“We weren’t even halfway through the lease,” Rodriguez said. “He kept asking for an update, but there was no update because we just didn’t know what we wanted to do. He tried to make us feel pressured, so he kept asking about coming by to take pictures before we even said we wanted to move out.” 

 

Landlords who demand that their leaseholders make premature rent renewal decisions aren’t uncommon. In a city that is overpopulated with college students, 65 percent of Boston lease cycles begin on Sept. 1. In the neighborhood of Allston-Brighton, a hot spot for off-campus students, this rental practice has become standard.

 

This creates a dilemma for the tenant. For the past nine years Miranda Etkind, a Houston transplant, has remained at her Warren Street apartment. She loves the dive bars and the walkability that comes with a bustling neighborhood like Allston-Brighton.

 

Every winter, she can expect to be bombarded with messages from her landlord about her living situation nine months in the future. Each year, she gives a resounding “yes” as soon as possible out of fear of ending up destitute. 

 

It’s too early for her to secure a new apartment for the following lease cycle and she’s afraid to give up her current place before securing a spot elsewhere. Etkind, who has several dogs, also says it's anxiety-inducing to have her apartment shown early in the year when she is still in the middle of her lease. If there had been more renewal leniency, Etkind would have moved out a while ago.

 

“That’s just the way it is in this area,” said Xi Zihao, a property manager at the Albert Corporation. “Depending on the property owner, they might ask earlier than someone is used to. It gives them peace of mind.”

 

Zihao, who has worked with landlords in Allston, Brighton and Brookline for the past five years, advises concerned tenants to ask their landlord to include a stipulation in their lease with a specific deadline for future renewal decisions upon signing. 

 

“This way there are no surprises and the tenants know in advance when they’ll need to make a decision,” Zihao said. “Some landlords actually already have a deadline somewhere in the lease, but they know that renters aren’t reading it, so they’ll still ask earlier.”

 

Rodriguez and Long couldn’t find any information about renewals in their lease. When they emailed their landlord to ask about resigning on the condition that he would add a renewal deadline date to the upcoming lease, he told them he was raising their rent by $300.

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The couple, who are prioritizing their finances to send their twin boys to preschool in the fall, said the entire situation left a bad taste in their mouth. In February, Rodriguez and Long told the landlord that they won’t be renewing their lease. 

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“We probably would have stayed,” Long said. “Now it’s too early for us to sign for a new place, so we’re going to feel anxious about finding a new apartment because as of now, we technically don’t have a place to live after September.”

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There is no legal deadline requirement in Massachusetts that landlords have to abide by, meaning they can start asking about renewals and showing apartments anytime during the duration of a tenant’s lease.

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In Ann Arbor, Michigan, a town where 50,000 University of Michigan students make up almost half of the population, there are protections that specify how early a landlord can demand an answer about a lease renewal. Put into effect in 2021, the city’s Early Leasing Ordinance stipulates that landlords may not require a decision from tenants or show properties more than 150 days—or five months—before the end of the current lease term. 

 

Alexis Scargill, a Simmons graduate student who’s lived in Brighton for four years, likened the Ann Arbor rental market to the situation in Boston. 

“I think that’s what we need to do here,” Scargill said. “It’s so manipulative because what if you don’t have an answer yet? And even if you decide to not renew, they could just start sending people to your apartment starting in January.”

 

Oscar Fuentes owns two units in a Commonwealth Avenue building, a property that is managed through the Albert Corporation. Fuentes, who asks his tenants about renewals every March, says he’s never had a complaint. 

 

“I understand that it might seem irritating,” Fuentes said. “I don’t think March is too early to just ask were they’re at.”

 

Fuentes gives his tenants a June first deadline, but usually receives a decision from tenants before then.

 

“As the owner of the property, I have to plan ahead. If there’s a vacancy, I’m still paying property taxes,” Fuentes said. “And for other landlords who own dozens of units, it’s difficult to plan and get their finances in order when we don’t know if we need to start looking for new occupants or not.” 

 

Scargill says June is a reasonable time for a landlord to start asking about whether a tenant wants to renew or not for a September lease. In most cities, landlords typically won’t start asking until 90 days before the lease is up.

 

In Allston-Brighton, however, most tenants are lucky if landlords give them until March.

 

“They will try to take advantage of you because they know it’s mostly students and young people,” Scargill said. “They just benefit from people not knowing what is acceptable or what recourse they have.”

 

Scargill’s landlord at her Oak Square apartment, where she lived from 2019 to 2021, communicated with her and her two roommates through an alias named “Kathleen”, that he later claimed was his girlfriend. It became obvious that the woman didn’t exist when their landlord couldn’t explain why he was unreachable through email, but was the only person they could talk to on the phone. 

 

In December of 2020, “Kathleen” started emailing Scargill and her roommates to ask about their decision for the following year, only three months after they’d moved in. When Scargill said it was too soon to make a decision, her landlord threatened to list their unit online and start showing it to potential renters if he wasn’t given an answer by March fifth.

 

“He kept bothering us all month,” Scargill said. “If you say yes, then you’re locked in. But if you say you need more time, they don’t care. It’s so frustrating to be harassed about it.”

 

Scargill moved out of her Oak Square apartment in 2021 into a nearby two bedroom walk up. This is the first year that a landlord hasn’t hounded her about renewal plans before March, something she suspects has to do with the fact that she and her roommate have recently withheld rent due to ceiling water leakage.

 

The same thing happened in 2021 to Jackie Barnes, a graphic designer, who’s lived in Allston for ten years. Barnes’ landlord asked them and their two roommates if they were renewing their lease on Christmas. When they assured the landlord at the end of January that two of them were staying, but had to find a third person to replace the roommate that was moving out, he listed the unit on the market anyway. According to their landlord, they should have already found a third roommate. 

 

“They just want to burn and turn these units so they can raise the prices every year more substantially,” Barnes said. “They will find the college freshman or people who don’t know how to rent in Boston immediately. There’s always new fodder for this in a unique way that I don’t think exists in other cities.”