Landlord-Tenant Law Articles

If you have bed bug problems with your apartment or a house that you are renting, you are probably wondering who is required to pay for the bed bug treatment, you or the landlord? Of course the terms of your lease could possibly address this issue, but often times, leases are silent on the issue of bed bugs and pest control. We’ll examine how Pennsylvania law treats disputes concerning bed bug problems with leases.

Disputes often arise between landlords and tenants on who should cover the cost of bed bug extermination and which party is truly responsible for the bed bugs. Disputes arise since it’s very costly to remove bed bugs. There are two types of treatments to remove bed bugs, a chemical treatment, which can cost nearly $1,000, and a heat treatment, which costs approximately $1,750.

Since bed bugs are considered parasites, their presence in an apartment invokes the …

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In Pennsylvania, when your lease expires, it’s important to provide your landlord with your forwarding address so they can send you a list of damages within 30 days as they are required to do by law if a forwarding address is provided.  If a forwarding address is provided and a landlord does not submit a written list of damages within 30 days, the landlord gives up its right to withhold any portion of the security deposit and will be liable for double the amount of the security deposit.

The next issue is what a landlord can and cannot deduct in PA from the security deposit for repairs. A landlord can charge tenants for cleaning and repairs to restore the rental unit to its original condition at the beginning of the tenancy. However, a landlord cannot charge a tenant for ordinary wear and tear.

For example, if there is a modest …

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