Filings Week Ending 2021 July 03

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-06-28 Search Period End: 2021-07-03 Earliest Case: 2021-06-28 Latest Case: 2021-07-02 Total Cases: 390 Total Transfers: 10 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 30.0% Of those, percentage pro se: 49.6% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Gilbertville Least stable with 10+ filings: Fall River Least stable with 100+ filings: n/a Least stable county: Barnstable Cases per day: 78 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 76 19.5% southeast 60 15.4% western 57 14.6% eastern 56 14.4% central 54 13.8% metro_south 39 10.0% quincy district 7 1.8% brockton district 4 1.0% pittsfield district 4 1.0% barnstable district 3 0.8% fall river district 3 0.8% orleans district 3 0.8% bmc east boston 2 0.5% brookline district 2 0.5% chelsea district 2 0.5% hingham district 2 0.5% malden district 2 0.5% taunton district 2 0.5% bmc central 1 0.3% bmc west roxbury 1 0.3% cambridge district 1 0.3% gloucester district 1 0.3% lynn district 1 0.3% milford district 1 0.3% natick district 1 0.3% newton district 1 0.3% northern berkshire district 1 0.3% salem district 1 0.3% waltham district 1 0.3% woburn district 1 0.3% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 273 2 Natural Person 117 388 Total 390 390 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 70.0% 0.5% Natural Person 30.0% 99.5% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 265 8 273 Optional 59 58 117 Total 324 66 390 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 67.9% 2.1% 70.0% Optional 15.1% 14.9% 30.0% Total 83.1% 16.9% 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 1 1 2 Optional 7 381 388 Total 8 382 390 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.3% 0.3% 0.5% Optional 1.8% 97.7% 99.5% Total 2.1% 97.9% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 28 7.2% 1 270 69.2% 2 71 18.2% 3 16 4.1% 4 3 0.8% 5 2 0.5% Total 390 100.0% 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 261 66.9% Cause 74 19.0% No Fault 50 12.8% Foreclosure 5 1.3% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Gilbertville 86 1 Hyannis 42 6 Marstons Mills 41 2 Hardwick 33 1 Buzzards Bay 29 1 East Sandwich 28 1 South Dennis 27 1 Newton Center 25 1 Randolph 24 8 Bradford 22 3 Fall River 22 20 South Grafton 22 1 Lowell 20 22 Northbridge 19 3 West Yarmouth 18 1 Athol 17 2 Mendon 17 1 Rockland 17 3 Everett 16 7 Orleans 16 1 Dorchester 15 14 North Easton 15 2 Gardner 14 3 Stoughton 14 4 Ayer 13 1 Cohasset 13 1 Haverhill 13 8 Malden 13 8 Salisbury 12 1 Worcester 12 22 Bridgewater 11 3 Charlestown 11 2 Lawrence 11 9 Middleton 11 1 New Bedford 11 11 Southbridge 11 2 Brockton 9 9 Cherry Valley 9 1 Holbrook 9 1 Leicester 9 1 Lunenburg 9 1 Revere 9 5 Dudley 8 1 Jamaica Plain 8 3 Pittsfield 8 4 Roxbury Crossing 8 5 South Yarmouth 8 1 Taunton 8 5 Centerville 7 1 Danvers 7 2 Kingston 7 1 Mashpee 7 1 Milford 7 2 North Adams 7 1 Raynham 7 1 Uxbridge 7 1 Ashland 6 1 Bellingham 6 1 Swansea 6 1 Chelsea 5 2 Framingham 5 4 Holden 5 1 Marlborough 5 2 Norton 5 1 Quincy 5 5 Roxbury 5 3 Webster 5 1 Westborough 5 1 Acton 4 1 Dorchester Center 4 4 E. Boston 4 2 East Wareham 4 1 Mansfield 4 1 Middleborough 4 1 North Dartmouth 4 1 Brookline 3 2 Gloucester 3 1 Lynn 3 3 Marshfield 3 1 Medford 3 2 Milton 3 1 Natick 3 1 North Andover 3 1 North Attleborough 3 1 Roslindale 3 1 Amherst 2 1 Arlington 2 1 Attleborough 2 1 Beverly 2 1 Billerica 2 1 Braintree 2 1 Chelmsford 2 1 East Boston 2 1 Hyde Park 2 1 Leominster 2 1 Mattapan 2 1 Salem 2 1 South Dartmouth 2 1 Woburn 2 1 Boston 1 8 Plymouth 1 1 Somerville 1 1 South Weymouth 1 1 Waltham 1 1 (not given) 0 90 Cambridge 0 1 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 82 16 Bristol 55 46 Plymouth 46 20 Worcester 42 47 Berkshire 30 5 Norfolk 29 25 Essex 28 31 Suffolk 26 52 Middlesex 24 57 Hampshire 5 1 Dukes 0 0 Franklin 0 0 Hampden 0 0 Nantucket 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/.