Filings Week Ending 2021 January 09

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-01-03 Search Period End: 2021-01-09 Earliest Case: 2021-01-04 Latest Case: 2021-01-09 Total Cases: 678 Total Transfers: 16 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 29.5% Of those, percentage pro se: 53.5% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: West Warren Least stable with 10+ filings: Fitchburg Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Bristol Cases per day: 113 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 northeast 150 22.1% western 149 22.0% central 117 17.3% southeast 100 14.7% eastern 79 11.7% metro_south 44 6.5% lynn district 10 1.5% chelsea district 3 0.4% dedham district 2 0.3% edgartown district 2 0.3% lawrence district 2 0.3% orleans district 2 0.3% ayer district 1 0.1% barnstable district 1 0.1% bmc brighton 1 0.1% bmc east boston 1 0.1% brookline district 1 0.1% cambridge district 1 0.1% eastern hampshire district 1 0.1% fall river district 1 0.1% lowell district 1 0.1% malden district 1 0.1% nantucket district 1 0.1% newton district 1 0.1% pittsfield district 1 0.1% quincy district 1 0.1% somerville district 1 0.1% wareham district 1 0.1% westfield district 1 0.1% woburn district 1 0.1% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 478 6 Natural Person 200 672 Total 678 678 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 70.5% 0.9% Natural Person 29.5% 99.1% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 470 8 478 Optional 93 107 200 Total 563 115 678 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 69.3% 1.2% 70.5% Optional 13.7% 15.8% 29.5% Total 83.0% 17.0% 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 6 6 Optional 7 665 672 Total 7 671 678 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.9% 0.9% Optional 1.0% 98.1% 99.1% Total 1.0% 99.0% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 30 4.4% 1 516 76.1% 2 114 16.8% 3 10 1.5% 4 6 0.9% 5 2 0.3% Total 678 100.0% 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 536 79.1% Cause 60 8.8% No Fault 42 6.2% Unknown/Other 39 5.8% Foreclosure 1 0.1% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count West Warren 88 1 Whitinsville 72 5 Harwich Port 57 1 Carver 52 6 Vineyard Haven 52 1 Lakeville 47 5 Eastham 40 2 Oxford 36 5 Webster 35 6 Fitchburg 34 14 Marlborough 33 13 New Bedford 32 31 Fall River 31 28 Buzzards Bay 29 1 Cherry Valley 27 3 West Brookfield 27 1 Duxbury 26 4 Worcester 23 42 Avon 22 1 Jamaica Plain 21 8 Taunton 21 12 Barre 18 1 South Barre 18 1 Athol 17 2 Dudley 17 2 Pepperell 17 2 Spencer 17 2 Medfield 16 2 Newton Upper Falls 16 1 Dighton 14 1 Mattapan 13 5 Lancaster 12 1 Lynn 12 11 Adams 11 1 Douglas 11 1 Auburndale 10 1 Ware 10 1 Gardner 9 2 Holbrook 9 1 Nantucket 9 1 Natick 9 3 South Easton 9 1 Framingham 8 6 Harwich 8 1 Centerville 7 1 Hyannis 7 1 Kingston 7 1 Mashpee 7 1 Auburn 6 1 Falmouth 6 2 North Attleborough 6 2 Whitman 6 1 Hyde Park 5 2 Revere 5 3 Southbridge 5 1 Westborough 5 1 Brockton 4 4 Dorchester 4 4 Leominster 4 2 Middleborough 4 1 Pittsfield 4 2 Marshfield 3 1 Medford 3 2 Milford 3 1 Quincy 3 3 Tewksbury 3 1 Beverly 2 1 Chelsea 2 1 Dorchester Center 2 2 E. Boston 2 1 East Boston 2 1 Everett 2 1 Lawrence 2 2 Newton 2 2 Salem 2 1 South Boston 2 1 Woburn 2 1 Cambridge 1 2 (not given) 0 381 Boston 0 3 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 Bristol 91 75 Worcester 85 95 Plymouth 53 23 Barnstable 51 10 Nantucket 28 1 Dukes 24 1 Berkshire 18 3 Middlesex 15 35 Suffolk 15 31 Essex 13 15 Norfolk 8 7 Hampshire 5 1 Franklin 0 0 Hampden 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. Cases are searched by 'case type' = 'summary process', party type = 'plaintiff' within date ranges, typically weekly. MassCourts.org displays matches, not cases. X plaintiffs on a single case result in X separate matches. Cases are manually de-duplicated. Where the number of matches exceeds the number displayed (e.g., 'Displaying 100 of 257 total matches.'), date ranges are reduced until all cases may be viewed. If the date range cannot be reduced (i.e., is one day) but matches still exceed the display limit of 100, then two additional passes are taken. First, municipalities are filtered in stages. Second, to capture cases with no municipality entered, the search switches from 'case type' to 'case number', guessing the missing numbers assuming serialized entry. This method results in 'matches' reconciled to case counts. 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/.