Audit of the Metro South Housing Court

This is a state performance audit of the Metro South Housing Court, covering August 13, 2018 through December 31, 2019.

“In this performance audit, we examined MSHC’s activities related to the reconciliation of cash receipts and adherence to time standards for summary process (i.e., tenant eviction) cases.”

Auditors checked whether the court properly reconciled money it received and whether it followed required timelines for eviction cases.

“Below is a list of our audit objectives, indicating each question we intended our audit to answer and the conclusion we reached regarding each objective.”

Housing Court handles issues that can directly affect people’s homes, safety, and legal rights, including evictions and housing-code matters.

“The Housing Court Department has jurisdiction over civil and criminal actions, including equitable relief, which involve the health, safety, or welfare of the occupants or owners of residential housing.”

If you live in one of the communities served by this court, the audit suggests the court was following the tested money-handling and case-timing rules during the audit period.

“MSHC started serving the municipalities of Abington, Bridgewater, Brockton, East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, and Whitman, and the municipalities in Norfolk County other than Brookline, on August 13, 2018.”

The auditors concluded the court met both audit objectives.

“Our audit revealed no significant instances of noncompliance that must be reported under generally accepted government auditing standards.”

The report does not list corrective actions or recommendations, because auditors did not report significant noncompliance.

“Our audit revealed no significant instances of noncompliance by MSHC that must be reported under generally accepted government auditing standards.”

The court processed thousands of cases and more than half a million dollars in filing-fee revenue during the audit period, so clean audit results matter for public trust.

“As shown below, MSHC received $504,765 in filing fee1 revenue and processed 4,389 cases during our audit period.”

“Summary process” means eviction cases; “cash receipts reconciliation” means checking court money records against deposits and reports.

“In this performance audit, we examined MSHC’s activities related to the reconciliation of cash receipts and adherence to time standards for summary process (i.e., tenant eviction) cases.”