When it’s cheap to file an eviction case, tenants pay the price

It almost seems counterintuitive, but high eviction court filing fees for landlords leads to lower eviction rates.

“By most measures, Alabama is a hard place to be poor. The state has one of the lowest minimum wages in the country ($7.25/hr) and almost half of renters are burdened by high costs, devoting more than 30% of their income to housing. This is a situation that we would expect to lead to high eviction rates, but that’s not the case: Alabama’s eviction filing rate in 2018 was only 3.8%. That’s half the national average (7.8%) and far below rates found in neighboring states like Mississippi (14.7%) and Georgia (18.8%). How is it that renters in Alabama largely avoid the threat of eviction?”

“One explanation is the price that landlords have to pay for evicting a family. When a landlord goes to court in Mississippi, they usually pay a filing fee of $65 to start the process. In Georgia, it’s $87, on average. But in Alabama the average fee is $276.”

Read the full report from Eviction Lab