Filings Week Ending 2022 February 05

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2022-01-30 Search Period End: 2022-02-05 Earliest Case: 2022-01-31 Latest Case: 2022-02-04 Total Cases: 499 Total Transfers: 19 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 26.3% Of those, percentage pro se: 51.9% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: South Chatham Least stable with 10+ filings: Norwood Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Plymouth Cases per day: 83 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 89 17.8% central 85 17.0% northeast 67 13.4% southeast 64 12.8% eastern 58 11.6% metro_south 52 10.4% brockton district 17 3.4% newburyport district 7 1.4% cambridge district 6 1.2% barnstable district 5 1.0% plymouth district 5 1.0% quincy district 5 1.0% woburn district 5 1.0% attleboro district 4 0.8% waltham district 4 0.8% bmc east boston 3 0.6% malden district 3 0.6% northern berkshire district 3 0.6% chelsea district 2 0.4% framingham district 2 0.4% bmc brighton 1 0.2% dedham district 1 0.2% fallmouth district 1 0.2% haverhill district 1 0.2% holyoke district 1 0.2% ipswich district 1 0.2% natick district 1 0.2% northampton district 1 0.2% orleans district 1 0.2% palmer district 1 0.2% peabody district 1 0.2% southern berkshire district 1 0.2% westfield district 1 0.2% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 368 0 Natural Person 131 499 Total 499 499 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 73.7% 0.0% Natural Person 26.3% 100.0% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 354 14 368 Optional 63 68 131 Total 417 82 499 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 70.9% 2.8% 73.7% Optional 12.6% 13.6% 26.3% Total 83.6% 16.4% 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 0 0 0 Optional 12 487 499 Total 12 487 499 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Optional 2.4% 97.6% 100.0% Total 2.4% 97.6% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 37 7.4% 1 356 71.3% 2 90 18.0% 3 12 2.4% 4 4 0.8% Total 499 100.0% 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 336 67.3% Cause 91 18.2% No Fault 66 13.2% Foreclosure 6 1.2% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count South Chatham 97 1 Gilbertville 86 1 Fiskdale 64 2 Amesbury 49 8 Edgartown 49 2 Norwood 48 14 West Wareham 46 1 Wellfleet 36 1 Foxborough 35 6 East Falmouth 34 2 Sheffield 30 1 Gardner 29 6 Stoughton 29 8 Brockton 27 26 Fall River 25 23 Fitchburg 22 9 Forestdale 22 1 Winthrop 22 4 North Adams 21 3 Marstons Mills 20 1 Barre 18 1 West Yarmouth 18 1 Worcester 18 34 Chelsea 17 6 Middleborough 17 4 Revere 15 8 Hyannis 14 2 Leominster 14 6 Plymouth 14 8 Quincy 14 13 Uxbridge 14 2 Ashland 12 2 East Boston 12 5 Plainville 12 1 Sterling 12 1 Framingham 11 8 Hyde Park 11 4 Rockland 11 2 New Bedford 10 10 Woburn 10 4 Attleborough 9 4 Holbrook 9 1 Lakeville 9 1 Athol 8 1 Carver 8 1 Dudley 8 1 Mattapan 8 3 North Dartmouth 8 2 Roxbury 8 5 Spencer 8 1 Centerville 7 1 Clinton 7 1 Dorchester 7 7 Kingston 7 1 Mashpee 7 1 North Easton 7 1 Oxford 7 1 Seekonk 7 1 Allston 6 2 Cambridge 6 7 East Longmeadow 6 1 Hopkinton 6 1 North Attleborough 6 2 Northbridge 6 1 Waltham 6 4 Whitman 6 1 Grafton 5 1 Marlborough 5 2 Pembroke 5 1 Sharon 5 1 Shrewsbury 5 2 Somerville 5 4 Southbridge 5 1 Sudbury 5 1 Arlington 4 2 Dorchester Center 4 4 Everett 4 2 Onset 4 1 Franklin 3 1 Marshfield 3 1 Melrose 3 1 Milford 3 1 Milton 3 1 Natick 3 1 Roslindale 3 1 Taunton 3 2 West Roxbury 3 1 Beverly 2 1 Braintree 2 1 Holyoke 2 1 Westfield 2 1 Haverhill 1 1 Lawrence 1 1 Malden 1 1 Medford 1 1 Newton Highlands 1 1 (not given) 0 157 Boston 0 5 Lowell 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 Plymouth 111 48 Worcester 65 73 Barnstable 56 11 Norfolk 55 47 Bristol 54 45 Dukes 48 2 Suffolk 27 55 Berkshire 24 4 Middlesex 18 43 Essex 10 11 Hampden 4 3 Franklin 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/.