Filings Week Ending 2021 October 30

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-10-24 Search Period End: 2021-10-30 Earliest Case: 2021-10-25 Latest Case: 2021-10-29 Total Cases: 424 Total Transfers: 21 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 27.6% Of those, percentage pro se: 56.4% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Chestnut Hill Least stable with 10+ filings: Pittsfield Least stable with 100+ filings: n/a Least stable county: Berkshire Cases per day: 70 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 western 98 23.1% northeast 70 16.5% central 61 14.4% southeast 48 11.3% metro_south 42 9.9% eastern 40 9.4% pittsfield district 14 3.3% malden district 8 1.9% brockton district 4 0.9% cambridge district 3 0.7% lawrence district 3 0.7% nantucket district 3 0.7% quincy district 3 0.7% barnstable district 2 0.5% chelsea district 2 0.5% fallmouth district 2 0.5% lowell district 2 0.5% new bedford district 2 0.5% wrentham district 2 0.5% attleboro district 1 0.2% bmc central 1 0.2% chicopee district 1 0.2% concord district 1 0.2% dedham district 1 0.2% fall river district 1 0.2% greenfield district 1 0.2% hingham district 1 0.2% milford district 1 0.2% northern berkshire district 1 0.2% orleans district 1 0.2% springfield district 1 0.2% stoughton district 1 0.2% uxbridge district 1 0.2% woburn district 1 0.2% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 307 3 Natural Person 117 421 Total 424 424 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 72.4% 0.7% Natural Person 27.6% 99.3% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 289 18 307 Optional 51 66 117 Total 340 84 424 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 68.2% 4.2% 72.4% Optional 12.0% 15.6% 27.6% Total 80.2% 19.8% 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 3 3 Optional 7 414 421 Total 7 417 424 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.7% 0.7% Optional 1.7% 97.6% 99.3% Total 1.7% 98.3% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 31 7.3% 1 309 72.9% 2 66 15.6% 3 15 3.5% 4 2 0.5% 6 1 0.2% Total 424 100.0% 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 266 62.7% Cause 81 19.1% No Fault 71 16.7% Foreclosure 4 0.9% Unknown/Other 2 0.5% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Chestnut Hill 47 1 Hadley 38 2 Orange 38 3 Pittsfield 33 15 Nantucket 29 3 Winchendon 29 3 Greenfield 28 5 Hyannis 28 4 Sunderland 27 1 Turners Falls 24 1 Canton 23 5 Hubbardston 22 1 Springfield 22 35 Chicopee 21 12 Framingham 21 15 East Falmouth 17 1 Foxborough 17 3 Norwood 17 5 Rowley 17 1 Southbridge 17 3 West Springfield 17 5 Chatham 16 1 Fall River 16 15 Brockton 14 14 Dennis 14 2 New Bedford 14 14 Whitinsville 14 1 Cohasset 13 1 Upton 13 1 Lowell 12 13 Middleborough 12 3 Plainville 12 1 Westport 12 2 Adams 11 1 Bridgewater 11 3 Monson 11 1 Sharon 11 2 Lawrence 10 8 North Attleborough 10 3 Sturbridge 10 1 Cherry Valley 9 1 Dorchester 9 9 Fitchburg 9 4 Gardner 9 2 Holbrook 9 1 Indian Orchard 9 1 Lunenburg 9 1 North Billerica 9 1 Rochdale 9 1 Wareham 9 2 Worcester 9 18 Athol 8 1 Feeding Hills 8 1 Haverhill 8 5 Hyde Park 8 3 Methuen 8 4 Pepperell 8 1 Quincy 8 8 Rehoboth 8 1 Roxbury 8 5 Tyngsborough 8 1 Clinton 7 1 East Boston 7 3 Everett 7 3 North Adams 7 1 North Andover 7 2 Revere 7 4 Amesbury 6 1 Andover 6 2 Bellingham 6 1 East Longmeadow 6 1 Easthampton 6 1 Franklin 6 2 Lexington 6 2 Malden 6 4 Amherst 5 2 Braintree 5 2 Dorchester Center 5 5 Holyoke 5 2 Jamaica Plain 5 2 Marblehead 5 1 Marlborough 5 2 Rockland 5 1 Taunton 5 3 Webster 5 1 Westborough 5 1 Weymouth 5 3 Attleborough 4 2 Billerica 4 2 Leominster 4 2 North Dartmouth 4 1 Walpole 4 1 Westfield 4 2 Allston 3 1 Falmouth 3 1 Melrose 3 1 Milford 3 1 Needham 3 1 Cambridge 2 3 Chelmsford 2 1 Chelsea 2 1 Mattapan 2 1 Salem 2 1 Shrewsbury 2 1 Lynn 1 1 Newton 1 1 Plymouth 1 1 (not given) 0 56 Boston 0 6 span 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 Berkshire 105 17 Franklin 94 10 Nantucket 85 3 Hampden 84 60 Plymouth 55 24 Bristol 49 41 Barnstable 46 9 Norfolk 43 37 Worcester 40 45 Hampshire 27 5 Essex 23 26 Middlesex 21 50 Suffolk 20 40 Dukes 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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