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Thanks to new law, you can now seal your eviction record in Mass.

"It ensures that one difficult chapter doesn’t define someone’s future, and it opens the door to safe, stable housing for so many," state Sen. Lydia Edwards said.

Lydia Edwards in 2021 in a file photo. John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe

May 6, 2025

3 minutes to read

A new law went into effect Monday allowing some renters in Massachusetts to seal their eviction records, which could give many a fresh start when trying to find housing.

“This is a housing justice issue. This is a wealth gap issue. This is significant work,” Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a video with state Sen. Lydia Edwards, a central leader behind the initiative to allow former tenants to seal their records online.

Governor Maura Healey signed the law last summer as part of the Affordable Housing Act, a multi-billion dollar housing bond bill packed with policy measures designed to increase housing affordability. Massachusetts recently ranked as one of the worst in the nation for housing affordability and building.

Edwards and Campbell were joined by Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and housing advocates Monday for a press conference celebrating the new measure, which has been in the works since 2018, Edwards previously said.

“This law is about more than paperwork—it’s about fairness, dignity, and the chance for a fresh start. It ensures that one difficult chapter doesn’t define someone’s future, and it opens the door to safe, stable housing for so many,” Edwards wrote on Facebook about the press conference.

Now, tenants who won their cases, had their case dismissed, or had a no-fault case can petition to seal their eviction record immediately after the appeal period ends, according to the state. A no-fault eviction includes when a landlord evicts a tenant in order to sell or renovate the property.

If a tenant pays what’s owed, the eviction record can be sealed after they have satisfied the judgment. If the tenant doesn’t pay what’s owed, the record can be sealed four years after the case ends, as long as the tenant doesn’t have any other non-payment cases during those years. That debt, however, is not forgiven, the state notes.

In the case of a fault eviction, where the landlord claims a tenant broke the lease by doing something other than not paying rent, the eviction record can be sealed seven years after the case ends, with no fault evictions during those years.

Landlords spoke out against the law when Healey initially signed the bill. Douglas Quattrochi, the executive director of Mass Landlords, previously told The Boston Globe that the law denies landlords relevant information.

“There is no due process to protect the landlord holding the debt,” Quattrochi wrote in a post on Mass Landlords last fall. “Personally, this is a problem for me: I only want to rent to people who can follow the rules and communicate well enough to avoid court. If you want the same, this is a problem for you, as well.”

Mass Landlords, a nonprofit trade association with nearly 2,500 members, says that in any case where the renter wins, the landlord won’t be notified of their petition to seal the eviction record. In other cases, renters have to notify their landlords, who will have a week to object to the process before a hearing. “How the landlord must be notified is unclear,” Mass Landlords wrote in a blog post.

In the line-by-line breakdown of the law, Mass Landlords writes that “the eviction sealing law stands to harm housing providers and good renters, and will place excessive burden on the courts.”

The Greater Boston Real Estate Board and Mass Realtors both endorsed the law, according to Edwards.

The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute’s Senior Housing Attorney Annette Duke said the law reforms a significant barrier to housing access.

“This will help many, many people access safe, decent, and affordable housing at a time when it is incredibly difficult to do that,” Duke said. “Eviction records have been a serious barrier to finding housing, which has led to people becoming homeless.”

Tenants looking to seal their records can go to sealmyeviction.org. There is no cost to file a petition online to seal the records.