133 WEST MAIN STREET REALTY, LLC v. ALLEN KIMBALL & Another (2025)

Citation: 133 WEST MAIN STREET REALTY, LLC v. ALLEN KIMBALL & Another (2025)
Parent Document: 133 WEST MAIN STREET REALTY, LLC v. ALLEN KIMBALL & Another (2025)
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts (state)
Effective Date: 2025-02-14
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10333571/133-west-main-street-realty-ll... ↗

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Our court addressed this very issue in
Poncz, 34 Mass. App. Ct. at 911.  There,
we considered whether actual damages should have been awarded to a tenant for a
landlord's violation of the State sanitary code where, "without any
written agreement, [the landlord] required the tenant to pay the electrical
charges for his heat and hot water throughout his occupancy."  Id. at 910. 
We held that where "[t]he essence of the violation . . .
was the failure to reduce the oral agreement to writing," and where the
tenant did not prove actual damages, "only nominal damages may be
recovered."  Id. at 911.  Critical to our holding, we noted that the
State sanitary code violation, which constituted "an unfair practice in
violation of G. L. c. 93A," did not render the premises
defective or uninhabitable.  Id. at 910,
911.  We further recognized certain
additional circumstances that tenants could prove (in addition to the
landlord's failure to reduce to writing the agreement to pay utilities) to
sustain an award of actual damages.  Id.
at 911.  Specifically, we stated that:

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