Filings Week Ending 2020 November 14

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases recently filed, for which outcomes remain largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2020-11-08 Search Period End: 2020-11-14 Earliest Case: 2020-11-09 Latest Case: 2020-11-13 Total Cases: 496 Total Transfers: 2 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 53.2% Of those, percentage pro se: 70.8% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Dennis Port Least stable with 10+ filings: Westborough Least stable with 100+ filings: n/a Least stable county: Berkshire The number of filings this period is not statistically different from the pre-pandemic housing crisis baseline. -- Courts (n) Count Percent northeast 103 20.8% central 96 19.4% southeast 80 16.1% eastern 70 14.1% western 45 9.1% metro_south 24 4.8% lowell district 11 2.2% pittsfield district 11 2.2% fall river district 9 1.8% ayer district 4 0.8% barnstable district 4 0.8% northern berkshire district 4 0.8% waltham district 4 0.8% attleboro district 3 0.6% cambridge district 3 0.6% quincy district 3 0.6% bmc east boston 2 0.4% haverhill district 2 0.4% northampton district 2 0.4% somerville district 2 0.4% woburn district 2 0.4% brockton district 1 0.2% edgartown district 1 0.2% fallmouth district 1 0.2% hingham district 1 0.2% holyoke district 1 0.2% malden district 1 0.2% nantucket district 1 0.2% new bedford district 1 0.2% newburyport district 1 0.2% palmer district 1 0.2% peabody district 1 0.2% salem district 1 0.2% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 232 0 Natural Person 264 496 Total 496 496 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 46.8% 0.0% Natural Person 53.2% 100.0% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 226 6 232 Optional 77 187 264 Total 303 193 496 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 45.6% 1.2% 46.8% Optional 15.5% 37.7% 53.2% Total 61.1% 38.9% 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 0 0 Optional 7 489 496 Total 7 489 496 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Optional 1.4% 98.6% 100.0% Total 1.4% 98.6% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 34 6.9% 1 333 67.1% 2 109 22.0% 3 17 3.4% 4 2 0.4% 5 1 0.2% Total 496 100.0% 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 355 71.6% Unknown/Other 78 15.7% Cause 42 8.5% No Fault 17 3.4% Foreclosure 4 0.8% Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Dennis Port 63 2 Westborough 54 10 Fall River 48 43 West Wareham 46 1 Fitchburg 44 18 Townsend 44 4 Lawrence 41 32 Shirley 41 3 West Yarmouth 37 2 Belchertown 34 5 Haverhill 32 20 Lowell 29 31 East Sandwich 28 1 Pittsfield 26 12 Amesbury 24 4 Edgartown 24 1 Worcester 24 44 Adams 23 2 Boylston 22 1 Hyannis 21 3 Attleborough 20 9 Brockton 18 17 East Falmouth 17 1 Hyde Park 17 6 New Bedford 17 17 Webster 17 3 Winthrop 17 3 Millbury 15 2 Dalton 14 1 Gardner 14 3 North Adams 14 2 Sandwich 14 3 West Springfield 14 4 Whitinsville 14 1 Springfield 13 20 Burlington 12 3 Chicopee 12 7 Easthampton 12 2 Lancaster 12 1 Orange 12 1 Salisbury 12 1 Rockland 11 2 Southbridge 11 2 North Attleborough 10 3 Acushnet 9 1 Hull 9 1 Indian Orchard 9 1 Nantucket 9 1 North Billerica 9 1 Winchendon 9 1 Dorchester Center 8 8 Rehoboth 8 1 Tyngsborough 8 1 Bradford 7 1 Leominster 7 3 Mashpee 7 1 Peabody 7 4 Quincy 7 7 Salem 7 3 Taunton 7 4 Bellingham 6 1 Dracut 6 2 Gloucester 6 2 Hopkinton 6 1 Methuen 6 3 Waltham 6 4 Westport 6 1 Whitman 6 1 Grafton 5 1 Greenfield 5 1 Jamaica Plain 5 2 Mattapan 5 2 Revere 5 3 Arlington 4 2 Brighton 4 2 Middleborough 4 1 Reading 4 1 Stoneham 4 1 Westfield 4 2 Agawam 3 1 Danvers 3 1 Lynn 3 3 Melrose 3 1 North Andover 3 1 Roxbury 3 2 Somerville 3 3 Wellesley Hills 3 1 West Roxbury 3 1 Amherst 2 1 Beverly 2 1 Billerica 2 1 Boston 2 18 Braintree 2 1 Cambridge 2 3 Everett 2 1 Framingham 2 2 Holyoke 2 1 Marlborough 2 1 Shrewsbury 2 1 South Boston 2 1 Dorchester 1 1 Malden 1 1 (not given) 0 23 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 Berkshire 105 17 Bristol 96 79 Worcester 81 91 Essex 69 76 Barnstable 67 13 Plymouth 53 23 Hampden 50 36 Hampshire 43 8 Middlesex 28 67 Nantucket 28 1 Dukes 24 1 Suffolk 24 49 Franklin 18 2 Norfolk 11 10 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/.