As part of a larger housing justice collaborative, we are working with a team at the RVA Eviction Lab to build data-informed tools for advocacy, including the Virginia Evictors Catalog. The overarching goal of the team is to create collaboratively-designed data tools to support community organizers, service providers, practitioners, and policy advocates to address housing instability and unaffordability.
This project examines the eviction landscape in the Richmond region, specifically changes in principal court fees, attorney fees, and judgments from the years 2016 to 2022.
Using 2012 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, we analyzed cases that occurred in the following localities: Richmond City; Henrico; Charles City; Hanover; Chesterfield; New Kent; Goochland; Powhatan; Sussex; King William; Caroline; Colonial Heights; Petersburg; Dinwiddie; Amelia; Prince George; and Hopewell. These areas are highlighted in green in the map below.
Before getting into the data, it is important to highlight the legal landscape tenants and landlords interact within. If a landlord wants to evict a tenant for nonpayment of rent, they must give a written notice to either move or pay rent in 5 days. This is sometimes called a “pay or quit” notice. If payment is not received within this window, the landlord can start an unlawful detainer action (an eviction) in General District Court (GDC).
Eviction is a manifestation of displaceability created through dispossession, extraction, and exclusion. Researchers find evictions are not solely the result of economic inequality (produced by racist zoning and lending practices) but also intentional acts used to segment different classes. Specifically looking at tenants of multifamily properties in Richmond City, Benjamin Teresa & Kathryn Howell (2021) find instances of class-monopoly rent, which occurs when a group property owners release their housing to the market “only if they receive a positive return above some arbitrary level.” These arbitrary levels are determined based on profit motive rather than rent equity.
Landlords in Virginia are charged $58 for filing an eviction and, prior to the 2019 legislative session, a written lease (or default lease) was not mandatory. In 2017, the legislature made a decision to limit public access to eviction data (although landlords who use data-mining systems can still access it). Consequently, tenants have limited knowledge about their landlords, and policymakers have scanty information on eviction trends from public sources.
According to the Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS), more than three-fifths of renters behind on their housing payments live in communities of color and about two-fifths reside in high-poverty or lower-income neighborhoods. These individuals and families facing evictions are more likely to be under-informed about the protections their entitled to by law.
Laws that prevent or reduce eviction through increased power for tenants (such as strengthening the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) are critical for housing justice. Local advocacy, such as campaigns launched and services provided by the Legal Aid Justice Center, is pivotal to advancing positive change in housing law and policy. Whether personally facing an eviction, supporting someone through the process, or working to be a wiser neighbor, we should all know know our rights and protect one another from losing our homes.
Beyond greater eviction protections, transformative housing justices requires reparative efforts to redesign land use and zoning regulations. Reparative planning includes reimagining tenures beyond home-ownership and renting in their widely practiced forms. Limited equity cooperatives, community land trusts, and forms of public and social housing are some examples of tenures that, when used to address specific racial harms by past policy and practice, would provide more democratic control over land and housing. Reparative concepts of housing justice require engagement with and removing obstacles for community-based organizations who are building local power to meet community-defined needs.
Each eviction logged in our dataset marks an moment of stress, a period of pressure - fiscal or psychological. Each observation captures an interaction between a tenant (the defendant) and a landlord - corporate or individual (the plaintiff). In most interactions, the plaintiff leaves court wealthier than they entered. In many, the defendant learns their case is dismissed and doesn’t have to go trial. And once in a blue moon… the defendant comes out victorious, a roof remaining over their head.
When analyzing data, we made a decision to focus solely on cases ruled in favor the plaintiff. By focusing on plaintiffs - whom our analyses show win most eviction cases, second to case dismissal - we intend to highlight the power possessed by landlords and property managers during a time of widespread housing un-affordability and housing cost-burden, disproportionately experienced by Black and Hispanic/Latinx residents.
We present our findings with a mindfulness that we don’t know, and likely never will know, the people whose lives are being captured. The defendants who had to move in with a friend or family, or seek out a shelter. The families figuring out how to move children without disrupting their schooling. The folks whose cases got dismissed but pockets still got emptied because rent wracked up late fees. We don’t know their names or the details of their situations but we owe them our gratitude.
Across all evictions filed in the Richmond region, between 2016 and 2022, the average principal amount (i.e., owed rent) was $1,051 (standard deviation = $1,691). The standard deviation of $1,691 tells us that the amounts of owed rent varied widely around the average. Some evictions had very low amounts owed, while others had very high amounts owed. Principal amounts ranged from $0-$26,352 with a median amount of $700.
As for attorney fees, average amounts stood at $230 (standard deviation = $323). The standard deviation of $323 tells us that the amount of attorney fees charged varied widely around the average of $230. For instance, one attorney may charge only $50 while another attorney may charge $500, and the standard deviation of $323 tells us that such variations are not uncommon. Attorney fees ranged from $0-$5,957 with a median amount of $137.50.
The following graph shows the number of evictions by locality and by year for cases that were ruled in favor of the plaintiff (i.e. landlord).
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced a national eviction moratorium in September 2020. In effect from September 1, 2020 to August 26, 2021, the moratorium helped slow the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring people were not forced to vacate their residences due to nonpayment of rent. While the moratorium did not stop the rent from being owed or built up, it did halt virtually all evictions. This pause of evictions is captured by sharp decline in cases between 2020 and 2021 on the plot. Housing stability was also preserved through the Treasury Department’s Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program which dispersed over $46 billion in relief aid, particularly low income renters and renters of color, preventing millions of evictions nationwide.
Importantly, after the moratorium expired, landlords were avidly collecting due rent, likely triggering the increase in cases captured in 2022. Given rising costs of housing and limited affordable housing stock, it is likely eviction filings will increase in frequency in the coming months.
The analysis for this research is driven by 4 main questions of interest.
There are 2,474 cases with judgments for the plaintiff that have both principal and attorney fees awarded of 2012 Metropolitan Statistical Areas for the Richmond area.
64.58% of cases with judgments for the plaintiff have both principal and attorney fees awarded.
Attorney fees awarded do seem to be associated with particular plaintiffs or attorneys. Among remaining cases, the following attorneys pop up 3 or more times:
BALLATO LAW FIRM ~ [N = 4]
BUCKWALTER (PAUL) ~ [N = 4]
CHAMPLIN & ASSOCIATES ~ [N = 3]
DANKOS, GORDON & TUCKER ~ [N = 9]
DOVE (& ASSOC) ~ [N = 3]
GODWIN-JONES & PRICE PC ~ [N = 5]
OFFIT KURMAN PC ~ [N = 6]
PETTITT, PATRICK S ~ [N = 4]
RANDOLPH, BOYD ~ [N = 3]
RICHARD KNAPP & ASSOCIATES ~ [N = 4]
SYKES, BOURDON, AHERN, & LEVY ~ [N = 6]
WILLIAM K DOVE II & ASSOC ~ [N = 11]
ZWERLING OPPLEMAN & ADAMS ~ [N = 3]
The average amount of attorney fees overall is $230.99.
Unlike most years, in 2021, attorney fees exceeded principal amounts leading to rate over 100 percent. This likely can be credited to the CDC moratorium where noticeably fewer cases went to court and attorneys were able to recoup higher amounts for the select cases they took on.
To zoom in closer on Richmond City, the locality with the highest number of evictions and the nation’s second highest eviction rate, we display the average principal and attorney fees. This graph looks at all cases filed in Richmond, not just those ruled in favor of the plaintiff.
Principal and attorney fees remain rather constant between 2016 and 2020. After 2020 however, there is a dramatic increase in the average principal amount owed and a steady increase in average attorney fees. We predict the 153% increase in principal amounts between 2021 and 2022 capture large sums of owed rent accrued during the eviction moratorium. Upon its expiration, back rent atop of late fees bubbled and landlords reclaimed the ability to take their tenants to court.
In 2021, we see an increase in both principal amounts and attorney fees. The jump can likely be accredited to the end of the eviction moratorium ended on October 3, 2021. The backlog of owed rent tricked into 2022, likely triggering the sharp increase in principal amounts that year.
The following table allows you to search for particular plaintiffs in the Richmond region and see the numbers of evictions the plaintiff has filed, the average principal amount, the average attorney fees, and what share of attorney fees compose the total cost of the evictions (costs excludes required administrative fees or interest earned on principal amounts).
To note, certain plaintiff appear multiple times in the table due to slight variation in names. As reminder, this table captures only cases ruled in favor the plaintiff (i.e. landlord).