Old_Travel8423 t1_j4nvwod wrote on January 17, 2023 at 1:05 AM

Does your lease require you to remove the air conditioners? If no, you don't have to remove them.

https://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/lt1-chapter-5-rent.pdf This doesn't mention anything about fees, and it's a pretty comprehensive guide to rent in MA. So I don't think there is anything else about fees or actions that are in your lease.

If the lease requires the fee to install ACs, then that is something you can't get around. My guess is it's not in your lease to remove the ACs. That means, probably, that you don't have to remove the ACs, meaning you would not need an install in the summer, meaning you wouldn't incur the cost. However, best case scenario there is the landlord does nothing (possible, since it sounds like you need to keep your windows open in the winter to stay cool - btw look into outlet thermostats plus a window fan that has manual, non-electric controls - that's a life-saver in those situations). I would expect though that your landlord will write it into all lease renewals in the future that window ACs must be removed before a certain date, at which point you would either need to accept the terms or move (or try to negotiate it out, but that's unlikely). There's also the risk that the landlord would not renew your lease if you push back, or increase the rent, or take other retaliatory actions, which is crappy but that's what might happen.

If both the install fee, and the removal requirement, were in the lease, then there's not much you can do. It's basically a higher rent amount but only if you want those services, which my guess is legal in MA. So then you need to decide if this new higher rent amount is worth it.

lilliavert OP t1_j4o0ipm wrote on January 17, 2023 at 1:38 AM

I’ve taken a closer look at my lease, and specifically the air conditioning portion, and it looks like in my lease I can’t run it from Nov 1 - Apr 1, but it doesn’t specifically say I’m required to remove it by a certain date. However, it says that failure to adhere to any of the installation or usage policies is a $200 fine and of course the ever looming threat of non-renewal/eviction. So the cost of installing them again is essentially the same as the fine ironically.

It just seems like another way to squeeze money out of tenants unfortunately (the whole installation takes less than 10 minutes) but I guess I’ll go with it in hopes that my rent doesn’t jump up too much this year.

Old_Travel8423 t1_j4pp72y wrote on January 17, 2023 at 11:49 AM

Yeah it’s a crap situation.

I don’t think they can incorporate by reference policies that they can change any time that cost you extra fees. You probably have a strong argument there, and if you were okay with not renewing the lease that might be the way to go. But the big risk is that they might not renew the lease.