What can I do if the housing authority has a "no-trespass" order against my guest?

Massachusetts law allows housing authorities to go to court and ask for an order, or “injunction,” to prohibit non-residents from being on housing authority property, if a visitor has committed certain threatening or violent acts on the property.¹

Many housing authorities, however, do not use this court process and instead print up “no-trespass” notices or “stay away” notices on their own letterhead. The housing authority may also maintain a "barred" guest list. They then share these notices with local police, and sometimes the police may arrest someone for being on the property. These notices may be legal, but they must be limited. The housing authority and police cannot enforce these orders if that means that they don’t respect the basic right of a tenant to invite guests to their apartments.

The state housing agency, DHCD, issued a notice in 2008 that makes it clear that even if a friend or relative has one of these informal no-trespass notices against them, they may still visit you, as long as you clearly invite them.² This includes using common areas to get to your apartment. There may also be ways to seek to remove these informal no-trespass notices. This is complicated and may require the assistance of an attorney.³

If you find out that your housing authority has gone to court to get an “injunction” against one of your guests, you as the tenant who invited the person are entitled to be heard in court. If there are other relevant court documents (such as a visitation order that allows the guest to come to the property), you should bring those to the housing authority’s or court’s attention and ask that any court-ordered injunction be tailored so that it is not in violation of other court orders.

If the court grants this injunction, the clerk must give a certified copy of the injunction to the police. If the police see the non-resident on the premises, they can arrest that person without any further misbehavior on the non-resident’s part. Unlike the notices issued directly by housing authorities, the guest who violates a court injunction can be arrested even if you invited them to visit. A violation of the court injunction could result in a jail sentence, a monetary fine, or both.