(MA) Using Last Month and Security Deposit for Active Rent

[Kelsey Greim]

(MA) Through the COVID-19 crisis I have a tenant that has been out of work, like others. They have reached out to us with concerns of paying rent until they go back to work, which the timeline is not definable right now. I have offered 1/2 payment on the 1st and 1/2 on the 15th to allow them more time to settle up. I also explained that the banks are changing their requirements daily to work with homeowners and we will be in touch day by day with anything else we can offer them - we are calling the banks and watching the news regularly to see if they are waiving mortgage. We want to work with people while preventing them from taking advantage of us or preventing us from being able to keep up with the mortgage. My tenant asked if she could use last month's rent and security deposit to cover the next two months and as emotions are high she is refusing to pay otherwise. I understand that this would be leaving us in a more vulnerable position as grow near the end of her lease and I was not even sure if this is even legal because these funds are contracted and held in escrow. Best case scenario we would work out some sort of payment plan - as of right now she is unwilling to work with us. Even if we could evict someone at this time we are much more inclined to work something out in these difficult times. What is the best course of action moving forward and would maybe keeping just last month's rent legal and smart? Again we are trying to work with the banks to see what type of relief we can offer them - hopefully we get more here. Thanks.