OMG I'm going to be thrown into the street!

[happyslug]

136. Actaully in Pennsylvania it can be as short as 35 days.

Under the Pennsylvania Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 as amended in 1997, 2013 and 2014, if a tenant is behind in rent, the landlord starts the eviction procedure by posting a 10 day notice to pay up or leave on the front door of the Rental unit (or the notice may be given to the Tenant by personal service). At the end of that ten day period, the Landlord can file a Landlord and Tenant Action in Magistrate Court, which must have a hearing not less then five days form the filing, but not more then ten days. In the hearing the Magistrate only has to listen to the Landlord issue of rent due. If tenant owns rent and does NOT have the ability to pay such rent, the magistrate does NOT have to listen to anything else about the Rental unit, he will give the Tenant Ten day to move to file an appeal.

At the end of the ten day appeal period, the landlord can ask the Magistrate for an "Order for Possession" which will be issued and served on the Tenant by a Constable that the Constable will come back in ten days and removed the Tenant. If the Tenant can NOT pay the rent or the bond to file an appeal, the Tenant can be removed in 35 days in Pennsylvania.

TorchTheWitch claims the Landlord never gave her the ten day written notice and the Magistrate refused to listen to her on that issue. That would have reduced the time of eviction to 25 days. I have such a case ongoing in my office. I ended up doing a Rule to Show Cause why the Tenant should NOT be permitted to stay in the Rental unit for the failure. The Judge signed the Rule, which included the right of the Tenant to stay in the rental unit till the hearing on the Rule. On the day of the Hearing in front of a Common Pleas Court Judge the Landlord did not show up. Another attorney heard me calling they names and told me he was looking for them, for they had purchased a home from one of his clients, but failed to pay the money. When I told him the address, he told me that was the house his client had "sold". He also told me the FBI was looking for the landlords. Why he did not know. My client just wanted some time to move and the Judge decided to continue the action for 30 days. I advised my client NOT to post any bond with the Prothonotary due to the issue of who the tenants may own the money to.

Now, 35 days in the bare minimum (25 days if someone claims to have given the 10 days notice but did not). It is generally a longer time period, about six weeks to two months to remove a tenant. Just a comment that the time to remove a tenant can be shorter then six weeks depending on the State law AND who is forcing people to follow them.

In Western Pennsylvania I rarely hear of a case where a Tenant is removed if there are any question as to service. The horror stories are generally out of Philadelphia and its Suburbs. I compare it to death penalty cases. Western Pa will issue death sentences in extreme cases, but on a population basis 10-25% of death sentences handed out in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Allegheny County, the county Pittsburgh is the County seat of, has the second largest population in Pennsylvania, but is #4 when it comes to people on death role, behind Philadelphia, Berks and York Counties and barely ahead of Lancaster, Lehigh and Northumberland. Those five counties are separated from Philadelphia County, but Philly's bedroom counties of Chester, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery Counties. Of the 186 people in death row in Pennsylvania only 22 are from counties WEST of Altoona.

I bring the death penalty up for it is one of the differences between Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. Another difference is Western PA juries rarely give out awards for "pain and suffering" but such awards are common in Eastern Pennsylvania (Same law, different results based on Jury makeup).

Philadelphia is a Democratic Base, but till the 1950s it was viewed as a GOP city. Pittsburgh ceased being a GOP city in the 1920s. Except for Obama, most of rural Western Pennsylvania voted for Democratic candidates for President (This is a result of the Coal mining history and that a lot of Coal Miners hate African Americans for African Americans were used as Strike breakers in the 1920s when the United Mine Workers tried to unionized the mines. Once ingrained it became hard to remove that hatred thus Obama lost counties in Western Pennsylvania that Kerry and Gore won easily in 2004 and 2000.

Thus I have found Eastern Pennsylvania a lot harsher on low income people then Western Pennsylvania, but Western Pennsylvania is losing jobs and population so pressure is coming from the Eastern part of the state to come down harder on Tenants and other low income people.