Filings Week Ending 2021 November 27

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-11-21 Search Period End: 2021-11-27 Earliest Case: 2021-11-22 Latest Case: 2021-11-26 Total Cases: 376 Total Transfers: 12 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 37.0% Of those, percentage pro se: 59.7% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Southfield Least stable with 10+ filings: Framingham Least stable with 100+ filings: n/a Least stable county: Bristol Cases per day: 62 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 central 75 19.9% northeast 66 17.6% southeast 65 17.3% eastern 45 12.0% metro_south 35 9.3% western 34 9.0% malden district 11 2.9% quincy district 7 1.9% waltham district 4 1.1% attleboro district 3 0.8% lawrence district 3 0.8% springfield district 3 0.8% cambridge district 2 0.5% fallmouth district 2 0.5% framingham district 2 0.5% pittsfield district 2 0.5% southern berkshire district 2 0.5% barnstable district 1 0.3% bmc brighton 1 0.3% bmc east boston 1 0.3% brockton district 1 0.3% dedham district 1 0.3% hingham district 1 0.3% lynn district 1 0.3% nantucket district 1 0.3% new bedford district 1 0.3% northern berkshire district 1 0.3% orange district 1 0.3% palmer district 1 0.3% somerville district 1 0.3% taunton district 1 0.3% woburn district 1 0.3% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 237 0 Natural Person 139 376 Total 376 376 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 63.0% 0.0% Natural Person 37.0% 100.0% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 229 8 237 Optional 56 83 139 Total 285 91 376 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 60.9% 2.1% 63.0% Optional 14.9% 22.1% 37.0% Total 75.8% 24.2% 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 4 372 376 Total 4 372 376 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Optional 1.1% 98.9% 100.0% Total 1.1% 98.9% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 29 7.7% 1 246 65.4% 2 83 22.1% 3 16 4.3% 4 2 0.5% Total 376 100.0% 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 211 56.1% Cause 82 21.8% No Fault 74 19.7% Foreclosure 7 1.9% Unknown/Other 2 0.5% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Southfield 202 1 Seekonk 51 7 Chestnut Hill 47 1 Pocasset 34 1 Provincetown 33 1 Westborough 32 6 Gardner 24 5 Canton 23 5 Southbridge 23 4 Forestdale 22 1 Everett 19 8 Framingham 19 13 Hull 19 2 Nantucket 19 2 New Bedford 19 19 East Falmouth 17 1 Ashburnham 16 1 Fall River 16 15 Great Barrington 14 1 Hyde Park 14 5 Lawrence 14 11 Milford 14 4 North Adams 14 2 Raynham 14 2 Halifax 13 1 Lowell 13 14 Mattapan 13 5 Upton 13 1 Whitman 13 2 Boxford 12 1 Fitchburg 12 5 Leominster 12 5 Marlborough 12 5 Randolph 12 4 Attleborough 11 5 Blackstone 11 1 Braintree 11 4 Monson 11 1 Stoughton 11 3 Worcester 11 21 Norwood 10 3 Acton 9 2 South Easton 9 1 Athol 8 1 South Yarmouth 8 1 Spencer 8 1 Brockton 7 7 Centerville 7 1 Clinton 7 1 Dennis 7 1 Dorchester 7 7 Hyannis 7 1 Mashpee 7 1 Swampscott 7 1 Amesbury 6 1 Brighton 6 3 Pittsfield 6 3 Quincy 6 6 Roslindale 6 2 Tewksbury 6 2 Waltham 6 4 Dorchester Center 5 5 Foxborough 5 1 Jamaica Plain 5 2 Norton 5 1 Pembroke 5 1 Rockland 5 1 Shrewsbury 5 2 Taunton 5 3 Winthrop 5 1 Arlington 4 2 Dedham 4 1 Haverhill 4 3 Hingham 4 1 Mansfield 4 1 Methuen 4 2 Salem 4 2 Allston 3 1 Andover 3 1 Bridgewater 3 1 Cambridge 3 4 Dracut 3 1 East Weymouth 3 2 Falmouth 3 1 Franklin 3 1 Malden 3 2 Melrose 3 1 North Attleborough 3 1 Somerville 3 3 Weymouth 3 2 East Boston 2 1 North Weymouth 1 1 Peabody 1 1 Revere 1 1 Roxbury 1 1 South Weymouth 1 1 Springfield 1 3 (not given) 0 67 Boston 0 4 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 66 55 Nantucket 56 2 Worcester 52 58 Barnstable 51 10 Berkshire 43 7 Norfolk 41 35 Plymouth 37 16 Middlesex 26 61 Essex 20 23 Suffolk 19 38 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/.