Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Pennsylvania

rental property

i have a tenant that has not been paying the rent- in arrears 4 months. she seems to have a friend in our local code enforcement officer, her reasons go from problems with mice to issues with the electric box which code enfor. officer told the tenant she didn't have to pay the rent until they were fixed. i paid out to have the electric box checked-not a thing was wrong with it and paid for an exterminator to go to the property twice. still won'tpay the rent. she was given a 10 day notice to vacate our property a 2nd time -claimed she never got the first one. i was informed to file a landlord/tenant complaint with the magistrate, again costing me more money.this tenant now has an attorney sending me a letter telling me that i can't go and lock the tenant out or change the locks on MY property. where are the laws to protect the landlord or am i to just let the tenant live in my property free? please help


Asked on 4/06/07, 10:38 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daniel Cevallos Cevallos & Wong, LLP

Re: rental property

You absolutely cannot change the locks yourself. That is called self-help, and it is illegal in practically every state. You will have to file a landlord tenant complaint, get an eviction order, and have the sheriff kick the tenant out. Then you should sue the tenant. We can help with this. Call our offices at 267.639.3105, or at [email protected].

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Answered on 4/07/07, 1:49 pm


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