Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Pennsylvania

When a commercial tenant breaks a lease, the landlord is entitled to full payment of the rent, however, the landlord has a duty to mitigate his damages by actively working on re-leasing the premises. In your case, you have been prevented from doing this. In my opinion, you would be entirely justified in taking the equipment. Normally, I would go to court, obtain a judgment, and have the sheriff seize the property and sell it to satisfy the judgment. In your case, where the tenant left no forwarding address and you are unable to find him, you can't bring a suit unless you get special permission to effectuate service by publication in a newspaper. I think that if your tenant came back and demanded his equipment, you would win in court because they efectively abandoned the equipment. and you an not re-rent the premises with the equipment there.