It recently came to my attention that I think my landlord might have been overcharging me under my lease for a number of years.  Do I have any rights to complain at this point, or would a court say that I was knucklehead for making those payments, and I am out of luck?

Of course, whether or not you were being charged properly under your lease would have to be determined by an analysis of your obligations under your lease, however even if there are provisions under the lease which would purport to bar you from making any complaints, every contract contains an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.  So if you were being overcharged, you would have a separate right of action against your landlord for breaching the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.  Moreover if the property was being managed for the landlord by a property manager, and if the property manager is compensated based upon a percentage of the rent is being collected, you may have a separate cause of action against the property manager.  In addition you may have rights against both the owner of the property and the property manager under our consumer protection statute, which applies to business persons as well, which provides that in the event that any party to a contract engages in unfair and deceptive trade practice that party can be liable for up to three times the amount of actual damages plus attorneys fees if they fail to make a reasonable offer of settlement.  Clearly an intentional overcharge which is not permitted by the lease could be an unfair and deceptive trade practice.  You should send a letter to your landlord spelling out why you believe you have been overcharged. That may lead to a dialogue in which you could determine whether or not you have been overcharged.  You could then do the accounting work that will need to be done to determine exactly how much you have been overcharged in the past and what the additional charges might be for the remainder of the lease.  If your landlord continues to refuse to make an adjustment you could then make a demand under our consumer protection act and if the landlord still refuses to negotiate with you in good faith, you can then bring the lawsuit and seek multiple damages plus attorneys fees as a result of the landlord’s and/or the property manager’s failure to live up to their obligations of good faith and fair dealing.

If you have questions about this or any other real estate matter, please contact Tom Bennett at (617) 531-6574 or tvb@barronstad.com.