Scranton operates a mandatory Residential Rental Registration Program codified in the Scranton City Code at ecode360.com/SC1148 and administered by the Department of Licensing, Inspections, and Permits (LIP). Every residential rental property in the city must be registered with the City, the owner must designate a local agent for service of process if the owner does not reside in or near Lackawanna County, and rental units are subject to periodic inspection under the City's property-maintenance framework, which adopts the International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC) as the substantive habitability standard. Operating an unregistered rental is enforceable through code-enforcement citations and, under PA Act 90 of 2010, through Scranton's Quality of Life Ticketing Program.
Scranton City Council established the Residential Rental Registration framework to address habitability conditions across the city's older rowhouse, duplex, and three-decker stock that dominates Hill Section, Green Ridge, South Side, and West Scranton neighborhoods. The program is codified in the rental and property-maintenance chapters of the Scranton City Code at ecode360.com/SC1148 and is administered by the Department of Licensing, Inspections, and Permits (LIP). Each owner of a residential rental property in Scranton 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 or adjacent to Lackawanna 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 LIP staff on a cycle the City sets (typically multi-year, with cycle frequency 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 conversions (extremely common in Scranton'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 upheld municipal rental-inspection programs against constitutional challenge - including the Commonwealth Court's decision in Pottstown Borough v. Suber-Aponte, 202 A.3d 173 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2019) - and Scranton follows the administrative-warrant pathway when consent to inspect is withheld. Newly purchased rentals must register within the timeframe specified in the ordinance; 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. Β§250.101 et seq.; Scranton's program does not regulate the landlord-tenant contract itself, only the habitability and licensure of the unit. Scranton has also adopted the Quality of Life Ticketing Program under Pennsylvania Act 90 of 2010 (53 P.S. Β§38001 et seq.), which gives LIP staff and Scranton Police a streamlined civil-fine mechanism for property-maintenance violations including failure to register a rental.
Operating an unregistered or unlicensed residential rental in Scranton is a code-enforcement violation enforceable at the Magisterial District Court that serves the property within Lackawanna County. Under Scranton's Quality of Life Ticketing Program (authorized by Pennsylvania Act 90 of 2010, 53 P.S. Β§38001 et seq.), LIP staff and Scranton Police may issue civil-fine tickets in lieu of, or in addition to, criminal-summons citations; tickets that go unpaid escalate to Magisterial District Court enforcement. Fines escalate per the Scranton Code general-penalty schedule, with each day of continued non-compliance chargeable as a separate offense. Failure to correct documented International Property Maintenance Code violations within the notice deadline draws additional citations and, in serious cases, an order to vacate the unit until repairs are made. Repeated non-compliance is grounds for suspension or revocation of the rental license; an unlicensed rental cannot lawfully be occupied. Pennsylvania law permits the City to pursue equitable relief in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas where Magisterial District Court enforcement is inadequate. Tenants in an unregistered unit retain all Landlord-Tenant Act and habitability protections under 68 P.S. Β§250.101 et seq. and Pugh v. Holmes, and may raise the landlord's non-registration as a defense or counterclaim in any landlord-initiated eviction.
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