Filings Week Ending 2021 September 11

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-09-05 Search Period End: 2021-09-11 Earliest Case: 2021-09-06 Latest Case: 2021-09-10 Total Cases: 351 Total Transfers: 11 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 37.6% Of those, percentage pro se: 59.1% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Norwood Least stable with 10+ filings: Norwood Least stable with 100+ filings: n/a Least stable county: Bristol Cases per day: 58 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 southeast 68 19.4% central 63 17.9% northeast 58 16.5% western 45 12.8% metro_south 41 11.7% eastern 27 7.7% bmc west roxbury 6 1.7% northern berkshire district 5 1.4% plymouth district 5 1.4% fall river district 3 0.9% cambridge district 2 0.6% framingham district 2 0.6% lawrence district 2 0.6% malden district 2 0.6% new bedford district 2 0.6% quincy district 2 0.6% somerville district 2 0.6% woburn district 2 0.6% ayer district 1 0.3% bmc brighton 1 0.3% bmc east boston 1 0.3% chelsea district 1 0.3% haverhill district 1 0.3% lowell district 1 0.3% orange district 1 0.3% orleans district 1 0.3% salem district 1 0.3% waltham district 1 0.3% wareham district 1 0.3% westfield district 1 0.3% worcester district 1 0.3% wrentham district 1 0.3% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 219 1 Natural Person 132 350 Total 351 351 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 62.4% 0.3% Natural Person 37.6% 99.7% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 213 6 219 Optional 54 78 132 Total 267 84 351 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 60.7% 1.7% 62.4% Optional 15.4% 22.2% 37.6% Total 76.1% 23.9% 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 0 1 Optional 6 344 350 Total 7 344 351 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.3% 0.0% 0.3% Optional 1.7% 98.0% 99.7% Total 2.0% 98.0% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 32 9.1% 1 229 65.2% 2 76 21.7% 3 13 3.7% 4 1 0.3% Total 351 100.0% 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 161 45.9% Cause 97 27.6% No Fault 91 25.9% Foreclosure 2 0.6% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Norwood 52 15 East Taunton 46 3 West Dennis 45 1 Shirley 41 3 East Falmouth 34 2 Fall River 29 26 Sherborn 24 1 Fitchburg 22 9 Stoughton 22 6 North Adams 21 3 North Brookfield 21 1 Eastham 20 1 Paxton 20 1 Roslindale 20 6 Marlborough 18 7 West Yarmouth 18 1 Athol 17 2 Rockland 17 3 Southbridge 17 3 New Bedford 16 16 East Bridgewater 14 2 Lawrence 14 11 Worcester 14 27 Williamstown 12 1 Adams 11 1 Foxborough 11 2 Littleton 11 1 Townsend 11 1 Plymouth 10 6 Sturbridge 10 1 Lakeville 9 1 Maynard 9 1 North Billerica 9 1 Randolph 9 3 South Easton 9 1 Wrentham 9 1 Haverhill 8 5 Lowell 8 9 Middleborough 8 2 Spencer 8 1 Tyngsborough 8 1 Charlton 7 1 Medway 7 1 Millbury 7 1 North Andover 7 2 Swampscott 7 1 Fairhaven 6 1 Falmouth 6 2 Malden 6 4 Methuen 6 3 Quincy 6 6 Swansea 6 1 West Roxbury 6 2 Westport 6 1 Whitman 6 1 Beverly 5 2 Charlestown 5 1 Chelsea 5 2 Framingham 5 4 Holden 5 1 Hyde Park 5 2 Newburyport 5 1 Norton 5 1 Pembroke 5 1 Somerset 5 1 Taunton 5 3 Westborough 5 1 Woburn 5 2 Belmont 4 1 Brighton 4 2 Brockton 4 4 Leominster 4 2 Lynn 4 4 North Dartmouth 4 1 Wareham 4 1 Wilmington 4 1 Andover 3 1 Bridgewater 3 1 Danvers 3 1 Dorchester 3 3 Dorchester Center 3 3 Marshfield 3 1 Milford 3 1 Milton 3 1 Natick 3 1 North Attleborough 3 1 Roxbury 3 2 Wellesley 3 1 Arlington 2 1 Billerica 2 1 Cambridge 2 3 East Boston 2 1 Mattapan 2 1 Salem 2 1 Shrewsbury 2 1 Somerville 2 2 South Dartmouth 2 1 Medford 1 1 Peabody 1 1 Revere 1 1 (not given) 0 60 Boston 0 5 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 69 57 Plymouth 53 23 Worcester 47 53 Norfolk 42 36 Barnstable 36 7 Berkshire 30 5 Essex 30 33 Middlesex 19 46 Suffolk 15 31 Dukes 0 0 Franklin 0 0 Hampden 0 0 Hampshire 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/.

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