BOSTON--In the final minutes of the 1994 legislative year, both houses of the state legislature last night passed an emergency act that will give some tenants a maximum of two years' grace period before the official end of rent control in Massachusetts.

The 11th-hour votes appear to have finally decided the fate of rent control, which was voted down in a statewide ballot initiative Election Day.

The measure cannot be altered or rejected by Cambridge, Boston or Brookline--the three Massachusetts communities with rent control laws. And the act effectively makes moot a two-month court battle over the way the nine Election Day ballot referenda--including the initiative to abolish rent control--were conducted.

Question 9, the initiative to abolish rent control, was passed by a 51 to 49 percent margin on November 8.

The act passed last night is expected to only cover between 10 and 20 percent of tenants currently under rent control.

The state House of Representatives and Senate passed a slightly altered version of a bill authored by Gov. William F. Weld '66, who had threatened to veto any other measure extending the life of rent control. Weld, who had left the state house by midnight, is expected to sign the bill today.

Two factors made last night's vote urgent: the inauguration of a new legislature this morning, and an order last week from the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC)--the state's highest--allowing the state to certify Question 9, which abolished rent control, as of 12 a.m. this morning.

Weld had earlier vetoed a petition by Cambridge to phase out rent control over five years for elderly, low-and moderate-income and disabled tenants. The Republican governor insisted that "the verdict of the voters is fairly implemented."

Weld's plan gives limited protection to anyone earning less than 60 percent of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) median-income guidelines, and for elderly and disabled tenants earning less than 80 percent of the guidelines.

Protected tenants living in buildings of one to three units, or owner-occupied buildings of four to 12 units, will live under rent control until December 31, 1995. Condominium tenants will also receive a one-year phase-out.

Those living in buildings of four or more units, not occupied by their owners, will have regulated rents until December 31, 1996. All other units will be removed from rent control.

The plan expressly eliminates rent control for students over the age of 18, which is certain to affect the thousands of graduate students in the greater Boston area who live in rent-controlled units.

Rent control, which started in 1970, regulates the rents of more than 16,000 units in Cambridge, nearly half the city's housing stock.

'A Fig Leaf of Protection'

While most legislators on Beacon Hill voted for Weld's bill, they said they were powerless to oppose it despite its severely limited protection for current rent-control tenants.

"It's a paltry excuse for real protection, but it's the best that we could do," said Sen. Thomas F. Birmingham (D-Chelsea). "We didn't have the votes to override the veto Gov. Weld had given us."