Rent control rules in Plymouth County, MA — also known as rent stabilization or rent cap ordinances — limit annual rent increases and protect tenants from displacement.
Rent control is illegal across every Plymouth County community. Massachusetts voters banned it in 1994 through Question 9, now codified as MGL c.40P §4: no city or town may enact, maintain, or enforce rent control of any kind. Landlords set rent freely.
The 1994 ballot measure ended rent control statewide, and Chapter 40P §4 leaves no room for a local revival. Brockton, Plymouth, and every South Shore town are barred from capping rent, limiting increases, or stabilizing rents. A landlord sets the initial rent at market and raises it to any amount at lease renewal, subject only to the terms written into the lease. A town may adopt regulation solely under narrow voluntary-compliance conditions that also require compensating owners from municipal funds — a path no community uses. Tenants rely on their lease for the rent amount and any escalation.
No penalty exists because no rent cap applies. Any local ordinance freezing or capping residential rents is void under Chapter 40P §4 and unenforceable against a landlord.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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