3 rules for unincorporated Essex County, Massachusetts.
Verified from official government sources
Rent control is illegal in every Essex County community. Massachusetts voters banned it statewide in 1994 through ballot Question 9, now codified as MGL Chapter 40P. No Essex city or town can cap residential rents or tie increases to a government formula.
MGL c.40P §4
No city or town may enact, maintain or enforce rent control of any kind, except that any city or town that accepts this chapter may adopt rent control regulation that provides:
Massachusetts has no statewide just-cause eviction law, and no Essex County community enforces one. A landlord can end a tenancy-at-will without giving a reason, using a 30-day notice to quit followed by summary process in court under Chapter 239.
MGL c.239 §1
If a forcible entry into land or tenements has been made, if a peaceable entry has been made and the possession is unlawfully held by force, or if the lessee of land or tenements or a person holding under him holds possession without right after the determination of a lease by its own limitation or by notice to quit or otherwise... the person entitled to the land or tenements may recover posses...
Rental registration is set locally, and Essex County's mill cities require it. Lynn, Lawrence, and Haverhill all mandate that landlords register residential rentals and pass periodic sanitary-code inspections before units can be rented, backed by state authority in MGL Chapter 111.
MGL c.111 §127A
Said department shall adopt, and may from time to time amend, public health regulations to be known as the state sanitary code, which may provide penalties for violations thereof not exceeding five hundred dollars for any one offence...
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