Landlord forgot to add a charge. Can I be back-charged for this lapse?

Submitted by SomeBadJoke t3_y9hca0 in massachusetts

Long short: I’m on month-to-month for the last 5 months. I signed an agreement that a month-to-month premium would be added of $200. Both my landlord and I have not noticed this, and it was never charged. Now that I’m moving out, they’ve said “hey, we just noticed that we never charged the premium. You owe us $1000.”

Am I required to pay this? I can’t find specific laws about partial payment acceptance in MA.

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Comments

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A_Sensitive_Cod t1_it5pov6 wrote

it's the right thing to do, pay it.. if you agreed. you also don't want a bad history with landlords.

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Paulrus55 t1_it5qm8e wrote

The first commenter is definitely right, pay what you agreed upon, it’s the safest bet. If you want to go the other way set the money aside and hold on to it just in case.

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GreatAndPowerfulNixy t1_it6ci8r wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#161,965)

I've done this. My rent was supposed to be raised by about $50, and the increase was never added to their auto-pay system. The following year, I negotiated a slightly higher monthly rate than usual to "make up for it" but got them to sign a 2-year lease to keep the rent from going up again.

It's nice to have leverage.

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jp_jellyroll t1_it7snr9 wrote

That's exactly what happened to me & my gf (now wife) about 10 years ago.

We were paying month-to-month and I completely forgot to pay my half once. We were both super busy, I had just started a new job, my wife went back to school, etc. I didn't notice until a few months later. The landlord never asked for it, so I never said anything.

When we moved out several months later, the landlord must have done some final auditing or accounting and realized we owed that half month's rent. He came asking for it and we agreed he could take it from my security deposit so it worked out.

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LadyGreyIcedTea t1_it9rm7v wrote

You signed an agreement so if you don't pay it and the landlord sues you in small claims court, you'll probably lose (and have to pay the $1000 + the filing fee + interest and lose half a day of your life in court).

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