Filings Week Ending 2020 November 28

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2020-11-22 Search Period End: 2020-11-28 Earliest Case: 2020-11-23 Latest Case: 2020-11-27 Total Cases: 629 Total Transfers: 1 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 32.4% Of those, percentage pro se: 53.9% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: East Falmouth Least stable with 10+ filings: Fall River Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Barnstable Cases per day: 104 Housing crisis baseline max cases per day (UCL): 130 Housing crisis baseline min cases per day (LCL): 44 The number of filings this period is not statistically different from the pre-pandemic housing crisis baseline. -- Courts (n) Count Percent western 131 20.8% central 93 14.8% northeast 85 13.5% southeast 76 12.1% metro_south 71 11.3% eastern 70 11.1% chelsea district 9 1.4% lynn district 9 1.4% cambridge district 8 1.3% quincy district 8 1.3% fall river district 6 1.0% northern berkshire district 6 1.0% barnstable district 4 0.6% fallmouth district 4 0.6% framingham district 4 0.6% haverhill district 4 0.6% lowell district 4 0.6% orleans district 4 0.6% woburn district 4 0.6% waltham district 3 0.5% bmc east boston 2 0.3% chicopee district 2 0.3% dedham district 2 0.3% malden district 2 0.3% palmer district 2 0.3% salem district 2 0.3% somerville district 2 0.3% stoughton district 2 0.3% ayer district 1 0.2% bmc roxbury 1 0.2% eastern hampshire district 1 0.2% lawrence district 1 0.2% milford district 1 0.2% nantucket district 1 0.2% natick district 1 0.2% pittsfield district 1 0.2% plymouth district 1 0.2% springfield district 1 0.2% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 425 16 Natural Person 204 613 Total 629 629 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 67.6% 2.5% Natural Person 32.4% 97.5% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 404 21 425 Optional 94 110 204 Total 498 131 629 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 64.2% 3.3% 67.6% Optional 14.9% 17.5% 32.4% Total 79.2% 20.8% 100.0% Defendant Representation Important: Defendants will not have an attorney known to the plaintiff at time of filing unless this is an ongoing matter. 100% pro se is to be expected in all filing reports except to the extent time passes between filing and staff review. See outcomes report for final assessment. (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0 16 16 Optional 10 603 613 Total 10 619 629 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 2.5% 2.5% Optional 1.6% 95.9% 97.5% Total 1.6% 98.4% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 66 10.5% 1 457 72.7% 2 81 12.9% 3 19 3.0% 4 3 0.5% 5 3 0.5% Total 629 100.0% Note: Households may appear with zero adults due to clerical delay entering known defendants, identity protection obscuring known defendants (e.g., 42 USC Sections 13701 through 1404 Violence Against Women Act), or no adult defendants (e.g., abandonment of minors). Initiating Action Count Percent Non-payment 469 74.6% Unknown/Other 103 16.4% Cause 39 6.2% Foreclosure 10 1.6% No Fault 8 1.3% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count East Falmouth 69 4 Dennis Port 63 2 Harwich Port 57 1 Mashpee 57 8 North Adams 43 6 Webster 41 7 Williamsburg 40 1 Westborough 38 7 Provincetown 33 1 Fall River 28 25 New Bedford 27 26 Worcester 26 48 South Grafton 22 1 Wakefield 20 5 West Yarmouth 18 1 Dudley 17 2 Spencer 17 2 Hopedale 16 1 Revere 15 8 Saugus 15 4 Fitchburg 14 6 Hanover 14 2 Hyannis 14 2 Leominster 14 6 Cohasset 13 1 Shirley 13 1 Lynn 12 11 Marlborough 12 5 Templeton 12 1 Middleton 11 1 Southbridge 11 2 Cambridge 10 11 Ware 10 1 Hull 9 1 Lunenburg 9 1 Nantucket 9 1 South Easton 9 1 Chelsea 8 3 Harwich 8 1 Centerville 7 1 Kingston 7 1 North Easton 7 1 North Uxbridge 7 1 Raynham 7 1 Salem 7 3 Stoughton 7 2 Swampscott 7 1 Taunton 7 4 Uxbridge 7 1 Weymouth 7 4 Woburn 7 3 Ashland 6 1 Auburn 6 1 Dracut 6 2 Haverhill 6 4 Somerville 6 5 Westport 6 1 Braintree 5 2 Framingham 5 4 Norton 5 1 Pembroke 5 1 Quincy 5 5 Rockland 5 1 Somerset 5 1 South Hadley 5 1 Winthrop 5 1 Acton 4 1 Dedham 4 1 Gardner 4 1 Middleborough 4 1 Sandwich 4 1 Stoneham 4 1 Brockton 3 3 Chicopee 3 2 Danvers 3 1 Falmouth 3 1 Lexington 3 1 Malden 3 2 Norwood 3 1 Watertown 3 1 West Springfield 3 1 Amherst 2 1 Attleborough 2 1 Beverly 2 1 East Boston 2 1 Everett 2 1 Lowell 2 3 Pittsfield 2 1 Dorchester 1 1 Dorchester Center 1 1 Peabody 1 1 Plymouth 1 1 Roxbury 1 1 South Weymouth 1 1 Springfield 1 2 (not given) 0 319 Boston 0 2 Rate per 100,000 residents based on 2010 census. Municipalities do not appear if no evictions filed. Where neighborhoods are commonly recognized as municipalities, data appears under the neighborhood rather than the legal entity (e.g., "Roxbury" is separate from "Boston".) Where municipalities have alternate spellings (e.g., Marlboro for Marlborough), totals appear under the long form. Efforts are made to correct clerical errors in the court database, but clerical errors may appear. Rate per 100,000 County Renter Households Count Barnstable 119 23 Worcester 79 88 Bristol 75 62 Berkshire 43 7 Nantucket 28 1 Plymouth 25 11 Essex 24 27 Hampshire 21 4 Middlesex 20 47 Norfolk 19 17 Suffolk 9 18 Hampden 7 5 Dukes 0 0 Franklin 0 0 Rate per 100,000 renter households based on 2019 ACS. Counties appear even if no evictions filed. -- Data Sources (report errors to hello@masslandlords.net): County Data Households Percent Renters Barnstable 96,509 20.0% Berkshire 53,792 30.0% Bristol 220,528 37.3% Dukes 18,146 22.6% Essex 297,898 36.9% Franklin 30,927 34.1% Hampden 179,970 39.5% Hampshire 60,002 30.7% Middlesex 612,366 38.1% Nantucket 11,399 30.8% Norfolk 269,717 31.6% Plymouth 191,041 22.6% Suffolk 309,945 63.7% Worcester 316,162 35.2% County Households: 2019 ACS TableID S1101 County Households and Renters, Dukes and Nantucket: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dukescountymassachusetts County Households and Renters, Large Counties: https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=S11&g=0400000US25.050000&d=ACS%201-Year%20Estimates%20Subject%20Tables&tid=ACSST1Y2019.S1101&hidePreview=true Dukes County Renters: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dukescountymassachusetts Nantucket County Renters: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/nantucketcountymassachusetts -- Methodology Publicly available records at MassCourts.org are read fully manually at two intervals: 1.) For a filings report, once within approximately one week of filing; 2.) For an outcomes report, once again approximately 12 to 18 months after filing. This effort costs more than 1 FTE. Summary spreadsheets are produced by copying exactly what is read. The spreadsheets are processed using proprietary software. Repeated analyses of local spreadsheets does not burden the MassCourts servers. The software is developed using best practices for revision control and regression testing. Limitations: Data are snapshots. As such, we cannot track individual cases over time or produce real-time reports. MassLandlords does not have access to court databases beyond what is published in human readable form at MassCourts.org. As of this report, MassLandlords staff were not considering information available to attorneys (e.g., the contents of notices, discovery, evidence, etc.) but not available to the general public. All data presented here are readily verifiable at MassCourts.org without special permission. Information is not independently verified outside of the court record. For instance, clerical errors in address, omissions of a defendant, etc. are not readily verifiable. As this process matures, reporting algorithms may change. Transfers are counted as new cases. Clerical differences between original case and transfer (e.g., middle initial included then dropped; defendant dropped on transfer; street address spelling changed) as well as the potential for indefinite circular transferring (e.g., foreclosure cases moving between housing, land, and/or superior courts) make it very difficult to programmatically identify continuing matters. -- When Citing This Work, Please Credit: MassLandlords, Inc. Available online at https://masslandlords.net/policy/eviction-data/.