Fresh Start for Renters: New Massachusetts Law Lets Tenants Seal Eviction Records

By Ana Rivera 

I. Introduction

Six years after the first eviction record sealing bill was filed in Massachusetts, in August, 2024, Governor Maura Healey signed into law a process for sealing eviction records as part of the Commonwealth’s Affordable Housing Act. By doing so, Massachusetts joined 19 other states and municipalities around the country in approving a law that allows tenants to seal their eviction records. Mapping the Growth of Eviction Record and Tenant Screening Protections, Policy Link (May 2025). The law, codified as G.L. c. 239, § 16, became effective on May 5, 2025, with strong support from state leaders, housing advocates, and tenant advocacy organizations. Molly Farrar, Thanks to the new law, you can now seal your eviction record in Mass., Boston.com (May 6, 2025).

II. Eviction Records Create Lasting Barriers to Housing

The inclusion of an eviction record sealing provision in the Affordable Housing Act was an important win for tenants in the fight for housing justice. The filing of an eviction case against a tenant is publicly available information. It is well-recognized that “the mere record of an eviction proceeding can serve as a long-term barrier to a tenant when he or she seeks future housing, regardless of the legal outcome.” Rental Prop. Mgmt. Servs. v. Hatcher, 479 Mass. 542, 554 (2018). It becomes, in effect, a “Scarlet E” for tenants. See Larisa G. Bowman, Eviction Abolition, 55 LOY. U. CHI. L.J. 541, 573-74, n.155 (Spring 2024).

It is the norm for landlords and tenant screening companies to cull and use public data to screen tenant applications and to deny housing opportunities based on an eviction record, regardless of the merits of the underlying eviction case or even the accuracy of the data. See id. at 574, n.155-56. See also Esme Caramello & Nora Mahlberg, Combating Tenant Blacklisting Based on Housing Court Records: A Survey of Approaches, CLEARINGHOUSE REV. (2017). This norm restricts social mobility for tenants with prior eviction records. With restricted mobility, the denial of these housing opportunities also impacts job and educational opportunities. See Bowman, Eviction Abolition, supra at 574-75. Ultimately, the effects fall disproportionately on people of color; Black renters in Massachusetts are almost 2.5 times as likely as white renters to have an eviction record, with an even wider margin of disproportion for Black women in particular. Sophie Beiers, Sandra Park, & Linda Morris, Clearing the Record: How Eviction Sealing Laws Can Advance Housing Access for Women of Color, ACLU Analytics, Jan. 10, 2020. The new eviction record sealing law goes a long way toward bridging social, racial, and economic justice gaps.

III. How Does the Eviction Sealing Process Work?

Like many laws, this new law has its complexities and the categories of eligibility for eviction record sealing can seem layered and nuanced. (A chart published by the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute deconstructs the components of the law and can be found here.) In simplified fashion, the law operates to allow eligible tenants to petition the trial court to seal the record of their eviction case(s). Eviction records may be administratively sealed upon the filing of the petition for sealing in all cases that resulted in a dismissal and all cases that concluded with a judgment entered in favor of the tenant. Summary process for possession of land (eviction), G.L. c. 239, § 16(e1/2). For these cases, the petition to seal may be filed immediately after the conclusion of the case and the exhaustion of appeal rights, with no hearing required. Id.

For eviction cases that were not dismissed or where judgment did not enter in favor of the tenant, the eviction records are not administratively sealed. For these cases, the parameters of the sealing process are governed by two considerations.

• The first consideration is procedural: the tenant petitioning for sealing must first similarly wait until the conclusion of the case and exhaustion of appeal rights. Then, additionally, the tenant must provide notice to the original parties in the action, and those parties are allowed a seven-day objection period (“notice period”) under the statute. With one exception noted below, if no objection is made by any party during the objection period, the petition to seal the eviction record may be processed by the court with no hearing.
• The second consideration is substantive: the reason the eviction case was filed will affect how and when the eviction record gets sealed.

For example, if the reason for the eviction was “no fault”—in other words, the case was brought for reasons other than anything the tenant did or failed to do, such as for economic or business considerations by the landlord—then after the requisite notice period, the court may process the petition and approve it without a hearing. G.L. c. 239, § 16(a)-(b). For eviction cases that are filed for reasons other than “no fault,” tenants may be required to make additional showings to have their eviction record(s) sealed. By way of further example, in eviction cases filed for non-payment of rent, a tenant may seek to seal their eviction record by first demonstrating to the court that any money judgment was satisfied. G.L. c. 239, § 16(k). Once the tenant demonstrates this, they may then file their petition to seal.

In non-payment of rent cases where the money judgment is not satisfied, a tenant must wait a minimum of four years after conclusion of the case and exhaustion of appeals rights to file their petition to seal. In these cases, to get their eviction record sealed, the tenant must certify two things: first, that the non-payment of rent (as determined by the money judgment) was due to economic hardship; and, second, that no other non-payment eviction action or “lessor action” was brought against the tenant in the intervening four years. G.L. c. 239, § 16(c) (A “lessor action” is one in which a tenant sues an owner/manager of property for breach of the implied warranty of habitability, breach of a rental agreement, or violation of any other law. Although unlikely that a tenant would become an owner/manager in the intervening years and be the subject of such a suit, the remote eventuality is addressed by the statute.). If, during the requisite notice period, a party objects, the court is required to conduct a hearing and may require the tenant to submit a financial statement. Id. If the eviction case was brought for “fault”—typically due to alleged lease violations or allegations of some other misconduct or omission on the part of the tenant (other than non-payment of rent)—the tenant must wait a minimum of seven years after conclusion of the case and exhaustion of appeals rights to file their petition to seal. G.L. c. 239, § 16(d). The tenant is required to demonstrate that no other “fault” eviction or “lessor action” was filed against them in the intervening seven years. Id.

Finally, there is a category of actions against tenants that are not filed as summary process (eviction) actions but rather, as civil actions brought under M.G.L. c. 139 § 19, that can result in a speedy eviction. These actions typically involve allegations that the tenant engaged in specific criminal conduct. See generally Common Nuisances Act, G.L. c. 139, § 19. When a judgment enters in favor of the landlord in these cases, the tenant must wait a minimum of seven years before filing a petition to seal their eviction record, and must demonstrate that, in the intervening seven years, no other G.L. c. 139 § 19 or fault eviction case was brought against them and they were not convicted of any crime(s) listed in G.L. c. 139 § 19. A hearing is required for these petitions to allow the judge to make specific findings that the sealing will serve the interests of “justice and public safety.” G.L. c. 239, § 16(3). Where a landlord does not obtain a judgment in a G.L. c. 139 § 19 case, the tenant may file a petition to seal immediately after the conclusion of the case and the exhaustion of appeal rights but must give notice to the original parties in the action. Id.

The eviction record sealing law helps tenants with important financial considerations beyond the sealing itself. Once an eviction record is sealed, consumer reporting agencies are required, within 30 days, to remove the information from the tenant’s consumer report and from the calculation of any credit score or recommendation. G.L. c. 239, § 16(i). This requirement is enforceable by the Attorney General, with potential damages, costs, and attorney’s fees payable to the tenant where the consumer reporting agency fails to do so. Id. In addition, applications for housing or credit that seek information on prior evictions must have a statement that an applicant may accurately respond “no record” in cases where the eviction record has been sealed. G.L. c. 239, § 16(j).

IV. Resources Available to Tenants

Tenants may prepare and file their own petitions to seal, and training materials for both legal and non-legal advocates are available so that they may help to guide and advise tenants who seek assistance. MLRI et al., Eviction Record Sealing in Massachusetts (2025), MassLegal Services (May 19, 2025). In addition, the Suffolk University Law School Legal Innovation & Technology Lab, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Trial Court, recently created a digital tool called the “Guided Interview” to help with the petition process.  Sam Glover, New eviction sealing tool launched, developed with the Massachusetts Trial Court!, Legal Innovation & Technology Lab, Suffolk University Law School (May 13, 2025). The tool is a “smart” online program that determines a tenant’s eligibility to seal by taking into account the case outcomes and the reasons for the eviction. If the program deems the tenant eligible, it prompts tenants for the information needed to successfully produce fully completed eviction record sealing petitions. (Tenants and/or their advocates can find resources at https://www.mass.gov/info-details/sealing-eviction-court-records and frequently asked questions are answered here: https://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing-apartments-shelter/eviction-sealing.) Public computers are available at Court Service Centers and Trial Court Law Libraries to provide information and access to PDF versions of the eviction record sealing petition, and paper forms can be found at the various courthouses. Sealing eviction court records, Mass.gov. Legal services organizations, with community partners and pro bono lawyers, also organize eviction sealing “clinics” to help tenants with the process.

V. Conclusion

Massachusetts’s new eviction record sealing law marks a critical step toward dismantling long-standing housing barriers. By giving tenants the ability to clear their records, the law helps expand access to housing and addresses broader social, racial, and economic inequities that have long been the consequences of the eviction process.

Ana Rivera is an Associate Clinical Professor at Boston College Law School, where she directs the Housing Justice Clinic and supervises law students in their direct representation of tenants facing housing insecurity.