Primary Outcomes (explanation)
I define a formal eviction as a legal obligation to move out. If a landlord files for possession, as in $99\%$ of filings, and the tenant does not appear in court, they cannot avoid a formal eviction. Similarly, if a tenant appears in court, has their case heard in front of a judge, and receives a possession judgment, they are formally evicted. If the tenant and landlord sign a ``pay-to-stay'' JBA, the tenant might receive a possession judgment, but is only counted as formally evicted if they breach their agreement. Lastly, if the case is resolved by a ``vacate-by'' JBA, then the tenant is formally evicted on the specified date.
I define protected days in unit as the number of days between filing and the earliest date at which the landlord legally regains possession of the unit.\footnote{I use this measure because actual move-out dates are not observed. Nevertheless, the measure is informative because it captures the length of time before the tenant is legally required to vacate.} \footnote{Results are robust to instead defining protected days in unit as the number of days between the \textbf{final judgment} date and possession date.}
For tenants who are formally evicted, this date is the binding possession date. For tenants who are not formally evicted, I assume the relevant possession date is the lease end date. This assumption yields an upper bound on the effect of court proceedings on days in unit, as it treats all non-evicted tenants as if they could lawfully remain until lease expiration.
To construct a lower bound, I maintain the same definition for formally evicted tenants but modify the assumption for non-evicted tenants with a JBA (approximately $80\%$ of non-evicted tenants). For these tenants, I assume that the absence of a recorded breach reflects early departure after realizing they could not satisfy the agreement’s requirements. Had the tenant remained, noncompliance would have occurred at the first binding deadline specified in the JBA, at which point the landlord would have regained possession. I therefore set the possession date equal to that first binding deadline. For non-evicted tenants without a JBA, I continue to use the lease end date, as these tenants avoid a possession judgment entirely. The true value of protected days in unit lies between these bounds.