Reading, PA Rental Property Rules: Just Cause Eviction (2026)

Pennsylvania has not enacted a statewide just-cause eviction statute, and Reading has not codified a local one. The Pennsylvania Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 at 68 P.S. §250.501 sets the notice periods that govern every residential termination in Reading: 15 days' notice to terminate a month-to-month tenancy or to remove a tenant for breach during the first year of the tenancy; 30 days' notice for a tenant in possession longer than one year; 10 days' notice for non-payment of rent (which the landlord may shorten by lease to as few as 10 days but not eliminate); and immediate termination for certain illegal-drug or violent-felony conduct under 68 P.S. §250.505-A. Beyond the notice rules the LTA imposes no list of permissible grounds: a Pennsylvania landlord may decline to renew a lease at its end for any non-discriminatory reason, including a desire to remove the unit from the rental market, to rent at a higher rate, or to occupy the unit personally. A non-renewal therefore does not require a 'just cause' showing. Evictions are filed at the Magisterial District Court (MDJ) that geographically serves the rental address - Reading is split among several MDJ districts in Berks County - and proceed through landlord-tenant complaint, hearing within 7 to 15 days of service, judgment for possession on a finding for the landlord, and order of possession executed by a constable. Appeals run to the Berks County Court of Common Pleas. Reading City Code at ecode360.com/RE1294 imposes registration and inspection obligations on landlords through the Residential Rental Inspection Program (Ord. 35-2011 and successor codifications) but does not condition the right to terminate a tenancy on a cause showing. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act at 43 P.S. §955 and the federal Fair Housing Act at 42 U.S.C. §3604 supply the only substantive limit on the landlord's discretion: a non-renewal motivated by race, sex, familial status, disability, or another protected class is independently actionable as housing discrimination. Retaliatory eviction - termination because the tenant complained to Reading Code Enforcement or to the Pennsylvania Department of Health about habitability - is recognized as a defense in Pennsylvania case law but not by statute.