Reading, PA Rental Property Rules: Rental Registration (2026)

Reading City Council enacted the Residential Rental Inspection Program by Ordinance 35-2011 to address habitability conditions in the city's substantial stock of older rowhouse and multi-unit rental property. The program is now codified in the Housing/Property Maintenance portion of the Reading City Code at ecode360.com/RE1294 and is administered by the Reading Department of Community Development, Property Maintenance Division. Each owner of a residential rental property in Reading must (a) register the property with the City - identifying the owner, any local agent for service of process if the owner does not reside in Berks County or an adjacent county, the number of rental units in the building, and contact information; (b) pay the annual registration/license fee set by City Council; (c) submit the property to a periodic exterior and interior inspection by Property Maintenance Division staff on a cycle the City sets (typically every 1 to 5 years depending on building type and prior compliance history); and (d) correct any International Property Maintenance Code violations the inspector documents within the time the notice of violation specifies. The program applies to single-family rentals, two-unit and three-unit rowhouse conversions (extremely common in Reading's older neighborhoods), and large apartment buildings; owner-occupied homes are not within the rental-program registration regime, but become subject to it the moment any portion of the dwelling is rented to a non-family tenant. Pennsylvania's appellate courts have repeatedly upheld municipal rental-inspection programs against constitutional challenge, including the Commonwealth Court's decisions in Pottstown Borough v. Suber-Aponte, 202 A.3d 173 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2019) and earlier rulings allowing administrative warrant procedures where a tenant or owner refuses consent. Reading's program follows the administrative-warrant pathway when consent is withheld. Newly purchased rentals must register within the timeframe specified in the ordinance (typically 30 days of purchase); change-of-ownership requires re-registration in the new owner's name. The program is separate from, and runs alongside, the Pennsylvania Landlord and Tenant Act at 68 P.S. §250.101 et seq.; Reading's program does not regulate the landlord-tenant contract itself, only the habitability and licensure of the unit.