Stipulated dismissals have become the primary way eviction cases are resolved since the CORE rental assistance program began winding down, according to Tenant Resource Center data. But they have also recently become the most common way tenants receive judgments of eviction.

A stipulated dismissal order is an order from the court that dismisses an eviction case on the condition that the parties abide by the terms to which the parties have mutually agreed. If the parties comply with those terms, the case will remain dismissed; if not, the landlord can typically ask the court to enter an eviction judgment without any further input from the tenant. The most common agreements include a payment plan or a specific date when the tenant must move out, but some stipulations require other actions such as the removal of an unauthorized pet or submitting income certification.

Fifty-eight percent of eviction cases filed this quarter were dismissed after the parties reached a stipulated agreement. A total of 420 agreements were reached this quarter, more than double the amount of agreements reached during this period last year.

However, roughly 50% of all eviction judgments this quarter resulted from tenants not complying with these agreements. In all, 90 judgments of eviction were granted due to non-compliance.

During the CORE program, the majority of cases were dismissed when TRC paid, or confirmed that it would pay, tenants’ past due or future rent. With this rental assistance program winding down in Q3, tenants were more often solely responsible for paying past-due balances and making timely rent payments going forward. More tenants also lacked access to the security deposit and first month’s rent support that the emergency rental assistance program provided, which can make securing new housing in time to comply with a stipulated move-out date more difficult.

Tenants failing to make an agreed-upon payment resulted in 50 eviction judgments this quarter. Tenants failing to move out according to the terms of a stipulation resulted in 26 eviction judgments. These numbers will likely increase, as many stipulated dismissals entered into in Q3 had terms which can extend for months - and sometimes years - into the future.

Stipulated payment plans can be onerous and unrealistic, but tenants may feel they have no other choice than to agree to them in order to avoid being evicted. Similarly, tenants may agree to a moveout date before they have even started looking for a new place to live in order to delay a forced eviction. Eviction records are usually publicly accessible online, which makes it more difficult for a court-involved tenant to find a new landlord willing to rent to them. All of this can combine to create a strong incentive for tenants to enter into stipulations, even if the terms may be difficult to comply with.

To better understand these agreements, we looked at the 151 stipulated dismissal orders entered in July of this year. Here’s what we found:

• The average amount owed under a payment plan was $6,787. The most owed was $22,063.
• Payment plans obligated tenants to pay nearly 3 times what they owed at the time of filing, on average. This is in large part due to payment plans regularly requiring that future rent payments be made on time, sometimes even when the back balance has already been paid.
• 67% of payment agreements required at least one month of future rent to be paid on time. Landlords will commonly require tenants to pay three months of future rent on time or for rent to be paid on time until the back balance is paid in full. Three stipulations required timely rent payments indefinitely.
• The average number of required payments included in a payment plan was 6. The most was 24.
• The average duration of a payment plan, from the day the stipulation was agreed to until the last payment date, was 94 days. The longest stipulation required payments for nearly 2 years.
• For stipulations that required a specific move-out date, the average length of time tenants had to move out was 23 days. The shortest was 1 day.
• Of these 151 stipulations, tenants defaulted 23 times (13 due to failure to vacate; 10 due to missed payments).

Without rental assistance, it’s vital for tenants to have alternative ways to resolve evictions. Mediation, which uses a neutral third party to help parties negotiate, can result in agreements that are more reasonable, attainable, and fair. TRC’s trained mediators are present at every hearing to help interested parties reach agreements, and they have become an even more vital resource during the wind down of rental assistance. Legal representation for tenants, which TRC also provides free of charge to those who qualify, can also result in more equitable agreements.

There is still a large and troubling power imbalance in eviction court, however. Landlords have more time, money and resources than tenants, and the threat of taking a case to trial, where tenants are at a disadvantage, looms large over negotiations. Tenants can understandably feel they have no good options. In many cases, they don’t.

In addition to increased adoption of mediation and tenant legal representation, we need better cooperation between landlords and tenants before court, more robust rental assistance programs, and increased affordable housing to ensure better outcomes for both tenants and landlords