Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

Re: real estate sale

I'm not sure, but essentially, the name on the document does not determine what it is; the contents do.

Eviction proceedings are not appropriate for any type of rent to own, lease/purchase, installment land or installment sale contract. All of those are regarded as similar to a mortgage, and must go through foreclosure, which is done in Common Pleas Court rather than in Landlord-Tenant Court.

If you are the purchaser and the seller has sued to evict you in Landlord-Tenant Court, you should bring along a copy of your contract and at the hearing explain that you are not a tenant, but a purchaser, and that the landlord does not have the right to evict you through proceedings in Landlord-Tenant Court.

If you lose at the hearing, you must immediately get a lawyer to take an appeal for you and to assert your interest in the property under the contract.