My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Massachusetts
IMy husband and I live on the first floor in a two family house. We had new neighbors move into the upstairs apartment in August and have had nothing but problems. In addition to the constant loud music coming from their apartment there have been several disturbances outside in front of the house - usually in the middle of the night. By disturbances I mean drunks fighting with each other outside my window. Also they refuse to lock the front door. The front door to the house is the main entrance and they never lock it - and I do mean never. To make matters even worse they often leave it not just unlocked but wide open. They have constant guest in and out and I guess they are to lazy to come down the stairs and let them in or go down and lock the door after they leave. My apartment does have its own locked door but I expect the main door to be locked at all times. I have tried to resolve this with the tenant (didn't go well they called me names and threatened me). I have spoken with my landlord about this issue on 4 occasions and have sent two letters and the problem persists. The landlord response is that they are not responsible for the behavior of the upstairs tenants and that they will speak with them about locking the door. Do I have the right to withold my rent? Does the issue with the door violate the state sanitary code to provide a locked entrance? And finally at this point am I entitle to damages? We have been working so hard to save for a house and are very close and at this point moving to another apartment would just set back that goal so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

