Rent Increases
I am interested in your opinon on how to inform a tennant of a rent increase. I have been told that a Notice to Quit is the proper form but I have also been told that you only use such a form if the tennant is in breach on the lease/rental agreement. Can you tell me the best way to inform the tennant. I am a relatively new landlord. Thanks!!

I am currently a tenant in a house that was foreclosed by the city of Lynn on a tax lien. In June the city tried to be sneaky and just throw me out, claiming code violations (all in the cellar) and no occupancy permit declaring it uninhabitable. I filed a motion for a TRO and I went to a mediation hearing with a housing specialist and we agreed they would give me until Aug 30. In June when I got home from court there was a water shut off notice on the door, I notified the city atty and he said it is all set for now, but only until Sept 1 then it will be shut off. Now my problem is that I have not yet found a suitable place and I need more time. The city attorney is not a reasonable person and he only agreed to give me until Aug 30 because he failed to issue me a written notice to quit. If I am not ready to leave Aug 30 can they just kick me out or shut off the water? I still never received any notice, we just had an agreement we signed back in June. The city’s reasoning is that the heating system is non operable and the city will not spend any $$ on repairs because they already existed prior to foreclosure. Is the city legally responsible as my landlord to repair this and other violations? If I just stay put will they have to go through the whole evictions process from step 1? I feel as though they have an unfair advantage where if it were a mortgage foreclosure the bank would have to make the repairs or face legal consequences, the city seems to think they can do whatever they please including having their own officials just condemn it. Please advise me on any options I may have. I do plan to purchase a “fixer upper” possibly in the same city so I’d rather not make an enemy, however he is not a reasonable person to just approach and ask for more time.

Tenant rent and damage liability
If a tenant does not pay rent for sept., and after I’ve given registered letters requesting rent, then a notice to quit (10/2)for non payment & breach of lease, and also letters requesting information response, and they still are on property on oct 2, then I notice their abandonment on the 7th, leaving substantial damages to the property. I sent a registered letter (10/7) stating that I had entered because of abandonment, requested the keys again, and gave the long list of damages.
Am I right to understand that they owe rent for sept, (”last” to be used for Oct), and any damages that exceed the one month security held (on acct. w/interest as required)? What period begins my 30 days to address security and damage claim? If they are not responsive, do I seek to collect via the courts-small claims?

Return of Security Deposit
We recently moved out of a house we rented because our landlord wanted to sell it. While we had a lease for another year, he claimed that we were tentants at will because he never signed the lease. I know that to be untrue as he accepted our increase rent check and we have emails from him stating that he agreed to the lease. We moved because we realized he was dishonest and did not want to deal with him anymore. However, he has now decided to not return our security deposit and will not return any calls or emails sent. He never gave us a reason to hold the security deposit besides an email 10 days after our month was up asking us to mow the lawn and that he said we left stuff in the house (which we didn’t). He also did not put the money into an interest bearing account. I believe for these reasons we are entitles to 3 times the deposit plus interest. When we moved out we sent a certified letter stating we were moving and he sent us a certified letter with a ”notice to quit”. Can someone help me with what the next steps are? We would like to file the claim without an attorney but don’t know if that is such a good idea.