Massachusetts Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

At or before the start of a Massachusetts tenancy, what may a landlord or the landlord's agent collect?

• a.First month, last month, a deposit of two months, and a cleaning fee
• b.First month, last month, a deposit of one month, and the lock cost✓
• c.First month, last month, a deposit of one month, and a broker's fee
• d.First month, a deposit of one month, and a non-refundable pet charge

M.G.L. c.186 s.15B(1)(b) allows four things and no more: rent for the first full month, rent for the last full month at the same rate, a security deposit equal to the first month's rent, and the cost of purchasing and installing a key and lock. As amended by St.2025 c.9 effective August 1, 2025, the sentence now binds the agent of the lessor as well as the lessor, and reaches amounts paid to either. That is what rules out the broker's fee: it is not among the four, and the amended cap cannot be sidestepped by having an agent rather than the landlord collect it. A two-month deposit exceeds the cap, and cleaning and pet charges appear nowhere in the list.

When must a Massachusetts landlord give the tenant the written statement of condition?

• a.On receiving the deposit, or within ten days of move-in, whichever is later✓
• b.Within fifteen days of the tenant asking for it in a signed written request
• c.Within thirty days of the tenant signing the lease for the dwelling unit
• d.At the end of the tenancy, along with any itemized list of damages

M.G.L. c.186 s.15B(2)(c) requires the lessor or the lessor's agent who accepts a security deposit to furnish a separate written statement of the present condition of the premises upon receipt of the deposit or within ten days after the commencement of the tenancy, whichever is later. The statement carries a prescribed notice in twelve-point bold telling the tenant to return it, or a signed list of disagreements, within fifteen days. That fifteen-day figure belongs to the tenant's reply, not to a request, which is the trap in one of the alternatives. Thirty days from lease signing is not the measure the statute uses. And a statement produced at the end of the tenancy would be worthless, since its purpose is to fix the starting condition.

A Massachusetts tenant reports that the heat does not work. Which body enforces the standards of fitness for human habitation?

• a.The Board of Registration, under the real estate license law
• b.The local board of health, under the state sanitary code✓
• c.The Department of Environmental Protection, under Title 5
• d.The Commission Against Discrimination, under chapter 151B

M.G.L. c.111 s.127A directs the Department of Public Health to adopt the state sanitary code, which covers standards of fitness for human habitation, and expressly preserves each local board of health's authority for its own locality; the code also provides for repair or cleaning by local boards of health. Habitability complaints therefore start at the town or city board of health. The Board of Registration disciplines licensees under c.112 and has no jurisdiction over a building's condition. Title 5 under c.21A s.13 governs subsurface sewage disposal, a different chapter and a different subject. And the Commission Against Discrimination hears claims of unlawful discrimination under c.151B, not complaints about a broken heating system.

Do the Massachusetts security deposit rules apply to a two-month summer rental on Cape Cod?

• a.Yes, the rules reach every residential tenancy in the Commonwealth
• b.No, the rules never reach a furnished dwelling let by its owner
• c.No, a rental of a hundred days or less for a vacation purpose is exempt✓
• d.Yes, but the landlord may hold two months rather than one as a deposit

M.G.L. c.186 s.15B(9) says the provisions of the section shall not apply to any lease, rental, occupancy, or tenancy of one hundred days or less in duration which is for a vacation or recreational purpose. Both limbs have to be satisfied, which is why the exemption fits a two-month seasonal let and would not fit a year-round tenancy of the same cottage. The answer claiming universal coverage overlooks the subsection entirely. Furnishing is irrelevant, and a furnished year-round apartment is fully covered. And nothing anywhere in s.15B permits a two-month deposit; subsection (1)(b) caps the deposit at one month's rent for every tenancy the section reaches.