How to Evict a Section 8 Tenant in Massachusetts

To evict a Section 8 tenant in Massachusetts, you need a federally recognized “good cause,” a written Notice to Quit delivered to both the tenant and the local housing authority, and a judgment through the state’s summary process in Housing Court, District Court, or Boston Municipal Court. The procedure mirrors any other residential eviction, but federal voucher rules add requirements that a landlord cannot skip without risking dismissal.

Good Cause Grounds You Can Use

During the lease term, federal regulations limit termination to three categories: a serious or repeated lease violation, a violation of federal, state, or local law related to occupancy, or other good cause. In day-to-day practice, the triggers you’ll see most often are nonpayment of the tenant’s share of the rent, serious property damage, ongoing disturbances affecting neighbors, unauthorized occupants, and drug-related criminal activity on or near the property by the tenant, a household member, or a guest.¹

One point catches new Section 8 landlords off guard. You cannot evict the tenant because the housing authority is late on, or has stopped, its share of the rent. Federal regulations state that the tenant is not responsible for the housing assistance payment, and the authority’s nonpayment is not a lease violation by the tenant.¹ If the authority falls behind, your claim runs against the agency under the Housing Assistance Payment contract, not against the family in the unit.

Notice to Quit: What It Says and Who Gets It

Before anything is filed in court, serve the tenant with a written Notice to Quit stating the specific reason for ending the tenancy. For nonpayment on a tenancy at will, Massachusetts requires at least 14 days’ notice. For other lease violations, the notice period follows the lease and any applicable state requirements. Vague notices get cases dismissed; the notice must identify the actual ground.

At the same time the notice goes to the tenant, send a copy to the housing authority. The HUD tenancy addendum, a required attachment to every Section 8 lease, makes this explicit,² and the federal regulation repeats it: the owner must give the authority a copy of any eviction notice to the tenant.¹ Missing this step is one of the most common procedural defects in Section 8 cases, and tenants’ attorneys look for it first.

Since April 2023, a Massachusetts notice to quit for nonpayment must also come with a form providing information about rental assistance programs and relevant court rules.³ Leaving it off is another ground for dismissal.

Filing the Summary Process Case

After the notice period expires and the tenant has not left or cured, you file a Summary Process action. The Summons and Complaint form has to be purchased at the clerk’s office, filled out, and served on the tenant by a sheriff or constable. You then file the served copy and pay the filing fee.⁴

You can file in one of three courts:

The Housing Court covering the property’s location.
The District Court for the city or town where the property sits.
The Boston Municipal Court, if the property is in its jurisdiction.

Filing fees are $120 in Housing Court and $180 in District Court or BMC, with the sheriff or constable paid separately for service.⁴ The HUD tenancy addendum adds that you may only evict through a court action,² so even an apparently abandoned unit should not be retaken without a court order.

What Happens in Court

Summary process runs on a compressed schedule built around “entry day,” which is a Monday. The tenant must file an answer by the first Monday after entry day.⁵ If the tenant serves discovery on or before the answer date, trial is automatically pushed back two weeks.

Before trial, both sides meet with a court mediator. Many Section 8 cases settle here, often with a payment plan, a move-out agreement, or a cure of the violation. The housing authority sometimes helps bring a resolution, since preserving the tenancy also preserves the voucher.

If mediation fails, a judge hears the case. Bring the original lease, the HUD tenancy addendum, the Notice to Quit, proof of service on both the tenant and the housing authority, and evidence supporting the stated ground. A landlord who cannot document those basics will lose.

Defenses to Expect

Section 8 tenants have every defense available to any Massachusetts tenant, plus several unique to subsidized housing. Think through each before you file.

Right to Cure Nonpayment

On a tenancy at will, the tenant can stop a nonpayment eviction once every 12 months by paying the overdue rent, plus 1% monthly interest and court costs, on or before the answer date. For Section 8 households, where the tenant’s share of the rent is often small, this is a readily usable off-ramp.

Retaliation

If you serve a notice to quit for anything other than nonpayment within six months after the tenant reported a code violation, filed a complaint with a government agency, or joined a tenants’ organization, Massachusetts law presumes the eviction is retaliatory. Overcoming the presumption requires clear and convincing evidence of an independent, legitimate reason you would have acted on anyway.⁶ Document your grounds before that six-month window ever opens.

Housing Code Violations

If the court finds you failed to maintain the property in compliance with health or building codes, the tenant can block possession entirely. When the amount owed to the tenant for living with the violations equals or exceeds what you claim in rent, the court cannot order possession. Even when your claim is larger, the tenant has one week after the court calculates the balance to pay the difference and keep the apartment.⁷

Reasonable Accommodation

A tenant with a disability can request a reasonable accommodation that modifies the lease or the eviction process itself: a second chance to comply, a different payment schedule, a support person present for communications. You must grant the request unless it would cause an undue financial or administrative burden. A refusal without proper analysis can turn the eviction into a fair housing claim.

VAWA Protections

The Violence Against Women Act bars evicting a Section 8 tenant based on incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking in which the tenant is the victim. An act of violence against the tenant cannot be treated as a serious lease violation or as good cause. Nor can you evict a victim solely because of criminal activity directly related to the abuse committed by another household member. If the abuser is on the lease, you or the housing authority can bifurcate it, removing the abuser while the victim stays.⁸

After the Judgment

A judgment for possession is not the day the tenant leaves. The tenant has 10 days to file an appeal, and that deadline cannot be extended by the trial court or the Appeals Court. While a timely appeal is pending, no execution issues in most cases, so the tenant stays until the appeal is resolved. If the tenant fails to meet the conditions of the appeal bond, the trial court can lift that protection.⁹

When the termination was no-fault (such as an owner-occupancy eviction or a no-fault nonrenewal), the court can delay the eviction for up to six months, or up to 12 months for a tenant age 60 or older or with a qualifying disability. The tenant pays fair-value use-and-occupancy during the stay. Hardship stays are not available in nonpayment cases.¹⁰

Once the appeal window closes or an appeal resolves in your favor, you request that the court issue an execution, the document authorizing a sheriff or constable to remove the tenant. The officer must give the tenant written notice at least two business days before carrying out the removal, with weekends and holidays not counted.¹¹ Any belongings left behind must be removed and stored by the officer with a licensed public warehouser within 20 miles of the property, with insurance and monthly statements required.¹²

What Eviction Means for the Voucher

This matters to landlords because it shapes how a tenant negotiates. A serious lease violation eviction forces the housing authority to terminate the family’s voucher. The regulation uses the word “must.” The authority also has discretion to terminate assistance if any family member was evicted from federally assisted housing within the past five years, if the family owes money to any housing authority, or if a family member has engaged in criminal activity or violent behavior toward authority staff.¹³ A judgment follows the family for years and can block reapplication nationwide, which is a large reason many Section 8 tenants settle at mediation.

Self-Help Is Never an Option

Changing locks, shutting off utilities, removing belongings, or any other move to force the tenant out without a court order is illegal in Massachusetts. Criminal penalties run up to $300 in fines or six months in jail. On the civil side, the tenant can recover actual and consequential damages or three months’ rent, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney’s fees.¹⁴ For a Section 8 landlord, a lockout also violates the HUD tenancy addendum’s court-only requirement,² which can jeopardize your ability to accept vouchers at all. Even a slow court process is cheaper than that liability.

1
eCFR. 24 CFR 982.310 – Owner Termination of Tenancy
2
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Tenancy Addendum Section 8 Tenant-Based Assistance Housing Choice Voucher Program
3
Mass.gov. Notice to Quit Accompanying Form
4
Mass.gov. File an Eviction Case
5
Mass.gov. Uniform Summary Process Rule 3 – Answer
6
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 186 – Section 18
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 239 – Section 8A
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 34 USC 12491 – Housing Protections for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking
9
Mass.gov. Housing Appeals Guide
10
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 239 – Section 9
11
Mass.gov. Tenants’ Guide to Eviction
12
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 239 – Section 4
13
eCFR. 24 CFR 982.552 – PHA Denial or Termination of Assistance for Family
14
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 186 – Section 14