Pennsylvania residential lease agreement

State form

• Pennsylvania’s Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 allows a lease of up to three years to be made either orally or in writing.¹
• A Pennsylvania lease for more than three years must be in writing and signed by the parties, or it has the force of a lease at will only.¹

Signing

• Assigning, granting or surrendering a Pennsylvania lease made for more than three years takes a writing signed by that party or an agent, unless it happens by operation of law.¹

Deadlines

• Within 30 days after a Pennsylvania lease ends or the landlord accepts the surrender of the home, whichever comes first, the landlord must give the tenant a written list of claimed damages.¹
• The Pennsylvania damage list has to come with payment of the difference between the deposit, plus any unpaid interest, and the actual damages.¹
• When a Pennsylvania lease of one year or less, or of no fixed length, ends or is forfeited for breach, the landlord’s notice to quit gives the tenant 15 days to leave, and 30 days for a lease longer than a year.¹
• For rent that is due and unpaid after demand, the Pennsylvania notice to quit gives the tenant 10 days to move out.¹
• A Pennsylvania lease may set a shorter notice to quit or have the tenant waive the notice entirely.¹
• Before disposing of belongings a tenant left behind, a Pennsylvania landlord sends written notice, and the tenant has 10 days from the postmark to collect them or ask for storage of up to 30 days.¹

Where it is filed

• Pennsylvania’s escrow-account rule for deposits over $100 starts to apply only after the second anniversary of the deposit.¹
• When deposit money goes into an escrow account, the Pennsylvania landlord must tell each tenant in writing the name and address of the bank and the amount held.¹
• Instead of escrowing the deposit, a Pennsylvania landlord may back its return with a bond from a bonding company authorized to do business in the state.¹
• After a lower court rules in a Pennsylvania residential lease case, either side has 10 days to appeal to the court of common pleas, or 30 days when a victim of domestic violence is involved.¹

Taxes and fees

• When a Pennsylvania deposit earns interest in escrow, the landlord may keep 1 percent a year for administrative expenses, and the rest of the interest belongs to the tenant, paid every year.¹

Law

• Pennsylvania limits a residential security deposit to two months’ rent during the first year of a lease and to one month’s rent in the second and later years.¹
• Once a Pennsylvania tenant has lived in the home for five years or more, a rent increase cannot require a matching increase in the security deposit.¹
• A Pennsylvania landlord who misses the 30-day damage list gives up the right to keep any part of the deposit and the right to sue the tenant for damage to the home.¹
• A Pennsylvania landlord who does not repay the excess within 30 days is liable for double the amount by which the deposit exceeds the actual damages.¹
• A Pennsylvania tenant who fails to give the landlord a new address in writing when the lease ends releases the landlord from liability under the deposit-return section.¹
• Pennsylvania treats any attempt to have a tenant waive the deposit cap or the deposit-return rules, by contract or otherwise, as void and unenforceable.¹
• A Pennsylvania landlord may not end or refuse to renew a residential lease because the tenant or a family member takes part in a tenants’ association.¹

• Property address and what is included (parking, storage, appliances)
• Start date, end date or month-to-month term
• Monthly rent, due date and security deposit amount
• Rules on pets, smoking, repairs and utilities

It is not a roommate agreement between tenants, and it is not a commercial lease for a store or office.