State Specific Question About: PENNSYLVANIA (PA)

I have an eviction action going against a tenant and we have a hearing within the next 10 days. This is the second time within a month that I've taken him to court for non payment. The first time I was given an Order of Possession contingent on non-payment, but he paid and promptly fell behind on the June rent. I gave him a notice to quit and filed the complaint this past Friday. Here are my questions,one of which is PA specific:

1) I did not wait until the 10 days on the notice was up to file the complaint since it takes 7-15 days for the hearing to be scheduled as I figured the hearing date would be after the 10 day Notice to Quit date. I assuming I'm okay with that or is one required to actually wait until the 10 day period is expired prior to filing the complaint? I knew he wouldn't pay within the 10 days and in the off chance he did, I figured I'd withdraw the complaint.

2) I am going to ask the judge for possession and ask that he not be given a chance to pay. (I don't think he can anyway). If I get possession, I'm thinking of offering him $ 150 for the keys in exchange for vacating and leaving the place undamaged. He's gonna need the money and I'm looking to give him incentive to just quietly and quickly leave. Thoughts?

When is the last time you saw the inside of this unit to determine any current damage? Was it repaired and repaid by tenant?

A clarification: I gave him another notice to quit in June after doing the same for three months in a row. The ten day period on the June notice expires on June 19th. I filed the complaint on June 13th and the hearing is June 25th. I'm thinking I'm okay with filing the complaint since the hearing date is after the 19th and that's what I need feedback on.

I have unfortunately done many evictions in pa. If your lease does not waive notice to quit you must give 10 days. Maybe you will get away with it but by rights you should have done it. It is legal in pa for a lease to waive notice to quit. Also some, leases that do not waive it specify a different time period for you to give notice to quit, such as 3 or 5 days. The details are in your lease. In the event that notice to quit is not specified, the default for pa is a 10 day notice to quit.

I had to have a Constable evict a Tenant on June 2nd. The Tenant had a lot of personal belongings still in the SFH. The Constable advised that the Tenant's personal belongings actually had more rights than the Tenant and had an additional 10 days to remove the personal property. I discussed the situation with the local magistrate and he advised if I give the Tenant access for 3 days during the week and possibly 1 weekend day, he would view that as making a reasonable accommodation.

After 3 days the Tenant said they were done (and walked away still leaving a lot of "junk"). Garbage pick up is tomorrow morning and tonight I will take the junk to the curb. I never realized a Tenant had a 10 day period after an eviction to remove personal belongings.

Jason:

The last time we were in court, it was for the May rent and i had given the notice back in April and again in May. He caught up the April rent and fell behind on May's. When I asked the judge whether it was necessary to give him a another notice in May, she said no and the only notice she examined was the one I gave him in April. We're going before the same judge, so I may get away with it. My lease has a provision that it terminates when there's non payment and we discussed giving the tenant a new lease and the judge indicated that we should do that this month after June is caught up. The tenant indicated that he'd be able to catch up upon receipt of his tax refund, but it appears that he's been waiting on the refund since Feb so obviously the refund is bogus. If she operates as she did before off of the April notice to quit, I should be good.

Rents:

Ed: The judge asked me if I wanted to work things out the last time and I said yes, but this time I'm going for possession. I'm either going to convert this into a regulated rental for students or go m2m with the next tenant.

Jason: Come to think of it, I don't know how that would work either. Easiest thing to do is to coordinate a lockout with the LL.

To clarify, in my recent eviction, the constable came and removed the Tenant and we changed the locks. However, the Constable said the Tenant had the "right" to get the remaining personal property for 10 days after the lockout. I contacted the Magistrate and he said I needed to make a reasonable accommodation. I went to the house in the morning, opened the house up, let the Tenant move their belongings, and then locked the house up at night. Also, I would stop and check on the moving efforts at random times throughout the day.

This is what the Constable meant by saying "the Tenant's personal property had more rights than the Tenant." The personal property could stay at the house for 10 more days but the Tenant couldn't.

GKarl,

Yes, after knocking on the front door the Tenant did not answer. Since the Tenant installed additional locks on the front door (against Lease Agreement), I let the Constable in through the garage door. The Constable removed the Tenant and I changed the locks. Then the drama with the removal of the personal property begins.

I just got back from placing the remaining junk at the curb for trash pick up tomorrow.

Nicole,

The only information on PA Act 129 appears to be related to utilities? Do you have any additional information as I do want to stay current with the LL regulations.

Paulio has it. I believe either the act or the cliff notes details are spelled out on your judgment form ... in small font at the bottom.

you can't tarp it for the first 10 days... you can't do anything. Afterwards, if they've given you notice, it needs to be secured and to me that means a locked area.

I only have had one eviction since the new law and I rented her a storage unit ... I wanted her stuff gone and I knew she had NO money and no where to put her things. If I hadn't rented her the storage unit, I would have waited the 40 days and then had to pay someone to remove her stuff and dispose of it. To this day, 1.5 years after the fact, she still texts me to let me know how she's doing, refers prospective tenants to me, and thanks me for giving her the ability to keep her possessions ... of course I was helping myself but it was a win, win and she was gone with no damages to my place.

My saga with my non-paying denying access tenant continues. I went by today to check the leak (which thankfully turns out not to be a leak) and the tenant wants to engage me about his impending court date. There was some yelling on both sides and after things calmed down, we came up with the following plan:

1) He gets his monthly SSI benefit on a debit card. He will give me those numbers so I can automatically draft the rent.

2) He will pay half of June rent and sign a promissory note for the balance of the rent and cost of repairs. That amount will be paid monthly.

3) His current lease ends in October. I'm going to give him a new m2m lease with the provision that he must renew to October or lose the SD. Since I have dibbs on the SD now, no reason to give that up. The new lease will have the waivers in it, but they're less important since I can choose not to renew. So if he gives me a problem, he's out without involving the magistrate.

GKarl, you're not headed in the right direction ... you probably need a lawyer.

DO NOT cancel your hearing. Keep your hearing scheduled. If he pays, you can cancel the proceedings at any time and I believe the magistrate/constable can grant you 3 extensions on the possession order.

DO NOT access his funds on your own. If you must, follow him, separately, to the convenience store ATM and have him withdraw the money and hand it to you directly. Go separately, walk in separately, leave separately. I do not believe you can auto draft from those debit cards. Another rant but it's one of the reasons the poor are the poor ... they get benefits on the cards and then are charged a fee every time they pull money... of they take it all at once so they don't need to pay fees all month and the money goes quickly when it's cash in hand and there is nothing at the end of the month.

DO NOT put him out without a court order. doesn't matter what the lease says and what you two agree on, if he doesn't want to go, you need a court order for possession. Not exactly what your #3 actually means but you can't have a year lease and call it a month to month. If he leaves, you don't automatically get to keep the security deposit unless it's legally yours (per statute and per your lease)... you still will need to send him the statement.

DO NOT yell at the tenant. It's just counter productive to life in general.

Nicole, thanks for your comments. Let me clarify what I meant:

1) He normally deposits his rent in cash to my account after withdrawing from the debit card. I have an existing merchant account that I can use to charge his debit card. I can set up auto charge very easily in quickbooks. That will be a requirement for all future rent payments.

2) His existing lease will be torn up. I will draw a new m2m lease with notice waivers. Since his existing lease goes through October, he could conceivably not renew on the new m2m lease and get his SD back. The new lease will provide that the SD is not refundable should it not be renewed through the original lease end date. After that, he's eligible to get it back excluding any damages. With the waivers in place, I can go to court immediately without notice or just simply not renew him on the m2m. The reason for the new m2m lease is to give me more of a "hammer" in exchange for working with him.

3) If I don't cancel the hearing and get an order of possession, I don't see that doing much for me unless I want to go forward with getting rid of him now. Certainly, I can get the order and hold off getting the constable, but once his card is charged, he's effectively rescinded the order. I'm not going cancel anything until we have a deal worked out and signed though, so in the event this falls through, we're still on track with the court date.

4) I like a couple of things you've said to others about co-operating with the tenant. Yelling, while sometimes non-productive, was surprisingly cathartic (LOL)and once the catharsis was done, we got down to brass tacks.

I'm not trying to do this without some concessions that leave me in a stronger position. However, I may wind up regretting this. We'll see. Feedback please. Thanks.

Under the pay and stay rule, I now make my leases month to month. If I want someone out I just give them 30 days notice.