Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Pennsylvania

A 10 day notice is not equal to an eviction. Under the statute, the landlord has to give 15 or 30 days' notice, depending on what kind of lease you have. See 68 P.S. � 250.501. Notice to quit

(b) Except as provided for in subsection (c), in case of the expiration of a term or of a forfeiture for breach of the conditions of the lease where the lease is for any term of one year or less or for an indeterminate time, the notice shall specify that the tenant shall remove within fifteen days from the date of service thereof, and when the lease is for more than one year, then within thirty days from the date of service thereof. In case of failure of the tenant, upon demand, to satisfy any rent reserved and due, the notice shall specify that the tenant shall remove within ten days from the date of the service thereof.

If the rent is not paid, then the landlord can file an eviction action. The statute provides in relevant part:

68 P.S. � 250.503. Hearing; judgment; writ of possession; payment of rent by tenant

c) At any time before any writ of possession is actually executed, the tenant may, in any case for the recovery of possession solely because of failure to pay rent due, supersede and render the writ of no effect by paying to the writ server, constable or sheriff the rent actually in arrears and the costs.

What kind of a lease do you have? Month to month or a year lease? If its a month to month, you can pay up but the landlord can still recover his property when the lease ends and the notice to quit is, in effect, a notice to terminate the lease. You don;t have a right to live there even if your rent was not in arrears.

However, if you still have time on your lease, then you should save your money and pay up. If the landlord will not accept, keep the money, go to the hearing and tell the judge that you have the sum owed and that if the landlord sued, its his own fault and you should not have to pay court costs. The judge may buy it or not. If not, pay up what you have in rent plus the court costs.

Read your lease agreement carefully. You need to know if you have a month to month or year lease. Is it in a mobile home park? An apartment building? Or just a regular house? The answers may depend on whether other laws apply. I just gave you the basics.

The statutes are available free of charge online at http://government.westlaw.com/linkedslice/default.asp?SP=pac-1000