Haverhill, MA Rental Inspections: Inspection Programs (2026)

Chapter 200, Rental Permits, gives Haverhill's Board of Health two separate inspection triggers rather than a single inspection cycle. The first, under § 200-1, is tied to turnover: whenever a rented dwelling unit, apartment or tenement becomes vacant, or within 10 days before an anticipated vacancy ends, the owner, managing agent or person in possession must have the Board of Health inspect it for conformance with the state Sanitary Code's Minimum Standard of Fitness for Human Habitation before the unit can be reoccupied and a rental permit secured.

The second, under § 200-4, does not wait for a vacancy: it makes tenants responsible for maintaining their dwelling unit in a satisfactory condition and authorizes the Board of Health to carry out periodic inspections to ascertain that compliance while a tenancy is ongoing. Section 200-3 supports both programs by having the Board of Health check daily with the gas, electric, telephone and Haverhill Water Department utilities for new listings and service requests, since a new utility hookup at a rental address is how the Division of Code Enforcement often learns a unit has turned over without going through the § 200-1 inspection.

Together the sections function as Haverhill's rental inspection program: a mandatory pre-reoccupancy check plus a periodic, tenancy-length check, both run out of the Board of Health's Division of Code Enforcement.