Not on these facts. The Appeals Court upheld an eviction even though the tenant’s partner, who lived in the apartment, was never named in the notice to quit or the court papers, because the trial judge found she was not a tenant and the landlord did not know she was living there as one. This is an unpublished Appeals Court decision under Rule 23.0, which courts may cite as persuasive but not as binding precedent.
What happened
The tenant rented an apartment starting in September 2020. The lease required every occupant to be named and every adult to sign. Only the tenant signed, and his two children were listed as occupants. In June 2023 the landlord told him the lease would not be renewed because of chronic late rent, then served a notice to quit for cause and filed a summary process (eviction) case in the District Court, which the tenant transferred to the Housing Court. At trial the tenant did not dispute the late payments. Instead, he argued that his domestic partner also lived there as a tenant, and that leaving her off the notice to quit, summons and complaint was a fatal error.
What the court decided
The Appeals Court affirmed the judgment for the landlord and the denial of the tenant’s motion to alter or amend it. Waltham Overlook Apartments, LLC v. Arokodare, No. 24-P-541 (Mass. App. Ct. May 29, 2025) (Rule 23.0 decision).
The decision turned on the trial judge’s findings. The partner did not sign the rental application. She was not listed as an expected occupant or as an occupant on the lease. She did not sign the lease and never paid rent to the landlord. The judge found she had no tenancy and was, at most, an unauthorized occupant there without the landlord’s permission. The judge also found no evidence that the landlord knew she was living there as a tenant. So she was not someone the landlord had to terminate before starting the case.
The Appeals Court found ample support for those findings in the trial transcript and held they were not clearly erroneous. Once the record showed the partner was not a tenant, the tenant’s argument failed. The court added that the tenant cited no authority requiring a landlord to name unauthorized or unknown occupants to carry out an eviction.
The court also pointed out that the partner herself never asked to join the case. It cited Beacon Residential Mgmt., L.P. v. R.P., 477 Mass. 749 (2017), where the Supreme Judicial Court allowed a mother who was not on the lease to intervene in an eviction and raise her own defenses. Under that case, a person who believes she has rights in the apartment can ask the court to let her into the case. The partner here did not do that.
What this means for you
If you are the named tenant, do not count on a missing name to stop your eviction. Whether an unnamed person is a tenant is a question of fact. Courts look at the application, the lease, who paid rent and what the landlord knew. If the answer is that the other person was never a tenant, the eviction can go forward against you, and this decision shows how hard an appeal on that point can be.
If you live in an apartment but are not on the lease, your position is different. You may have rights of your own, especially if you paid rent to the landlord or the landlord knew and accepted you as a resident. But you usually have to raise those rights yourself, by moving to intervene in the eviction case. Waiting on the sidelines can mean the case ends without you being heard.
For landlords, this decision is not a free pass. Here the findings were strong: no signature, no listing, no rent, no knowledge. A landlord who knowingly accepts rent from an extra adult may be dealing with a tenant who has to be served with a notice to quit.
What to do now
- Gather your lease, rental application and any paperwork that lists who lives in the unit.
- Collect proof of who paid rent and how, such as money order stubs, bank records or receipts.
- If you live in the apartment but were not named in the eviction, talk to a lawyer quickly about filing a motion to intervene.
- If you are the named tenant, focus your defense on the issues that apply to you, such as the notice, rent, repairs or retaliation.
- Go to every court date and bring your documents.
If this is your situation, call Doubleday Law at (617) 575-2006 or tell us what happened. Housing Court deadlines are short.
