The security deposit statute imposes mandatory treble damages and attorney's fees for a long list of technical failures — the wrong account type, late notice, a missing itemisation.
For an absentee owner the defensible position is to take last month's rent only and no security deposit at all. The statute punishes paperwork, and paperwork is what a remote landlord does worst.
- Damages
- 3× the deposit, plus fees
Sources
- Massachusetts security deposit statute — M.G.L. c. 186, §15B