Filings Week Ending 2021 December 04

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-11-28 Search Period End: 2021-12-04 Earliest Case: 2021-11-29 Latest Case: 2021-12-03 Total Cases: 398 Total Transfers: 10 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 32.2% Of those, percentage pro se: 56.2% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: West Warren Least stable with 10+ filings: Revere Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Berkshire Cases per day: 66 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 82 20.6% western 69 17.3% southeast 51 12.8% eastern 50 12.6% central 47 11.8% metro_south 38 9.5% pittsfield district 10 2.5% lawrence district 5 1.3% attleboro district 3 0.8% cambridge district 3 0.8% chelsea district 3 0.8% fallmouth district 3 0.8% lynn district 3 0.8% peabody district 3 0.8% woburn district 3 0.8% dedham district 2 0.5% fall river district 2 0.5% malden district 2 0.5% milford district 2 0.5% newburyport district 2 0.5% northern berkshire district 2 0.5% quincy district 2 0.5% somerville district 2 0.5% wrentham district 2 0.5% ayer district 1 0.3% barnstable district 1 0.3% concord district 1 0.3% eastern hampshire district 1 0.3% palmer district 1 0.3% plymouth district 1 0.3% springfield district 1 0.3% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 270 3 Natural Person 128 395 Total 398 398 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 67.8% 0.8% Natural Person 32.2% 99.2% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 257 13 270 Optional 56 72 128 Total 313 85 398 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 64.6% 3.3% 67.8% Optional 14.1% 18.1% 32.2% Total 78.6% 21.4% 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 2 3 Optional 7 388 395 Total 8 390 398 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.3% 0.5% 0.8% Optional 1.8% 97.5% 99.2% Total 2.0% 98.0% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 29 7.3% 1 270 67.8% 2 84 21.1% 3 11 2.8% 4 2 0.5% 5 1 0.3% 6 1 0.3% Total 398 100.0% 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 265 66.6% Cause 74 18.6% No Fault 55 13.8% Foreclosure 4 1.0% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count West Warren 88 1 East Falmouth 86 5 Dalton 44 3 Revere 38 20 Bridgewater 37 10 Salisbury 36 3 West Barnstable 35 1 Three Rivers 34 1 Newbury 30 2 Buzzards Bay 29 1 East Sandwich 28 1 Ayer 26 2 Georgetown 24 2 Fitchburg 22 9 Newtonville 19 1 Lawrence 18 14 Webster 17 3 Hopedale 16 1 Fall River 15 14 Marlborough 15 6 New Bedford 15 15 Pittsfield 15 7 Hyannis 14 2 Lowell 14 15 Methuen 14 7 North Adams 14 2 Dedham 12 3 Leominster 12 5 Brockton 11 11 Foxborough 11 2 Haverhill 11 7 Peabody 11 6 Rockland 11 2 Roxbury 11 7 Brewster 10 1 Canton 9 2 Holbrook 9 1 Athol 8 1 Chelsea 8 3 Dudley 8 1 Harwich 8 1 Jamaica Plain 8 3 Middleborough 8 2 Pepperell 8 1 Rehoboth 8 1 Framingham 7 5 Hanover 7 1 Kingston 7 1 Milford 7 2 Seekonk 7 1 Stoughton 7 2 Abington 6 1 Belchertown 6 1 Northbridge 6 1 Whitman 6 1 Cambridge 5 6 Southbridge 5 1 Sudbury 5 1 Taunton 5 3 Woburn 5 2 Worcester 5 10 Acton 4 1 Belmont 4 1 Brighton 4 2 Gardner 4 1 Mansfield 4 1 Salem 4 2 Sandwich 4 1 Stoneham 4 1 Walpole 4 1 Allston 3 1 Dorchester 3 3 Falmouth 3 1 Franklin 3 1 Gloucester 3 1 Lexington 3 1 Lynn 3 3 Malden 3 2 Marshfield 3 1 Medford 3 2 North Andover 3 1 North Attleborough 3 1 Norwood 3 1 Plymouth 3 2 Quincy 3 3 Randolph 3 1 Saugus 3 1 South Weymouth 3 2 Attleborough 2 1 Billerica 2 1 Hyde Park 2 1 Mattapan 2 1 Shrewsbury 2 1 Somerville 2 2 East Weymouth 1 1 Weymouth 1 1 (not given) 0 100 Boston 0 2 Springfield 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 74 12 Plymouth 74 32 Barnstable 72 14 Bristol 44 37 Essex 44 49 Worcester 33 37 Norfolk 24 21 Middlesex 21 50 Suffolk 21 43 Hampshire 5 1 Hampden 2 2 Dukes 0 0 Franklin 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/.