Landlord Making Improvements in Common Area

[Manik Zaman]

We have a rooming house in Massachusetts.

There was a common area with a sink. I removed the sink to extend our office into the common area. There was under construction sign posted. There was a bathroom sink available while we been doing the construction. In about 30 days I installed a new sink in the common area, close to the previous one.

Also there were tenants leaving the main door wide open. So we installed a chime, that will alert tenant that door is open.

I was wondering if there is a statute in Massachusetts law, that will allow landlord perform the above two cases of improvements?

[Filipe Pereira]

Hi @Manik Zaman, there shouldn't be any kind of MA law regarding moving a sink. Was this common area a kitchen, and thus you relocated their kitchen sink? Did you make their space significantly smaller when expanding your office? If not, it really shouldn't matter. 

I can see the chime being annoying fro the tenant's perspective, so in that case, I would probably recommend installing a door closer so that the door self closes without the need for a chime. Would that work for your application?