Does Massachusetts have rent control?

No — Massachusetts has no statewide rent control or stabilization. Rent control is prohibited statewide by G.L. c. 40P, the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act, adopted by voter initiative in 1994 — so no city or town may impose it either.

Does Massachusetts preempt local rent control ordinances?

Massachusetts law prohibits cities and towns from enacting rent control of any kind, allowing only a narrow opt-in scheme in which owner compliance is voluntary and the municipality must compensate owners from general funds — a pathway no municipality uses.

Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in Massachusetts?

Rent under a lease for a fixed term cannot be raised mid-term unless the lease provides for it (e.g., a § 15C-compliant tax escalation clause). At expiration the landlord may propose any new rent for a renewal or new tenancy.

How much notice is required to raise the rent in Massachusetts?

Verified October 1, 2026 All Massachusetts topics →

Legislative changes ahead — not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measure would change Massachusetts's landlord-tenant law:

H.2328 and S.1447 / 'An Act enabling cities and towns to stabilize rents and protect tenants' (194th General Court, 2025-2026) — Would repeal G.L. c. 40P (the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act) and let a city or town limit annual rent increases to the change in the Consumer Price Index or 5 percent, whichever is lower, and require just cause for evictions. A second House bill, H.1477 ('An Act enabling local options for tenant protections'), would rewrite chapter 40P as a local-option Tenant Protection Act. Status: Not enacted. H.2328 was sent to a study order on August 13, 2026 and H.1477 on September 21, 2026. The Senate bill, S.1447, was reported favorably by its committee on July 13, 2026 and referred to Senate Ways and Means. A separate initiative petition for a statewide limit on rent increases (H.5008) received no vote in the Legislature and is not among the nine questions on the November 3, 2026 state ballot. Chapter 40P remains fully in force. (checked October 1, 2026).

Massachusetts has no statute dedicated to rent-increase notice, but for tenants at will (month-to-month) the mechanism is built into the termination statute: a landlord raises rent by giving a written notice under G.L. c. 186, § 12 equal to the rent-payment interval or 30 days, whichever is longer — and the statute expressly allows that termination notice to include an offer of a new tenancy at different terms, which is how the rent-increase-by-notice-to-quit works.

Cited to G.L. c. 186, § 12 and 1 more cited source · Verified October 1, 2026

For a monthly tenancy that means at least a full rental period's notice, timed to the rent day. There is no cap on the size or frequency of increases; rent control has been prohibited statewide since the 1994 voter initiative codified as chapter 40P, and no city or town — including Boston, whose home-rule petitions have stalled — may impose it.

Massachusetts rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month	30 days
Varies by increase size	Not addressed by statute
Fixed-term leases	Rent under a lease for a fixed term cannot be raised mid-term unless the lease provides for it (e.g., a § 15C-compliant tax escalation clause). At expiration the landlord may propose any new rent for a renewal or new tenancy.
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	Rent control is prohibited statewide by G.L. c. 40P, the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act, adopted by voter initiative in 1994 — so no city or town may impose it either. Municipal home-rule petitions to reintroduce rent stabilization (e.g., Boston's 2023 petition) have not been approved by the Legislature, and the perennial local-option 'Tenant Protection Act' bills that would repeal c. 40P are flagged in the pending-legislation section, not incorporated here.
Local rent regulation	Massachusetts law prohibits cities and towns from enacting rent control of any kind, allowing only a narrow opt-in scheme in which owner compliance is voluntary and the municipality must compensate owners from general funds — a pathway no municipality uses.
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Massachusetts Rent Increase Notice Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/rent-increase-notice/massachusetts/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Create a Massachusetts rent-increase notice — free, no signup, built on the same verified Massachusetts law as this page.

Notes and caveats

Why 30 days is listed when no rent-increase statute exists — Unlike pure derivation states such as Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina, Massachusetts gets a number because G.L. c. 186, § 12 expressly contemplates the termination notice 'includ[ing] an offer to establish a new tenancy... on terms different from that of the tenancy being terminated' — the statute itself codifies the rent-increase-by-notice mechanism rather than leaving it to derivation.
A mid-month notice can effectively require closer to 60 days — The notice must equal the rent-payment interval or 30 days, whichever is longer, AND terminate on a rent day — so a notice given mid-month can effectively require closer to 60 days.
Quarterly or longer tenancies need three months' notice — Tenancies with rent payable at intervals of three months or more require three months' notice.
Fixed-term leases: tax escalation has its own statute — For leases, § 15C separately regulates tax-escalation clauses.

Common questions: Massachusetts rent increase notice

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How many days' notice must a landlord give before raising rent in Massachusetts?: 30 days.
Does Massachusetts have rent control?: No — Massachusetts has no statewide rent control or stabilization. Rent control is prohibited statewide by G.L. c. 40P, the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act, adopted by voter initiative in 1994 — so no city or town may impose it either.
Does Massachusetts preempt local rent control ordinances?: Massachusetts law prohibits cities and towns from enacting rent control of any kind, allowing only a narrow opt-in scheme in which owner compliance is voluntary and the municipality must compensate owners from general funds — a pathway no municipality uses.
Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in Massachusetts?: Rent under a lease for a fixed term cannot be raised mid-term unless the lease provides for it (e.g., a § 15C-compliant tax escalation clause). At expiration the landlord may propose any new rent for a renewal or new tenancy.
How often can a landlord raise the rent in Massachusetts?: Not addressed by statute.

Citations

G.L. c. 186, § 12 (verified 2026) Official source
G.L. c. 40P (Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Massachusetts General Court site (malegislature.gov) on October 1, 2026: G.L. c. 186, § 15B read in full (current text, including the St. 2024, c. 150, § 50 fee-in-lieu proviso and the St. 2025, c. 9, §§ 54-55 amendments effective August 1, 2025), c. 186, § 12 read in full, the c. 186 section list, c. 40P, §§ 1-5, c. 112, § 87DDD1/2, and each session law the record cites (St. 2024, c. 150; St. 2025, cc. 9 and 73; St. 2026, c. 137). The Attorney General's regulation 940 CMR 3.17 and the index of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities' regulations (760 CMR) were read on mass.gov the same day. G.L. c. 239, § 17 is not yet displayed in the online General Laws and is cited to its session laws.