Have someone living in my private home. Has not paid in 3 weeks. Changed locks asked her to leave. She went to police. She has no lease. What are her rights? I want her out

What are her rights? She has no lease. She has not paid me in 3 weeks. I changed locks. She went to police who told her I couldn't do that. It is a private home so I want to know if she has rights?

If she has ever paid any rent at all then she is considered a tenant by law. You are not allowed to change the locks. You have to give her a written notice that her tenancy is terminated and she must move out within x days. (The number of days depends on the reason for terminating her tenancy and also the laws in your state.) If she hasn't moved out within that time then you have to file a lawsuit to evict her.

This is a private home in MA and laws are diff than apartment. I was told by lawyer she had no right

I haven't found anything in the MA laws yet that says they do not apply to a tenant in a private home. If your lawyer told you that your tenant has no rights then why are you asking us?

I believe you were told wrong. As Lisa said, if she was paying rent, she was a tenant. She is entitled to the full rights of any tenant. She has to be given legal notice to vacate and then evicted if she still hasn't left.

Changing the locks constitutes an illegal eviction. The tenant can sue you over that. That's why the police allowed her back in.

Massachusetts Tenant's Handbook (http://www.lectlaw.com/files/lat07.htm)

Yes, she is a tenant, you may have had a illegal rental, and in fact if so, you owe her back any rent she paid you.

But even if she was paying no rent, you allowed her to stay, does not matter if she was sleeping on the couch, you allowed her to establish residence there. esp by charging rent.

You can not change locks, and in fact she has a right to come back in and stay there till you legally evict her.

If you have locked her out, she can sue you for any differnce in the cost of the new rental, cost of looking for a new place, and cost of move, plus other costs. So basically she can sue you for a lage payday if you were silly enough to lock out a renter without legal eviction