Property owners and managers in Massachusetts have long claimed that the state’s laws and processes concerning evictions are crafted heavily in favor of the tenant. Recently, however, a group of enterprising constables has gone into business with the intention of lending a little support to the landlords.

Hoping to make the often-contentious eviction process easier for landlords, Eviction USA was founded just a few months ago, offering a “one-stop shop” of sorts for those looking to procure a host of services associated with evictions. In recent weeks, its employees have started serving eviction notices and moving tenants out of their units.

The arrival of Eviction USA has raised some eyebrows in the real estate community, both from renters and owners, with many developing a wait-and-see attitude about whether the service will catch on.

Jim K. Lottman, an account manager at Eviction USA and a constable, is one of the founders of the business. “We’ve done a lot of evictions [and] we saw a real need in the marketplace for moving companies that don’t charge property owners. We also saw that landlords would have a hard time hiring all these different people and coordinating services for an eviction,” he said.

“As constables, we were just one part of the process, then [the landlords] would have to hire others and people would ask us for referrals. We thought, ‘Let’s put these services together for the landlords. We know all these people already. Let’s combine things,'” he said.

What Eviction USA touts most in its marketing is that landlords are not required to pay storage fees for the tenant’s belongings that are removed during the eviction.

“There’s no law in Massachusetts that says landlords have to pay for storage. But if you’re a moving and storage company, you know you won’t get the fee from the tenant, so they ask for three to six months [worth of] storage fees up front, and landlords usually have to pay that,” Lottman said. He added that Eviction USA would recoup costs by working out a payment deal with tenants before they get their belongings back.

In addition to providing a constable and moving and storage services, locksmith and other services are also available. Eviction USA charges a $350 constable fee, with moving, locksmith and other services extra.

Though there are local companies that already cater to moving evicted tenants, Lottman said his company is believed to be the first of its kind in the region to offer all of the additional services in one place. The business is based in Revere, but Lottman said his company would handle evictions across the state. He added that Eviction USA eventually hopes to open offices in Fall River, Worcester and in Western Massachusetts.

Picking Sides

Evictions themselves are usually contentious, and Lottman acknowledged that adding a Wal-Mart type of approach to the process might not sit well with some. But while he remains sympathetic toward the tenants, he makes no apologies for working with the property owner.

“We’re not out to please everyone,” he said. “We know we’re not going to be popular with tenant groups, and that’s OK with us. You have to pick a side. We’re not like politicians who have to try to please everybody.

“A lot of landlords will put off serving an eviction or just don’t do it because there’s too much hassle involved,” he continued. “But knowing that it’s easier might get these people evicted quicker.

“The little things involved in an eviction can get overwhelming, so once [landlords] have gone through the legal system, it’s nice for them to know they can just hand it off to someone else.”

Reaction from tenant advocates has been less than enthusiastic.

“I don’t see anything positive about this service from the standpoint of tenants,” said Bill Cavellini of the Cambridge-based Eviction Free Zone.

“This further de-personalizes the process,” he continued. “This is set up so the landlord doesn’t have to get their hands any dirtier than they already are, and that is disturbing in this society.

“It’s almost like if the state executed someone for committing a crime but had someone else do the act for them.”

‘Compassionate People’
Eviction USA, however, advertises that the service is not necessarily bad for the renter.

“Our goal is to take this difficult situation and make it easier for you and the tenant,” its Web site reads. “We make every effort to make the tenant feel he’s being serviced, not thrown out. Remember: A tenant that goes away happy, goes away!”

“We’re compassionate people,” Lottman said.

The site also offers eviction tips and standard landlord forms on its Web site where only name and address fields need to be filled in to produce eviction-related documents.

Cavellini did acknowledge that in some cases, though he stressed “rarely,” a professional eviction service may help the tenant somewhat because a business like Eviction USA would follow the law to the letter when a property owner acting on his own might not.

“But my sense is that small-property owners who would normally make mistakes like that would probably not use the service anyway,” he said.

“This sanitizes the whole process,” Cavellini said. “The whole idea of one-stop eviction shopping has that effect. It de-personalizes a very personal thing.”

“It’s an interesting concept,” Edwin J. Shanahan said of Eviction USA’s business model. Shanahan is Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, which includes the sizeable Rental Housing Association. “Though I wonder how much work is actually being saved.

“The bulk of the work is done to get the eviction papers in the first place,” he said. “It’s a new idea, and a creative way of developing a niche market business. We’ll anxiously wait to see how successful it is.”

Lottman said his company’s services could, in a way, help alleviate some of the Boston area’s housing crisis. If greater numbers of non-paying tenants are evicted because property owners find the process easier, more of the city’s rental units will be freed up for occupancy, he said. The new tenants would he happy because they found a place to live, while the landlord would he happy because she or he is once again collecting rental income on the property, he said.

“All of the laws out there are written against the landlord,” Lottman said. “You’ve got professional tenants out there robbing landlords blind … Now landlords can make one call, and we’ll handle all the steps.”