Reading, PA Rental Property Rules: Rent Control (2026)

Pennsylvania is one of the largest U.S. states without a general rent-control framework. The Pennsylvania Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 at 68 P.S. §250.101 et seq. (the LTA) governs every residential tenancy in Reading and does not impose a cap on rent or on annual rent increases; the contract between landlord and tenant supplies the rent figure and the renewal terms. Pennsylvania municipalities outside Philadelphia lack independent statutory authority to enact rent control: the Home Rule Charter and Optional Plans Law at 53 Pa.C.S. §2961 limits home-rule authority and does not contain a rent-control delegation, and the Third Class City Code (which generally governs Reading's legislative powers) does not authorize rent regulation. Reading's City Council has not attempted to enact rent control and any such ordinance would be vulnerable to preemption challenge. At the lease level, Reading landlords must give the notice the lease specifies (or, in a holdover or month-to-month tenancy, the 15-day or 30-day notice under 68 P.S. §250.501); rent increases at lease renewal are unregulated as to amount. The LTA does provide important substantive protections in other areas - security deposits (68 P.S. §250.511a/b), self-help eviction prohibition (68 P.S. §250.501), and habitability through implied warranties recognized by Pennsylvania case law - but rent levels themselves are left to the market. Tenants who consider a Reading rent increase abusive have no rent-board remedy; the practical options are negotiation, relocation, or, where a discriminatory motive is alleged, complaint under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act at 43 P.S. §951 et seq.