Professional Landlord Attorneys Result in Higher Costs for Tenants and More Evictions

By Mackenzie Pish, NLIHC Research Analyst 

Research published in Housing Studies, “Shadow players of the eviction crisis: identifying and characterizing professional evicting attorneys in Massachusetts,” found that professional landlord attorneys are more likely to represent corporate landlords, resolve eviction cases more quickly, and secure outcomes that result in more money due from tenants and more eviction executions compared to other landlord attorneys who participate in fewer eviction cases.   

The authors used eviction filings from Massachusetts from December 2, 2019, to September 30, 2022, to identify 2,373 attorneys from 1,688 firms who represented either a landlord or a tenant in a particular case. The authors defined attorneys as landlord attorneys (n=1,683) or tenant attorneys (n=690) based on which type of client they more frequently represented. The authors used clustering methods to further classify each attorney type into four categories based on their prevalence (or activity) in eviction court: professional, active, less active, and least active.   

Among landlord attorneys, 6 professionals represented landlords in 10,254 cases, or 1,709 cases per attorney on average. In comparison, 20 professional tenant attorneys represented tenants in 1,020 cases, averaging 51 cases per attorney. The fact that professional landlord attorneys represented ten times as many cases as professional tenant attorneys exemplifies the disproportionate representation rates: landlords had some form of legal representation in 88% of all cases, while tenants had such representation in only 10%.   
 
The more active landlord attorneys had a higher percentage of their caseload consisting of institutional or corporate landlord clients. Ninety-three percent of professional landlord attorneys’ clients were institutional landlords, compared to 80% for active, 64% for less active, and 38% for least active landlord attorneys.   

Professional landlord attorneys resolved eviction filings more quickly, with fewer hearings, mediations, and trials, than other landlord attorneys. For example, professional landlord attorneys moved through eviction proceedings 10 days faster for cases that end in dismissals, 25 days faster for default judgments, 2 months faster for court judgments, and almost 2 months faster for agreements between parties. The authors note that shorter times from filing to outcome means less time for tenants to secure representation, argue their case, and find replacement housing.   

Compared to other landlord attorneys, professional landlord attorneys secured outcomes that resulted in more money being due to landlords from tenants. Professional landlord attorneys secured, on average nearly three months of back rent for landlords, whereas active attorneys secured two months on average. Tenant attorneys were associated with smaller arrears. Additionally, professional landlord attorneys were more likely to see eviction executions than other landlord attorneys. The authors suggest that this finding demonstrates how professional landlord expertise directly contributes to forced moves.  

The study concludes that eviction outcomes depend not only on whether attorneys are present, but also on who the attorneys are. They note professional landlord attorneys are law firm partners, owners, or shareholders with authority to set strategy and choose clients. They suggest that these few professional landlord attorneys are not acting as neutral legal actors but are, in solidarity with corporate landlord interests, using the court system to destabilize tenants.  

Read the report here.