Scranton, PA Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

City Code § 373-4B requires every landlord to maintain the premises in compliance with all applicable codes and state and federal law, and to regularly perform routine maintenance, expressly including lawn mowing and ice and snow removal, along with any repairs necessary to fulfill that obligation. Once a landlord receives notice of a code violation from the Code Official, the landlord must promptly act to abate the condition and correct the violation. A landlord and tenant may shift specific repair or maintenance tasks to the tenant only by a written agreement made in good faith and for consideration, and only if it does not reduce the landlord's duties to other tenants in the building; no such agreement ever relieves the landlord of responsibility under the chapter (§ 373-4B(1), (2)).

The chapter also bars self-help evictions contrary to the Pennsylvania Landlord Tenant Act (§ 373-4F) and prohibits a landlord from terminating, refusing to renew, or altering a lease in retaliation for a tenant requesting repairs, withholding rent for repairs, filing a complaint with a code or health agency, or testifying about property conditions (§ 373-4G). Courts weigh the timing of the alleged retaliation, communications between the parties, and the landlord's past practice with other tenants in deciding a retaliation claim. "Code" for purposes of this maintenance duty reaches beyond Chapter 373 itself to the City's property maintenance, fire prevention, electrical, plumbing, and zoning chapters, so a landlord's habitability obligation is tied to whichever of those chapters governs the specific defect.