Pennsylvania Landlord-Tenant Laws

Security Deposits

Two months' rent in year one, one month thereafter, returned within 30 days — and double damages if you miss the deadline.

The cap steps down with the tenancy. During the first year you may hold up to two months' rent. Beginning with the second year, the ceiling drops to one month's rent — meaning you must refund the difference to a renewing tenant even though nobody has moved out. This is the single most-missed Pennsylvania rule among owners who normalize a two-month deposit and never revisit it.

Within 30 days of the lease ending or the tenant vacating (whichever is first), you must return the deposit or provide a written itemized list of damages with the balance. The tenant must have supplied a forwarding address in writing; without one, the landlord is relieved of the obligation until it arrives.

The double-damages trap

Fail to send the itemized list within 30 days and you forfeit the right to withhold anything at all. Fail to return what is owed after that, and the tenant may recover double the amount wrongfully withheld. Pennsylvania courts apply this mechanically — a landlord with a legitimate $900 damage claim who sends the list on day 34 can end up owing the full deposit twice over.

Escrow and interest

Deposits over $100 held for more than two years must sit in an interest-bearing escrow account at a federally or state-regulated institution, and the landlord must disclose the institution's name and address. Interest earned from the start of the 25th month belongs to the tenant, less a 1% annual administrative fee the landlord may keep.

Rent & Late Fees

No rent control and no statutory late-fee cap — but Philadelphia ties your ability to collect rent at all to holding a current rental license.

Pennsylvania has no rent control and no statewide late-fee ceiling. Fees must be stated in the lease and bear a reasonable relationship to the landlord's actual costs; courts will strike clauses that read as penalties. Market practice is a flat fee or roughly 5% after a short grace period.

Philadelphia deserves its own line. A landlord without a current Housing Rental License cannot recover rent for the period the property was unlicensed, and cannot successfully evict for nonpayment during that period. The license, a current Certificate of Rental Suitability given to the tenant at move-in, and the City's partners-in-good-housing materials are all preconditions — not paperwork to catch up on later.

Lease Requirements & Disclosures

Short statewide list; Philadelphia adds the Certificate of Rental Suitability, and lead certification applies to older housing.

Leases longer than three years must be written to be enforceable. Statewide disclosure duties are modest, but the local overlay matters more here than in most states.

• Lead-based paint disclosure for pre-1978 housing (federal), plus Philadelphia's lead-safe or lead-free certification requirement for most pre-1978 rentals.
• Philadelphia: the Certificate of Rental Suitability, issued within 60 days of the lease, must be given to the tenant at or before move-in.
• Identity of the owner or managing agent must be disclosed.
• Utility arrangements, including any shared-meter allocation, should be spelled out in writing.
• Pittsburgh and several boroughs operate their own rental registration or inspection programs — check the municipality, not just the county.

Landlord Entry & Notice

No statewide entry statute — the lease and the covenant of quiet enjoyment are all you have.

Pennsylvania has no statute setting entry notice for residential rentals. Your lease clause is the entire authority, and without one an entry can support a claim for breach of quiet enjoyment or trespass. Write in the purposes (repairs, inspections, showings), a 24-hour notice standard, and an emergency exception — then document each entry.

Evictions

10 days' notice for unpaid rent, 15 or 30 days for other terminations depending on lease length — then a magisterial district court action.

The Notice to Quit is the first step: ten days for nonpayment of rent, fifteen days for breach or end of term where the lease runs a year or less, and thirty days where it runs longer. Pennsylvania is unusual in allowing the written lease to waive the notice requirement entirely — a clause most standard PA leases contain — though Philadelphia's Good Cause ordinance overrides that inside the city.

Suit is filed with the magisterial district judge (Municipal Court in Philadelphia). If the landlord wins, there is a further wait before the writ of possession issues, and the tenant may appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. Philadelphia additionally requires participation in the Eviction Diversion Program before filing most residential cases — a mandatory mediation step, not an optional one.

Habitability & Repairs

The implied warranty of habitability is established by case law and cannot be waived; rent withholding into escrow is the classic tenant remedy.

Pugh v. Holmes established the implied warranty of habitability in Pennsylvania, and it cannot be waived by lease. The landlord must keep the premises in a condition fit for habitation; serious defects — no heat, no water, structural or sanitary hazards — breach it.

After notice and a reasonable time to repair, tenants may repair and deduct reasonable costs, or withhold rent, typically paying into an escrow account pending resolution. Withheld rent held in escrow is a defense to a nonpayment eviction, and courts will abate rent in proportion to the loss of use. Municipal code enforcement (Licenses & Inspections in Philadelphia) runs parallel and moves faster than litigation.

Termination & Renewal

Month-to-month tenancies end on 15 or 30 days' notice depending on the original term; automatic renewal clauses are enforceable with limits.

Notice to end a periodic tenancy tracks the original lease term: fifteen days where the term was a year or less, thirty days where it was longer. Because there is no separate statutory notice for rent increases, an increase on a month-to-month tenancy effectively requires the same notice — you are terminating the existing terms and offering new ones.

Automatic renewal clauses are common and enforceable in Pennsylvania, but for leases that auto-renew for a term longer than one month the landlord must give the tenant written notice of the renewal deadline in advance, or the clause may not be enforced.

Fair Housing

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act mirrors federal classes and adds age and ancestry; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh go considerably further.

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act covers race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, familial status, age, disability, and the use of a guide or support animal. Philadelphia's Fair Practices Ordinance adds sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, domestic violence victim status, and source of income — so refusing a Housing Choice Voucher is unlawful in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh even though state law is silent.

Philadelphia also restricts criminal-history and credit screening through its Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards and related renting ordinances, including look-back limits and an individualized-assessment requirement. Screen with written criteria applied uniformly, and check the city's rules before adopting a blanket policy.