✓ Law Verified August 2026
A Massachusetts eviction record can block apartment applications for years — often regardless of how the case actually ended. This guide answers the question directly for Massachusetts: whether a sealing law exists here, exactly how to use it if it does, and the real alternatives if it does not. Verified against official Massachusetts sources as of August 2026.
In This Massachusetts Guide:
How the Massachusetts Sealing Law Works
| The law | M.G.L. c. 239, Section 16 (Eviction Record Sealing), added by the Affordable Homes Act, St. 2024, c. 150, Section 52 (H.4977), signed August 6, 2024, effective May 5, 2025 |
| Who qualifies | Four categories of eviction (summary process) cases filed in Housing Court, District Court, Boston Municipal Court or Superior Court qualify. 1) Cases DISMISSED for any reason — qualify as soon as the case is over and appeal rights are exhausted. 2) Cases where JUDGMENT ENTERED FOR THE TENANT — qualify as soon as the case is over and appeal rights are exhausted. 3) NO-FAULT evictions (landlord ended the tenancy for a reason other than a lease violation, and no rent was claimed due on the notice to quit or the complaint) — qualify once concluded with appeal rights exhausted, even if the landlord won. 4) NON-PAYMENT OF RENT cases — qualify 4 years after the case ended if no other non-payment eviction or lessor action was brought against you during those 4 years, and you certify under penalties of perjury that the non-payment was caused by economic hardship; a non-payment case also qualifies immediately once the money judgment is satisfied (you paid the landlord what was owed). 5) FAULT / CAUSE evictions (lease violation other than non-payment) — qualify 7 years after the case ended with no further fault eviction against you in that period. Note the tenant is the only person who can ask for sealing; the landlord cannot. |
| Automatic or petition | PETITION. Nothing is sealed automatically and the court does not seal old records on its own — you must file a Petition to Seal Eviction Record on the trial court form, signed under the penalties of perjury, in the same court where the eviction case was heard. Two tracks: (a) ADMINISTRATIVE SEALING — for dismissed cases, cases decided in the tenant’s favor, and no-fault cases, the clerk may seal on the filing of the petition with no hearing, and for dismissed and tenant-won cases you do not have to give the landlord a copy of the petition. (b) NOTICE TRACK — for non-payment and fault petitions you must serve the landlord, who then has 7 days to file an Objection to Petition. If no objection is filed in 7 days the court may seal without a hearing. If the landlord objects, a judge, clerk-magistrate or court administrator holds a hearing, and in a non-payment case you may be asked to file a court financial statement showing the economic hardship that caused the non-payment. |
| Waiting period | Dismissed cases, tenant-win judgments and no-fault cases: no waiting period beyond the end of the case and exhaustion of appeal rights — the ordinary summary process appeal period is 10 days from judgment, and 30 days from judgment in a c.139 Section 19 case. Non-payment: 4 years from the end of the case, with no other non-payment eviction or lessor action against you in that 4-year window — reduced to 0 if you satisfy the judgment in full. Fault/cause: 7 years from the end of the case with no further fault eviction in that period. |
| Cost | 0 |
Step by Step: Sealing Your Massachusetts Eviction Record
1) Identify the exact court and docket number of your eviction case — the same court that heard it is the court that seals it (Housing Court, District Court, Boston Municipal Court or Superior Court). 2) Confirm the case is concluded and appeal rights are exhausted (10 days from judgment in most summary process cases). 3) Complete the trial court Petition to Seal Eviction Record form.
The easiest route is the free Eviction Sealing Guided Interview built by the Massachusetts Trial Court with Suffolk University Law School’s LIT Lab, launched May 5, 2025 — it asks plain-language questions, fills in the petition, and lets you e-file it to the court directly at the end. 4) Sign under the penalties of perjury; in a non-payment petition you certify that economic hardship caused the non-payment.
5) SERVICE: for a non-payment or fault petition, give the landlord a copy.
For a dismissed case or a case you won, you do not have to serve the landlord. 6) The landlord has 7 days to file an Objection to Petition. 7) If no objection, the court may seal on the papers with no hearing.
If there is an objection, attend the hearing and bring proof — for non-payment, a completed financial statement and any documentation of job loss, illness, benefit delay or other hardship.
8) Keep the sealing order; many tenants send a copy to screening companies that are still reporting the case.
What sealing actually does: The case is sealed from public court access — it no longer shows in the public docket or in courthouse or online record searches available to landlords and the public.
A consumer reporting agency or tenant screening company may not disclose the existence of, or any information about, a sealed eviction record, and may not use anything in a sealed record as a factor in any score or rental recommendation; in practice screening companies are expected to drop the record within 30 days of the sealing.
Any housing or credit application that asks about prior eviction actions must carry this statement: “An applicant for housing or credit with a sealed record on file with the court pursuant to section 16 of chapter 239 of the General Laws may answer ‘no record’ to an inquiry relative to that sealed court record.” So once your record is sealed you may be able to answer “no record” to eviction
questions on rental and credit applications.
A screening company that violates this is liable to you for your actual damages plus costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, and the Massachusetts Attorney General enforces the provision. Exceptions: sealing is not destruction — the court file still exists and remains available to the parties, their attorneys and the court itself, and sealing does not erase a money judgment you still owe or wipe the debt from your credit report.
Many tenants who seal see screening reports clear, but no result is guaranteed — check with your court.
Why A Massachusetts Eviction Record Follows You — and For How Long
An eviction case becomes a public court record the day it is filed — even if you won, even if it was dismissed, even if you moved out voluntarily before the hearing. Tenant screening companies copy these records in bulk and resell them to landlords, which is how a Massachusetts eviction record from years ago can quietly sink a rental application today.
Under federal reporting rules these records generally stop appearing on screening reports after seven years, but the public court file itself can remain searchable far longer unless it is sealed.
That is why the filing itself, not just the outcome, is what matters — and why sealing laws are spreading state by state. Most landlords never read the court file; they read the one-line summary a screening company sells them. Getting the Massachusetts eviction record sealed, corrected, or accurately described is what changes that one line.
Check Your Massachusetts Eviction Record First
Before filing anything, find out what your Massachusetts eviction record really looks like to a landlord. Search the online case index for the court where the eviction was filed, and request your file from the major tenant screening companies — you are entitled to it.
Tenants are often surprised in both directions: some discover the case they worry about was never reported, others find a case they had forgotten, or one that is not even theirs.
Knowing exactly what appears, and how it is described, tells you whether to pursue sealing, a dispute, or both.
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Screening reports are also where errors live. A dismissed case reported as an eviction, an old address matched to the wrong person, or a paid judgment still shown as owing are all fixable — and fixing the report is sometimes faster than any court process in Massachusetts.
Your Federal Rights Against Tenant Screening Companies
Separate from sealing, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act gives every Massachusetts tenant the right to correct a wrong or outdated eviction entry with a tenant screening company. Tenant screening companies are consumer reporting agencies and are fully covered.
Steps: 1) If you were denied an apartment, charged a higher rent or deposit, or required a co-signer because of a screening report, the landlord must give you an adverse action notice naming the screening company — you are then entitled to a FREE copy of that report from the company if you request it within 60 days of the denial.
You are also entitled to a free copy of your file from each nationwide specialty tenant screening agency once every 12 months.
2) Read the report and find the error — common ones are an eviction that was dismissed, a case you won, a case that was sealed under c. 239 Section 16, a case belonging to someone with a similar name, a wrong filing date, or an eviction older than 7 years, which is the FCRA reporting limit for civil judgments and most adverse items.
3) File a written dispute with the screening company, in writing and by certified mail or through their online dispute portal, attaching proof — the docket sheet showing dismissal, the judgment in your favor, the sealing order, or a satisfaction of judgment.
4) The company must forward your dispute to the furnisher within 5 business days and must complete a reasonable reinvestigation within 30 days of receiving your dispute — extended to 45 days only if you supply additional information during the 30-day window.
5) It must give you the written results within 5 business days of finishing, plus a free updated copy of your report. 6) Anything it cannot verify must be deleted or corrected. 7) You may ask that corrected reports be sent to anyone who pulled your report in the past 6 months.
8) If the company will not correct it, you may add a 100-word statement of dispute to your file, complain to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint and to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Consumer Advocacy and Response Division, and you may be able to sue under the FCRA for actual damages, statutory damages, and attorney’s fees.
Timing matters more than tenants expect. If you are apartment-hunting right now, start the screening-report disputes today — they run on federal deadlines and cost nothing — while any Massachusetts court process moves in parallel. If the move is months away, that is enough time for most sealing petitions, vacated judgments, or corrected reports to finish before a landlord ever pulls your Massachusetts eviction record.
Worth watching in Massachusetts: The law is statewide — it applies in Housing Court, District Court, Boston Municipal Court and Superior Court, so there are no county-only pilot programs; the only county variation is which Housing Court division hears your petition.
Massachusetts is one of a small group of states with sealing on the books, alongside Rhode Island (2024), North Dakota (August 2025), California, Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Minnesota and Colorado.
The Massachusetts Trial Court’s free Eviction Sealing Guided Interview, built with Suffolk University Law School’s Legal Innovation and Technology Lab and launched May 5, 2025, is the state’s official e-filing path and is the practical difference-maker for tenants filing without a lawyer. Legal aid groups also run a public help site at sealmyeviction.org, and MLRI and Massachusetts Legal Help publish step-by-step guidance at masslegalhelp.org.
Whether any bill is currently pending in the 2025-2026 Massachusetts legislative session to amend c.
239 Section 16 — for example to make sealing automatic rather than petition-based, or to shorten the 4-year and 7-year waits — is UNVERIFIED; check malegislature.gov for the current session before relying on any change.
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Official Massachusetts Sources & Resources
- Massachusetts Courts Self-Help: mass.gov/info-details/sealing-eviction-court-records
- Massachusetts Statute: malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleIII/Chapter2…
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: hud.gov
- Cornell Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu/wex
Taking Control of Your Massachusetts Eviction Record
A Massachusetts eviction record is not a life sentence — it is a document, and documents can be sealed, corrected, or accurately explained. The tenants who struggle longest are usually the ones who never look at what their Massachusetts eviction record actually says, so start by pulling the court file and your screening reports.
Whether Massachusetts offers sealing or only the federal dispute route, acting on the Massachusetts eviction record beats hoping landlords will not check — they almost always do. A short, honest cover letter to a prospective landlord explaining the circumstances can also do real work while the record process runs.
This Massachusetts eviction record guide was last verified against official sources in August 2026. Sealing laws are changing fast — new states pass them every year, so re-check before relying on this page.
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Disclaimer: This guide is informational only and is not legal advice. Landlord-tenant laws change and vary by city and county within a state. Verify current rules with your state, your local court, or a free legal-aid office before acting. If you are facing eviction, contact a local tenant attorney or legal-aid organization right away.