Massachusetts Notice to Pay Rent or Quit
Massachusetts requires 14 days' notice before a nonpayment filing. Enter the date you serve the notice and the calculator counts the period out on a calendar — both of the ways it can be counted — and uses the later.
CompliMaint provides document tools and general information, not legal advice. This is a template, not Massachusetts’s approved form. Confirm requirements with a local attorney or your local housing authority before serving a notice.
- Notice before an eviction filing
- Nonpayment evictions generally require a 14-day notice to quit.
- Counted by the tool as
- 14 days
- Before a late fee
- A late fee (including interest) may not be charged until rent is 30 days overdue.
- Statute
- Mass. Gen. Laws c. 186 § 15B; c. 186 § 11
Last checked July 2026. Laws change — verify before you rely on this.
When 14 days' notice actually expires
14 days' notice served on a Monday expires on one of two dates, depending on whether the day of service counts as day one. In Massachusetts that is a question we have not verified — and it is the difference between a filing that stands and one that is dismissed.
So the calculator does not pick. It works out both dates, acts on the later, prints the earlier one on the notice beside it, and says on the face of the document which reading produced the deadline. It also gives you the first weekday after the period runs out, — the date a filing question starts from, though whether one may be filed then turns on service being valid and on your court’s own rules, which this does not decide — and flags a federal holiday landing on either — as a note, never as an adjustment, because whether a period rolls off a holiday in Massachusetts is exactly the sort of thing we have not researched.
What comes before this
A pay-or-quit notice is a formal step, and most unpaid rent never needs one. Before it sits the Massachusetts late rent notice — an informal demand with no statutory timeline, which is the cheapest thing that works — and behind both sits the rent ledger, which is where the amount on this notice should come from rather than from arithmetic on paper.
A late fee (including interest) may not be charged until rent is 30 days overdue. (Mass. Gen. Laws c. 186 § 15B; c. 186 § 11, last checked July 2026.) A fee charged before that point is a fee a tenant can dispute, and a disputed fee riding along on a pay-or-quit notice is a reason to leave fees off the demand entirely.
Other states: Connecticut · Maine · North Carolina · Oregon · All states
Massachusetts notice period last checked July 2026 against Mass. Gen. Laws c. 186 § 15B; c. 186 § 11. Informational, not legal advice, and not Massachusetts’s approved form — confirm with a local attorney or your housing authority before acting.
Everything else we’ve researched about Massachusetts
Same state, the problems either side of this one. Each carries its own statute and the date we last checked it.
- Massachusetts rent late fees & grace periodWhat may be charged when rent is late, and the notice to send.
- Massachusetts deposit return law & letterThe landlord's deadline to return a deposit, and the itemized letter.
- Massachusetts deposit demand letterFor the tenant: whether the landlord is late, and by how many days.
- Massachusetts deposit deduction rulesWhat may fairly come out of a deposit, prorated by useful life.
- Massachusetts move-in condition reportThe walkthrough record that decides deposit arguments later.
- Massachusetts emergency plan rulesDrill frequency, filings, prescribed forms and retention, cited.
Questions people ask
- How many days' notice is required before an eviction filing in Massachusetts?
- Nonpayment evictions generally require a 14-day notice to quit. (Mass. Gen. Laws c. 186 § 15B; c. 186 § 11, as of July 2026.) The lease may set a longer period, and other grounds for eviction carry their own periods. Verify the current statute before acting.
- Does the day the notice is served count as day one in Massachusetts?
- We have not verified how Massachusetts counts the period, and the answer moves the deadline by a day. The calculator therefore works out both dates — the day of service counting as day one, and counting starting the next day — and uses the later, printing the earlier beside it so the reader can see the margin.
- Can a Massachusetts pay-or-quit notice demand late fees as well as rent?
- We have not researched whether Massachusetts restricts what a notice may demand. Some states hold a notice bad in its entirety when fees are folded in with rent, because the tenant cannot tell what sum cures the default. The tool demands rent only unless you choose otherwise, and prints anything else owed as expressly not demanded — the construction that survives either rule.
- Is this Massachusetts's official eviction notice form?
- No. It is a template. We have verified Massachusetts's notice period and cited it, and nothing else — not the required wording, not the manner of service, not whether a court in Massachusetts publishes a form that must be used. Have a local attorney read one before you rely on it.