Pennsylvania law regarding evictions and most aspects of a residential landlord-tenant relationship are controlled by the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951.
If a landlord wants a tenant to move out, the landlord must follow the notice requirements of any written lease. If there are no notice requirements stated in the lease or the lease is oral, then the landlord must give the tenant:
• Fifteen days written notice if the lease is for one year or less, for breach or expiration of the lease (such as a month-to-month lease);
• Thirty days written notice if the lease is for more than one year for breach or expiration of the lease;
• Ten days written notice if the tenant is behind in rent.
A tenant may be evicted if:
• The term of the lease for which the property was rented is over;
• The tenant is behind in the rent; or
• The tenant has broken some clause of the lease.
The landlord needs no reasons to evict the tenant if the landlord gives the tenant proper notice that he or she wants the property back at the end of the lease. Special eviction procedures exist for criminal activity.
A good overview of the process:
PALawHELP.org - Your Online Guide to Legal Information and Legal Services in Pennsylvania
The Magisterial Court in Montgomery County explains the process:
https://www.montcopa.org/DocumentCenter/View/515
The Landlord/Tenant Act requires your landlord to give you a written eviction notice. This notice must be a 10-day notice if he/she is evicting you for nonpayment of rent, or 15 days if the eviction is for breach of the lease or end of lease term.
Your landlord must give you a written eviction notice before he or she can start a legal action to evict you, unless you have a written lease and the lease says what kind of an eviction notice, if any, the landlord must give you. If there is no written lease or a written lease does not discuss notice, the Landlord/Tenant Act provides the following notice requirements.
1. If the eviction is NOT for failure to pay rent, the landlord must give you 15 days notice if the lease is for 1 year or less, and 30 days notice if the lease is for more than 1 year. If the eviction is for nonpayment of rent, the landlord must give you 10 days notice. Remember, a written lease can waive or change these notice requirements.
2. The notice must be in writing and given to you in person or by posting on the door of your residence.
3. The notice must give the reason for eviction. If there is no written lease, the reason for eviction can be simply that the landlord has decided not to renew the lease.
4. If the notice does not follow the law, your tenant can ask the Magisterial District Judge, at the eviction hearing, to dismiss the Landlord/Tenant Complaint filed by the landlord. If the Magisterial District Judge dismisses the complaint, the landlord must then give you a proper eviction notice before filing a new Landlord/Tenant Complaint.
I doubt that you'll ever receive a dollar of what you alleged the deadbeats owe.
You can try, and you'll probably receive a judgment upon which you can try to collect.
WARNING: If you get the deadbeats evicted, be smart and don't allow ANYONE to spend so much as one night in your home.
My rule is that I rarely allow anyone (except a few trusted people to even enter our homes).
If you keep the camel out of your home, you'll never have to worry about trying to evict the camel!!!
