’s estate plan made provision for his second wife, not my client’s mother, and my client and her siblings. The widow was made a trustee of a trust set up by the father, along with my client. The trust provided, among other things, that the income of the trust was to be paid to the widow, and the remaining assets were to pass to my client and her siblings at the widow’s death. Very early in the game, the widow lost interest in serving as trustee, and her son assumed the trustee’s position, as set forth in the instrument. My client felt that might be a good thing, as the son was an accountant and had financial experience.
As things turned out, having a busy accountant as a co-trustee proved a nightmare. The widow’s son was totally unresponsive to reasonable requests made by my client. Tax returns remain unfiled, even distributions to his mother, the income beneficiary, have not been made. To protect my client’s interests, both as a trustee and a beneficiary, we have commenced a lawsuit in the Probate Court involved. We expect to be able to remove the son, who could not give a care, and replace him with a corporate trustee who can do the job responsibly.
(Mr. Topkins is an attorney with Topkins & Bevans, Braintree Executive Park, 150 Grossman Dr., Braintree, MA 02184. His blog can be found at http://realtorsresourceblog.com. His telephone number is 617/596-3184 and his e-mail address in etopkins@topbev.com.)
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