A Pennsylvania rental application is a document landlords use to assess potential tenants’ reliability and financial capability to pay rent on time. This standard form helps screen for red flags, such as credit history and employment references, allowing smart landlords to minimize risk before drafting a lease agreement.
Laws
- Application Fee – Non-refundable
- Fee Limits – No limits
- Security Deposit – § 511.1(a) – Landlords cannot request more than two months’ rent as a security deposit.
State Laws
For Landlords
Age
The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act filled in a gap left by federal law by defining age as any person forty years or older when it comes to housing discrimination when a landlord refuses to lease a rental property to a tenant based on age.
Ensure you are not viewed as discriminatory when collecting age (birth date) information on your application. Watch your words with prospective tenants and the language in your housing ads.
Reasonable Modifications
In cases of disabled tenants, a landlord may not refuse to permit reasonable modifications to the premises.
The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to threaten, coerce, intimidate, or interfere with anyone exercising a fair housing right or helping others exercise their rights.
For Tenants
Rental Application Fee
There is no statute regarding fees, including any limits to the fee amount or whether the fee is non-refundable.
Other fees may be involved in the screening process, but security deposits are not one of them.
A security deposit is not a fee but a security deposit a landlord collects when the parties sign the lease agreement. The security deposit typically covers costs due to damages incurred by the tenant during the rental.
Remember that landlords may request pet and security deposits from approved applicants when signing a lease agreement to move into a rental property.
Timeframe to File Complaint
Tenants must file their housing discrimination claim within 180 days of the discriminatory act [1] .
Investigation Procedure
After the filing of a tenant complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the tenant will be assigned a docket number within thirty days of the date of docketing, and the respondent (landlord) must answer the complaint within sixty days of the date of service [2] .
If the complaint has not been resolved within one year, the tenant may commence an action in the Court of Common Pleas or the Commonwealth Court.
Criminal Records
For tenants arrested and convicted of second or third-degree misdemeanors who have completed their punishment and have had no arrests or prosecutions within the last year, state laws allow them to petition the courts for an order of limited access to information.
Service Animals
A building with a no-pets policy must make accommodations and allow a visually impaired tenant to keep a guide dog.
Sample
