If you have a lease for an apartment in Massachusetts and your lease is expiring soon, you need to consider several options.

First, you must read your lease and see if it contains a self-extending clause for what is usually one additional year.

If your lease does not contain this clause, and you want another written lease, you must speak with your landlord to see if he or she will agree to sign a new lease.

If you want to stay in your apartment and the landlord will not offer you a new lease, you may want to ask your landlord if you can remain in the apartment on a tenant-at-will basis.

A tenancy-at-will is an unwritten lease that can be created in one of two ways: either the landlord and tenant mutually agree to a tenancy-at-will, or the tenant simply continues to pay rent to the landlord once the written lease has expired, and the landlord continues to cash the rent checks without specifically reserving his or her rights to, deny tenancy.

A landlord can reserve these rights to deny tenancy by writing on the back of the check, "For use and occupancy only" when endorsing and depositing the payment. If no such language is present on the check, a tenancy at-will is created, and then renewed, with each month's payment by the tenant.

Under a tenancy-at-will, the tenancy lasts for thirty days at a time and can only be terminated with 30 days' written notice by either the landlord or the tenant.

To end the tenancy-at-will, then, either party must send written notice to the other at least thirty days before the start of the next full month of rent; for example, send notice for termination by May I to end the tenancy by May 31.

Operating without either a written lease or a clearly understood and agreed upon tenancy-at-will can, of course, cause much friction between a property owner and a resident, so it is prudent to openly discuss the future of the landlord-tenant relationship in advance of the lease's expiration.