Unravel the essentials of Pennsylvania’s Landlord-Tenant Law with expert insights to navigate property management successfully.

Key Takeaways:

  • A valid lease and rental license are mandatory for landlords in Pennsylvania.
  • Self-help eviction is illegal; legal proceedings through local district courts are required.
  • Important documents for court include a notice to quit, payment ledger, and the lease itself.
  • Pay attention to lease terms, especially automatic renewals and non-renewal clauses.
  • Legal representation can prevent costly mistakes and is advised, especially in appeals.

The video, hosted by our very own landlord lawyer Enrique Latoison in collaboration with Commentary Creations, delves into Pennsylvania’s landlord-tenant law intricacies. With a focus on the post-COVID surge in property investments, it addresses common pitfalls and legal requirements for landlords. Highlighting the importance of a formal lease agreement, rental licensing, and adherence to local regulations, the guide emphasizes the legalities around eviction processes, documentation for court proceedings, and the benefits of professional legal assistance. It concludes by offering help to navigate landlord-tenant disputes effectively.

Video Transcript:

I’m Enrique Latoison, and this video is brought to you by Commentary Creations, your three-minute lawyer.

So today we’re going to talk about something pretty fun. Landlord tenant law. Right after Covid, everybody decided to go out and start buying properties and becoming landlords. And I will say that a lot of people do not know what they’re doing and have been calling the office for representation for landlord tenant law. You might be viewing this video because you’ve googled something for landlord tenant law in Pennsylvania, and you’ve come across it.

So let me start off by telling you this. There are some very important things. If you want to be a landlord in Pennsylvania, you need a lease. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but there are a lot of people that do not have a lease when they call the office and they’re dealing with a landlord tenant situation. You also need to make sure you have your rental license, and you need to make sure that you’re doing what you need to do in reference to the town or any certificates or certifications that need to be done.

So what happens is you get this tenant, you enter into a lease, start making money, everything’s great. All of a sudden, someone stops paying. And then you find yourself in a situation where you need to deal with the landlord tenant action. Let me tell you the first thing not to do. You can’t get Bubba with a bat and go over there and change the locks and break the door down and throw a tenant out.

Self help in Pennsylvania is very illegal. Not only that, but most tenants will call the police and you will find yourself arrested. You must go through the court system. In Pennsylvania starts out the local district court. You got to go to the local district court of where your property is located.

You got to file a landlord tenant complaint. We will put a copy of that landlord tenant complaint, which you can find online in the description. Once you fill that out, you pay a filing fee, typically anywhere from one hundred and fifty dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars. And then you go to court. And when you go to court in the state of Pennsylvania, there’s one thing that’s super important.

It’s called a notice to quit. Notice to quit is something that you probably have heard before. Also, before you can start the court process, a notice acquit must be sent to your tenant, giving them ten days to vacate the property. This is done not to clog up the court system and just to have everyone just running into courts to file every time someone hasn’t paid rent. So notice acquit must be done.

You must have that proof of notice to quit. You should also have that lease when you go to court. And there’s something even more important that a lot of people forget. Can’t just stand up in court and say, my tenant owes me $2,500.10. You need to have a payment ledger.

That payment ledger can be an excel sheet. I’ve had some clients that actually write it out on pen and paper, but it’s important that you must have that also to hand up into the court. So those are the three things that are super important when you go to court in Pennsylvania for landlord tenant, which is a notice to quit, a payment ledger, and a copy of the lease. Also, it’s important to pay attention to another pitfall, which is the term of the lease. Sometimes leases automatically renew.

Actually, most of them automatically renew, and sometimes there’s a non renewal that should have been sent or the lease has ended and you talk about end of term. I will leave you with this. We represent a lot of landlords out of choice and law because unfortunately, this is the type of law that most people think I can just do it and I could just handle it myself. And I always say to myself, for people to willing to spend thousands of dollars to buy property and to do all these different things and hire contractors to make sure everything is correct, but for some reason, it gets a landlord tenant law to say, I can do this myself. And we fix a lot of problems here.

Not only in landlord tenant law is there a district court level which must be handled correctly if there is actually an appeal, because there’s ten days either side has to appeal. The hell that will rain down upon your head. And at that point, you 100% need an attorney. So a lot of times having an attorney for district court for landlord tenant could avoid putting you in a situation where a tenant or the other side is not happy or people aren’t happy and they just appeal and you got to start the whole process over again. This is only a short summary of landlord tenant law in Pennsylvania.

If you have any questions, you need any help, you call the toys and law. We’d be glad to help you through the process. This is Enrique Latoison, your three-minute lawyer Commentary Creations. Thank you.