Seeking the impossible

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

Hi all,

I'm not a Davis Square resident, but I know many on this list and I'm in the area frequently.

I'm posting on behalf of a friend who is seeking an apartment and may, due to his circumstances, have an impossible request, but it's worth asking.

Long story short, he needs to vacate the apartment he's lived in for over 12 years by October 5th. The multi-family house has been sold. He's seeking a 1 bedroom apartment, not a roommate situation, within a 15 minute walk to the T that allows cats (he has two elderly female and very well behaved cats.) Excellent work and landlord references, etc.

The problem is his budget is extremely tight. $1200 a month is his absolute maximum and, preferably, that would have some utilities covered in the rent. He's searching everywhere, but I'm trying to widen the signal.

If you know of anything or might have leads, feel free to reply or email me directly: julietbowler@comcast.net

Thank you!!

Juliet

Comments

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

How far can he walk in 15 minutes?

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Would he consider being within 15 minutes of the new Assembly Row T stop? If so, he'd be much more likely to find something, like this for instance:
http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/fee/4662989749.html

PadMapper might help with the search: http://www.padmapper.com/

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

His current place is a little over a mile from the Orange Line so I'd say he's comfortable within 1.5 to 2 miles of a train.

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had not seen that site before and will pass it on. And Assembly Square is a great idea.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Could be doable. Check padmapper and look around Alewife, East Cambridge, Inman Square, Medford... it'll be hard to find but a studio or efficiency might be doable.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Also there are some good values if you're willing to take a bus - a lot of the more popular ones (73, especially) run pretty regularly.

[ron_newman]

I'm confused by the address given, Bow Street at Main Street. Those don't intersect and neither one is in the area shown by the circle.

[totient]

Bow St Medford runs from Main Street to Main Street. So this could be either of two locations, 500 meters apart. Neither one is any closer to Assembly than to Sullivan (or for that matter Porter or Davis).

[ron_newman]

Ahh, I had forgotten about that and was thinking of Bow St in Union Square, Somerville. Still, that other Bow Street is outside the circle shown in that Craigslist post, and quite far from Assembly Square.

[totient]

Either end of this Bow St would be a pretty nice walk from the new Lowell St Green Line stop...

In the meanwhile though bus service through that neighborhood isn't too bad. Evening service on the 89 and 101 is only hourly, but the 89 is on the hour and the 101 is on the half hour, so you don't have too long a wait at Sullivan. And the last bus waits for the last Orange Line train.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I live on the 73 bus. Its unreliability is what prompted me to take up bicycle commuting.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Yes, they do, and yes they are. It's Medford, so look for Bow Street and Main Street IN MEDFORD.

[totient]

In my browser the circle is drawn around a random point in Somerville that has nothing to do with a T stop -- and none of either Main St or Bow St falls within the circle. The end of Bow St that's on the Somerville Line is about a mile and a half walking distance from any existing T stop -- the nearest one is Davis and that's not at all near. Certainly not 15 minutes walk, not with the hill.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

How much notice does he have? Because I'm pretty certain it's not legal to just say, "Whoops, the building has been sold, you have 30 days to pack your stuff and get out."

Does he have a lease? If he does, the new owner has to honor it, because it's considered an encumbrance. The new owner can opt not to renew it when it expires, but meanwhile, the terms of the lease continue, with the new owner as landlord. If the new owner opts not to renew the lease when it ends, then proper notice of nonrenewal needs to be given in accordance with the lease terms. That should at least give him breathing room until the end of the lease, and, given that the landlord wants him out of there, he and the landlord can probably mutually negotiate to end the lease sooner.

Even if he's a tenant-at-will, the new owner is required to give him 30 days or one rental period's notice, whichever is greater, to terminate the tenancy, per the standard rules in Mass. landlord-tenant code on tenancies at will.

If he's received notice that the new owner is breaking the lease and throwing him out, or if he's a tenant-at-will and hasn't been given adequate notice, he should absolutely lawyer up and take the new owner to court.

The big exception to this is foreclosure, which automatically terminates all the leases on the property.

This won't fix his problem of having to find a new place at what will likely be a drastically inflated rent, but, it will at least give him some more breathing room so it's less of an emergency. I wish your friend luck.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Some useless political opinions of mine:

I'm tired of hearing people whine about the lack of "family housing" in Somerville, when there are many 2-4 BR apartments in triple deckers, but so few studio/1BR/micro apartments for single people who want to live alone and can't afford a 2 BR.

Rent is expensive because we citizens always complain about developers trying to "shove" as many units as possible into sites. So supply is constrained.

It is just important to realize that these choices we make as citizens when talking to our politicians have consequences, and this person's experience is one of those.

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'll pass this suggestion I as well. I've said as much, especially since the new owners don't take ownership until October 6. He's a tenant at will so he assumed the thirty days was valid. I'm not as sure.

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

That's precisely the problem he's facing. There are so few one bedrooms available. And studios are tough because he's a cook and works a lot from home. Very few have full kitchens.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's "thirty days or one rental period" for tenancies-at-will. like, if you pay rent on the first of every month, every month, and you served a tenant with notice today that you weren't renewing the rental agreement, the earliest you could get him out would be October 31st--that's "one rental period".

Having to look for a new apartment, off-cycle (i.e. not with a September 1 start date), on short notice sucks. Anything that can give him some more breathing room and make this less of a panic is probably a good thing.