Massachusetts No Trespass Notice: Delivery, Filing, and Penalties

A Massachusetts no trespass notice is a written document telling a specific person they are forbidden from entering your property, which makes any future entry a criminal offense under M.G.L. c. 266, § 120.¹ There is no statewide form. You can use a template from your local police department or draft your own letter. Either way, the notice has to identify you, name the person being barred, describe the property, use direct forbidding language, and be delivered in a way you can later prove.

What to Put in the Notice

The statute covers dwelling houses, buildings, boats, improved or enclosed land, wharfs, piers, and school buses.¹ Whatever type of premises you own, the notice needs enough detail that there can be no confusion about who is being barred and from where. Police department templates, like the one from the Falmouth Police Department, collect the following fields:²

The date you sign and send the notice, which establishes when the restriction begins.
Your full legal name and mailing address as the property owner or authorized agent.
The full legal name and current residential address of the person being barred.
A description of the property: street address plus a short identifier like “single-family home at 42 Elm Street” or “commercial building and parking lot at 100 Main Street.” If you control multiple parcels, list each one.
Your signature as the owner or authorized representative.

Language matters more than layout. State plainly that the named individual is forbidden from entering or remaining on the described property, including any buildings, land, driveways, and parking areas. Vague phrasing like “please stay away” is a problem because the statute triggers when someone enters “after having been forbidden so to do,” so the notice needs to mirror that direct prohibition.¹ Something like “You are hereby forbidden from entering or remaining on the property located at [address], including all buildings, land, and parking areas” works.

Make at least three signed copies: one for your records, one for the recipient, and one for the local police department.²

How to Deliver It So It Holds Up

A no trespass notice only has teeth if you can prove the other person received it. Massachusetts law recognizes two ways to forbid someone from your property: telling them directly, or posting notice on the premises.¹ For a notice aimed at a specific person, you want a paper trail.

Certified Mail

The most accessible method is certified mail with a return receipt requested. The green return receipt card comes back to you carrying the recipient’s signature, and that is your proof of delivery. USPS charges a certified mail fee plus a separate return receipt fee on top of regular postage.³ If you want to make sure only the named person can sign for it, rather than a roommate or family member, you can pay for restricted delivery.⁴

In-Hand Service by a Constable or Sheriff

If the person is likely to refuse the mail, or you want a stronger record, hire a local constable or a sheriff’s deputy to hand-deliver it. Massachusetts sets the statutory fee for in-hand service of civil process at $30 per person served, and constables may add travel costs.⁵ The constable or deputy then gives you a return of service, a signed document confirming who received the notice, when, and where. This is the strongest proof of delivery you can obtain. Some police departments specifically suggest going this route when the recipient refuses certified mail or cannot be reached.²

Posted Signs

The statute also allows entry to be forbidden “by notice posted thereon,” which means no trespassing signs placed on the property itself.¹ Posted signs warn everyone, not just one person. For prosecution, the state does not have to prove the trespasser actually saw the sign, only that the sign was “reasonably distinct” and placed in a “reasonably suitable place so that a reasonably careful trespasser would see it.”⁶ Signs and a personal notice can work in parallel: the signs cover strangers, the personal notice creates a record against a named individual.

Filing the Notice With the Police

After delivering the notice, bring a signed copy along with your proof of delivery, whether that is the certified mail return receipt or the constable’s return of service, to your local police department.² Departments vary in where they receive these; Springfield, for example, takes them at its Records Department.⁷ Some also accept photographs and physical descriptions of the barred person.

Filing turns your private letter into something officers can act on. With the notice in the department’s records, a responding officer can confirm on the spot that a formal warning was already given. Without that file, police responding to a trespass call have to take your word for it, which slows things down and weakens your position if the situation escalates.

Who Cannot Be Barred This Way

The statute carves out tenants and lawful occupants. If someone entered your property lawfully at the start of a tenancy or occupancy and is still living there, a no trespass notice cannot be used to remove them, even if the lease has expired or you believe the tenancy has ended. The statute says the owner “may recover possession thereof only through appropriate civil proceedings,” meaning a formal eviction through the courts.¹ Trying to use a trespass notice to force out a tenant is one of the most common mistakes property owners make, and it will not hold up.

The notice also only reaches people who enter “without right.” Someone with independent legal authority to be there, such as a utility worker with an easement, a law enforcement officer executing a warrant, or a person acting under a court order, is not trespassing regardless of what your notice says.

Criminal Penalties If They Come Back

Entering or remaining on property after being properly forbidden is a criminal offense under M.G.L. c. 266, § 120. Conviction carries a fine of up to $100, imprisonment for up to 30 days, or both.¹ A judge can impose the fine alone, jail time alone, or both, depending on the facts and any prior history.

A person caught trespassing can be arrested on the spot by a sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable, or police officer and held for up to 24 hours (Sundays excluded) while a complaint is filed. The statute also addresses domestic court orders: if someone violates a no-contact order issued under a divorce proceeding (c. 208, § 34B) or an abuse prevention order (c. 209A, §§ 3–4), proof that the court notified them of the order counts as prima facie evidence that the notice element has been met.¹ A protective order can function as a no trespass notice without a separately served document.

To prosecute, the state must show two things: that the person entered or remained without right, and that they had been forbidden, whether directly, by posted sign, or by court order.⁶ Your filed copy of the notice and your proof of delivery are what satisfy that second element, which is why the delivery and filing steps are not optional.

Civil Damages for Trespass

Beyond criminal penalties, a property owner can sue a trespasser in civil court. A successful claim can recover compensation for physical injury to the land, lost rental income from ongoing interference, diminished property value, and emotional distress.¹ For temporary damage, the measure is typically the cost of restoring the property. For permanent damage, courts look at the drop in market value.

Two Massachusetts statutes authorize treble damages, three times the actual loss, in specific situations. Under M.G.L. c. 242, § 7, treble damages apply when someone willfully cuts down, removes, or destroys trees or timber on your property without a good-faith belief they were authorized. Under c. 242, § 7A, the same multiplier applies to willful entry onto agricultural or horticultural land where someone damages or steals crops.

How Long the Notice Lasts and How to Lift It

Massachusetts law does not set a statutory expiration date. Unless you write an end date into the notice itself, the restriction stays in effect indefinitely. Police department forms often reinforce this: the Falmouth template, for instance, states that the notice “shall remain in full force and effect” until the owner or their attorney provides a written communication lifting it, and that no oral waiver is valid.²

If you later decide to allow the person back, put the withdrawal in writing and file a copy with the same police department that has the original on record. An informal “it’s fine now” conversation will not reliably clear the file, and the person could still be arrested if a responding officer pulls up an active notice. Treat the withdrawal with the same formality as the original.

1
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 266 Section 120
2
Falmouth Police Department. Notice of No Trespass Instructions
3
USPS. Notice 123 – Price List
4
Certified Mail Labels. 2026 USPS Certified Mail Rates, Mailing Costs, Postage Rates
5
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 262 Section 8
6
Mass.gov. Trespass GL c 266 Section 120 – Jury Instruction
7
Springfield Police Department. Trespass Notice