Filings Week Ending 2022 March 05

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2022-02-27 Search Period End: 2022-03-05 Earliest Case: 2022-02-28 Latest Case: 2022-03-04 Total Cases: 396 Total Transfers: 8 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 30.8% Of those, percentage pro se: 59.0% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: South Chatham Least stable with 10+ filings: Everett Least stable with 100+ filings: n/a Least stable county: Plymouth Cases per day: 66 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 95 24.0% central 68 17.2% western 57 14.4% eastern 55 13.9% southeast 48 12.1% metro_south 23 5.8% malden district 12 3.0% brockton district 7 1.8% lynn district 6 1.5% pittsfield district 3 0.8% attleboro district 2 0.5% chicopee district 2 0.5% newton district 2 0.5% northern berkshire district 2 0.5% springfield district 2 0.5% ayer district 1 0.3% bmc roxbury 1 0.3% cambridge district 1 0.3% chelsea district 1 0.3% fall river district 1 0.3% fallmouth district 1 0.3% haverhill district 1 0.3% holyoke district 1 0.3% new bedford district 1 0.3% quincy district 1 0.3% wareham district 1 0.3% westfield district 1 0.3% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 274 4 Natural Person 122 392 Total 396 396 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 69.2% 1.0% Natural Person 30.8% 99.0% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 268 6 274 Optional 50 72 122 Total 318 78 396 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 67.7% 1.5% 69.2% Optional 12.6% 18.2% 30.8% Total 80.3% 19.7% 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 1 3 4 Optional 3 389 392 Total 4 392 396 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.3% 0.8% 1.0% Optional 0.8% 98.2% 99.0% Total 1.0% 99.0% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 28 7.1% 1 279 70.5% 2 68 17.2% 3 12 3.0% 4 7 1.8% 5 2 0.5% Total 396 100.0% 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 247 62.4% Cause 69 17.4% No Fault 68 17.2% Foreclosure 12 3.0% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count South Chatham 97 1 Buzzards Bay 58 2 Raynham 37 5 Everett 28 12 Adams 23 2 Saugus 22 6 Marion 20 1 Leominster 19 8 Newtonville 19 1 Brockton 17 16 Lowell 17 19 Middleborough 17 4 North Andover 17 5 Norwood 17 5 Spencer 17 2 Winthrop 17 3 Chatham 16 1 Orleans 16 1 Berkley 15 1 Marlborough 15 6 Worcester 15 28 Gardner 14 3 Ayer 13 1 East Wareham 13 3 Belmont 12 3 Mansfield 12 3 Rutland 12 1 Hyde Park 11 4 Littleton 11 1 Malden 11 7 Revere 11 6 Rockland 11 2 Southbridge 11 2 Townsend 11 1 Webster 11 2 Brewster 10 1 Milford 10 3 North Chelmsford 10 1 Roslindale 10 3 Fall River 9 8 Lakeville 9 1 Lunenburg 9 1 Nantucket 9 1 Burlington 8 2 Lynn 8 8 Shrewsbury 8 3 Arlington 7 3 Beverly 7 3 Centerville 7 1 Dorchester 7 7 Fitchburg 7 3 Holliston 7 1 Hyannis 7 1 Medford 7 4 North Easton 7 1 Abington 6 1 Auburn 6 1 Dorchester Center 6 6 Haverhill 6 4 Lawrence 6 5 North Reading 6 1 Swansea 6 1 Watertown 6 2 Holden 5 1 Hudson 5 1 Norton 5 1 Peabody 5 3 Roxbury Crossing 5 3 Taunton 5 3 Westborough 5 1 Acton 4 1 Attleborough 4 2 Brighton 4 2 Cambridge 4 5 Dedham 4 1 New Bedford 4 4 Pittsfield 4 2 Salem 4 2 Wareham 4 1 Wilmington 4 1 Winchester 4 1 Chicopee 3 2 Danvers 3 1 Dracut 3 1 Falmouth 3 1 Gloucester 3 1 Natick 3 1 North Attleborough 3 1 Randolph 3 1 Waltham 3 2 Braintree 2 1 Chelsea 2 1 Holyoke 2 1 Mattapan 2 1 Methuen 2 1 Quincy 2 2 Westfield 2 1 Woburn 2 1 Newton 1 1 Plymouth 1 1 Roxbury 1 1 South Weymouth 1 1 Weymouth 1 1 (not given) 0 85 Boston 0 6 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 Plymouth 69 30 Worcester 53 59 Barnstable 46 9 Bristol 36 30 Essex 35 39 Middlesex 34 80 Nantucket 28 1 Berkshire 24 4 Suffolk 21 43 Norfolk 14 12 Hampden 5 4 Dukes 0 0 Franklin 0 0 Hampshire 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/.