Turnover is the one job where the calendar is not negotiable. A lease ends, somebody else has signed for the same unit, and there is still a couch in the living room belonging to a person who does not live there anymore. That is what makes it different from every other cleanout: what is in the unit may not be yours to throw away.
None of this is legal advice. I have linked the statutes so you can read them, and on one question below the honest answer is that the state does not publish one.
The short version
- After a court ordered eviction, only a sheriff or constable moves the tenant's property out, and it goes into a licensed public warehouse, not a dumpster.
- Taking the unit back by force is a crime in Massachusetts, with damages on top of the fine.
- A voluntary move-out is different, and the state publishes no rule I could find.
- Cleaning and hauling are not lawful security deposit deductions. Repairing damage is.
- Once the unit is legally yours to clear we can be in fast, often same-day, with a firm price first.
What the law actually says about the tenant's things
After a court ordered eviction
Chapter 239, section 3 requires the officer serving the execution to give the tenant forty-eight hours of written notice of the levy, and that notice has to name the licensed public warehouse that will store the property. The same section bars levying on a home "after five o'clock p.m. or before nine o'clock a.m., nor on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday."
Massachusetts law decides who may move a tenant's belongings. The state's landlord page says it plainly: "Even after a landlord gets an execution, only a sheriff or constable can move a tenant and their belongings out of the property."
Chapter 239, section 4 covers what happens next. The officer "shall forthwith cause it to be stored for the benefit of the owners thereof," at the licensed and bonded warehouser named in that notice, within twenty miles of the unit. Nothing may be sold against the warehouser's lien for six months, and the tenant may reclaim personal or sentimental items once, free. Then the part landlords are surprised by: "The plaintiff in the summary process action shall pay the costs of removing the property to the place of storage." You can recover those costs from the tenant later, but you pay them up front.
The one sentence that stops an expensive mistake
Chapter 186, section 14 says any landlord "who directly or indirectly interferes with the quiet enjoyment of any residential premises by the occupant, or who attempts to regain possession of such premises by force without benefit of judicial process, shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than three hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than six months." It also adds actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater, plus costs and a reasonable attorney's fee.
Mass.gov, in plain words: "In Massachusetts, it is illegal for a landlord, on their own, to remove tenants and occupants and their belongings from a rented apartment, room, or home without first getting a court order."
I raise it because we are sometimes the truck in the driveway when somebody is one decision away from it. No execution and no officer means we do not touch a tenant's property.
What if they just moved out, or the unit only looks abandoned
This part is a legal question, so I will tell you what the state pages say and stop there.
The Attorney General's guide says a landlord may enter without the tenant's approval "if it appears that the tenant has abandoned the apartment." That is about entry. It does not say what you may do with what is inside.
I looked for a state page on what a landlord may lawfully do with belongings left after a voluntary move-out or an apparent abandonment, and did not find one on mass.gov or in the General Laws. The chapter 239 rules are written around an officer levying on an execution, so they do not obviously reach a tenant who handed back the keys and left a bedroom set. I am not filling that gap with a guess. Ask your attorney. That call costs far less than a judgment under section 14.
Can removal or cleaning come out of the security deposit
The security deposit statute is a short list and a closed one. Chapter 186, section 15B lets a landlord deduct three things and only three: unpaid rent or water charges that were not validly withheld, an unpaid increase in real estate taxes under a conforming tax escalation clause, and "a reasonable amount necessary to repair any damage caused to the dwelling unit by the tenant or any person under the tenant's control or on the premises with the tenant's consent, reasonable wear and tear excluded." Then it shuts the door: "No deduction may be made from the security deposit for any purpose other than those set forth in this section."
Cleaning and hauling are not on that list. Repairing damage is, and a damage deduction requires the tenant to receive, within thirty days, an itemized list sworn under the pains and penalties of perjury, with written evidence such as estimates, bills, invoices or receipts.
So on a turnover you get a real invoice and before and after photos, because that is the kind of written evidence the statute asks for. Your attorney decides if our bill belongs on that list, not me.
The turnover timeline
The week before
- Use the inspection the statute gives you. Section 15B lets a landlord enter in the last thirty days of the tenancy to determine the damage that would be cause for a deposit deduction. Photograph it then, while it is still furnished.
- Ask the tenant in writing what they are leaving. A written answer is worth having later.
- Send us photos. We quote from them and confirm the number on site before anything moves.
- Put the trades in order. Empty first, then paint and flooring, then the final clean. An office or commercial space cleanout runs in the same order before a handover.
On the day
- If this is a levy, the officer runs it. We come after, once the unit is legally yours to clear.
- We go room by room rather than straight to the truck. Anything personal or valuable is set aside for you rather than decided by us.
- We photograph before and after, and anything we turn up outside your scope.
- Usable furniture goes for donation, mostly to Big Blue Bargains in Swampscott, More Than Words in Boston and The Salvation Army.
- The unit is left broom swept, not just emptied.
The days after
- The deposit clock is thirty days from the end of the tenancy. The sworn list and the evidence go out inside it.
- Keep the photos. Store them with the invoice, because they are the strongest evidence you have.
- Check the storage bin, the basement cage and the garage. A storage unit cleanout becomes its own visit if you find out in week three.
- If the property is a lender's rather than a landlord's, that is a foreclosure cleanout and the footing is different again.
What it costs, and how fast
Turnovers are priced by how much room the load takes in the truck. The minimum is $120. For a very small job close to our Salem base we can sometimes bring the minimum down to $80 to $100, so it is worth asking. Above that it is about $70 to $100 per cubic yard, and closer to $70 when the load is light and we can walk straight to it. Labor, hauling, dump fees and donation drop-offs are inside those numbers, and the price is set in person and does not go up. These are the same figures as on the pricing page.
For property managers, here's what to keep on file: we carry $2M in general liability, a $1M umbrella policy and $1M in commercial auto. We're USDOT registered (USDOT 8843043), our drivers hold DOT medical cards, and we hold commercial accounts at the disposal facilities we use. We can send an invoice, a receipt and a W-9 on request. We take cash, card, check, Venmo, Zelle and Cash App.
We are open 24/7, and a turnover is often same-day, though I will not promise it as a guarantee. Most of our turnover work is in the rental-heavy towns: Lynn, Salem, Revere and Malden, along with Beverly, Peabody, Everett, Melrose and Saugus.
Getting a number
Text photos to 978-915-3399: one wide shot of each room that still has something in it, and the date the unit has to be ready. Say if there is a court execution involved.
Call or text 978-915-3399 and a real person on our team picks up, never an AI and never a call center. Here is how our eviction cleanouts run, the rest of our cleanout services, and the page we built for landlords, realtors, real estate agents and property managers.