A new line could now appear on eviction notices – reaffirming a tenant’s right to legal counsel, and pointing them in the direction of assistance from New Hampshire Legal Aid. 

State lawmakers in the House passed House Bill 379, which proposes adding the additional language on eviction notices. Albeit a small change, this bill still stands a chance of becoming law after the House has scrapped bills that would have given tenants more time and notice if a landlord wants to raise the rent or evict them for renovations.

It also comes at a time when eviction filings have increased this year state-wide. Through January and February of 2022, 716 landlord vs. tenant cases were filed in circuit courts. And the first two months of 2023, 971 cases have been filed – a 36 percent increase from last year’s filings. 

Oftentimes in landlord-tenant cases, the landlord comes to court with prior knowledge of the laws, and legal counsel to guide them through the hearing, according to Ellen Read, a Newmarket Democrat, and prime sponsor of the bill. 

That is not the case for the tenant, however. 

“As it currently stands, when there is an eviction proceeding there are  two sides: One is the landlord, who frequently has  to show up to these eviction proceedings, very frequently will have a lawyer that he or she works with,” said Read at a hearing for the bill earlier this year. “The tenant, on the other hand, has very frequently never stepped foot into an eviction court proceeding, doesn’t understand, doesn’t know any of the players, doesn’t know the law, doesn’t understand what the motions can be.”

Judges have repeatedly told lawyers at New Hampshire Legal Assistance that when tenants appear in court, they often have a case to make, but are lacking the “magic words” to construct it, Read said. 

“In those cases the tenant had merit to their argument, but they were not saying or doing the right thing that needed to be done in that moment for what they needed. So they needed, like anyone going through a court proceeding, legal representation,” said Read. 

Nationwide, 81 percent of landlords are represented in court, while 3 percent of tenants have the same legal counsel, according to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union from 2022.  

New Hampshire is no exception.

“The reality is in landlord-tenant, as in family, as in a lot of the areas we see in circuit courts, there are a lot of unrepresented parties,” said Richard Head, the government affairs coordinator for the state Judicial Branch. “We have taken a lot of steps to make courts more accessible to unrepresented parties, but it is clearly a a more efficient system if there are attorneys in the system.”

Throughout the pandemic, a moratorium temporarily restricted a landlord’s ability to evict tenants. Since it was lifted in July of 2021, the New Hampshire Circuit Court encouraged tenants facing eviction notices to apply for emergency rental assistance. 

However, that program ended abruptly in October, after the U.S. Treasury denied a request from state leaders for $67 million to continue aid. 

The program helped 27,000 households, with close to $300 million in assistance distributed.  These funds covered past due rent, including late and legal fees, three months of future rent payments and other housing expenses like utility bills, application fees and security deposits. 

Now, tenants are left without these safeguards, filings are creeping back to pre-pandemic rates, research shows. 

At the end of 2022, case filing numbers started to reflecte expected eviction rates prior to 2020, according to the Eviction Lab, a research project from Princeton University that tracks evictions nationwide. 

After emergency rental assistance expired in New Hampshire, 816 landlord tenant writ cases were filed in the state through November and December of 2022. 

This mirror case numbers in 2019, where 890 cases were filed in the last two months of the year. 

To provide tenants without representation with legal advice, New Hampshire Legal Assistance hosts eviction clinics in circuit courts in Manchester in Nashua. At these clinics,  tenants are able to meet with staff to look through their files, and in some cases mediate with a landlord prior to the hearing. 

Sofia Hyatt, a staff attorney at New Hampshire Legal Assistance, has hosted dozens of these clinics. Often times, attorneys and advocates can serve as a mediator to help reach an agreement with a landlord, before a judgment is issued in the case, she said. 

“It really helps to have someone step in and talk through things in a calm and rational way, to explain to the tenant what their rights are, explain what the law is and help them try to negotiate with their landlord,” said Hyatt, testifying in support of the bill in front of the House Judiciary committee. 

Read’s initial bill would have created a fund to match lawyers with tenants, whose income was below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. In her testimony Read indicated that federal dollars could be available to help fill this fund, according to Senator Maggie Hassan. 

However, the bill was ultimately amended to remove the guaranteed legal counsel and fund. Now, it solely provides instructions on how to contact lawyers at New Hampshire Legal Assistance, and does not guarantee the right to representation. 

The bill passed the House on a voice vote Thursday. Next, the legislation will go to the Senate. 

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