Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XVII Chapter 121B
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 121B, § 32C (2026)

Unlawful conduct by tenant, members or non-members of tenant household; civil action by landlord for injunctive or other equitable relief

✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 32C. Whenever a person who is not a member of a tenant household has, on or near a public housing development or a subsidized housing development: (a) caused serious physical harm to a member of a tenant household or employee of the landlord or any other person lawfully on the premises of the housing authority; (b) intentionally, willfully, and repeatedly destroyed, vandalized, or stolen property of a member of a tenant household or of the landlord or any other person lawfully on the premises of the housing authority; (c) intentionally and willfully destroyed, vandalized, or stolen property of a member of a tenant household or of the landlord or any other person lawfully on the premises of the housing authority and attempted to seriously physically harm a member of a tenant household or employee of the landlord or any other person lawfully on the premises of the housing authority; (d) possessed or carried a weapon in violation of section 10 of chapter 269 or possessed or used an explosive or infernal machine, as such as defined in section 102A of chapter 266 with the exception of fire-crackers or violated any other provision of section 101, 102, 102A or 102B of said chapter 266; (e) unlawfully sold or possessed with intent to distribute a controlled substance as established as Class A, B, C, or D in section 31 of chapter 94C; or (f) committed or repeatedly threatened to commit a battery upon a person or damaged or repeatedly threatened to commit damage to the property of another for the purpose of intimidation because of the person's race, color, religion, or national origin or on account of the person's participation in an eviction proceeding; the landlord of such premises may bring a civil action for injunctive or other appropriate equitable relief in order to prohibit the person from entering or remaining in or upon the public or subsidized housing development, unless there is cause to believe that such unlawful conduct is unlikely to continue or to pose a serious threat to the health or safety of the development, the tenant households at such development, or the employees of the landlord. Whenever a tenant or member of a tenant's household residing in a public or subsidized housing development has caused or threatened to cause harm to another tenant, an employee of the landlord, or any other person who is known or believed to be a witness in an eviction against the tenant, the landlord may bring a civil action for injunctive or other appropriate equitable relief in order to protect the witness from harm threatened by the tenant or member of the tenant household.

Nothing in this section shall be read to limit the civil and criminal remedies otherwise available under section thirty-nine of chapter two hundred and sixty-five or section one hundred and twenty-seven B of chapter two hundred and sixty-six.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1994–2009 · leading case: Doe v. New Bedford Hous. Auth., 630 N.E.2d 248 (Mass. 1994).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Doe v. New Bedford Hous. Auth., 630 N.E.2d 248 (Mass. 1994). · cites it 14× “On appeal, the plaintiffs argue that the judge below improperly granted summary judgment on their four causes of action: (1) a statutory cause arising from G.L.c. 121B, §§ 32C and 32D (1992 ed.); (2) breach of the warranty of habitability: (3) breach of the covenant of *275…”
Commonwealth v. Nelson, 909 N.E.2d 42 (Mass. App. Ct. 2009). · cites it 2× “Second, we reject the defendant’s argument that the civil in-junctive remedies available to the BHA under G. L. c. 121B, § 32C, are the sole avenue of redress available to the BHA against those who are on its properties without its permission.”
Commonwealth v. Wallace, 730 N.E.2d 275 (Mass. 2000). “G. L. c. 121B, § 32C. Moreover, such an interpretation would lead to an absurd result.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.