Ask a Lawyer

By: Steven M. Williams

I have a resident who is in jail. There are people who I believe to be his siblings living in the home. What can I do to get them out? The rent is current, and the resident has told me he will continue to pay rent while incarcerated. But I do not want his siblings living there.

The status of the rental account does not make a difference, as your lease prohibits your resident from having unauthorized occupants living in the home. Thus, you can file an eviction action against the resident in jail for a lease violation. Of course, you must send the applicable default notice and notice to quit first.

One of my residents left and indicated that he no longer lives in the community. However, his adult children have moved in and now live in the home. The children previously applied for residency and were denied due to lack of income and horrendous credit. Can I file an eviction action to get them out?

Because the children are not tenants, you cannot file an eviction action against them. Instead, you must file an ejectment action against them at the County Court of Common Pleas. Unfortunately, you would likely need a lawyer to do this. An alternative, which may or may not work, would be to file an eviction action against the tenant, even though he is no longer there. If you can establish that he invited the children into the home, you can establish a default of his lease (for allowing the children to live there), and a Magisterial District Judge may award an eviction judgment against the tenant. With that judgment, you may have the constable remove the children.

I have heard that if people are living on my property who do not belong there, I can have the police remove them. Is that true?

Possibly. Most police departments will tell you this is a “civil matter” that you must take to court. On rare occasions, I have heard that the local police removed the occupants. But, typically, landlords have to deal with this in the courts. This may change, however, because a bill is pending in the General Assembly that would allow a property owner to utilize the local police to remove people from their properties who are not authorized to be there. It is uncertain whether this bill will pass, but watch for more information from PMHA on this.

Can I impose fines on residents who refuse to provide an email address? My rules and regulations require that all residents provide one. The rules and regulations also provide for fines if residents do not comply with them.

Likely not. The Manufactured Home Community Rights Act (MHCRA) allows you to have rules and regulations that are “reasonably related to the health, safety and upkeep of the community.” I suspect that you would have a hard time convincing a judge that a rule requiring your tenants to provide an email address is related to “health, safety and upkeep.” Furthermore, not everyone has an email address. A judge is not likely to enforce a fine on such a resident. While it is certainly a good idea to have the ability to communicate quickly with residents, judges are likely to impose upon you the burden of making contact in a different way.

My community’s borough sent a ridiculously high trash bill. I pay the trash bills, and my residents reimburse them as fees (not included in the rent). The borough council increased the rates and converted to quarterly billing but did not publicly advertise this change except in its newsletter. I have also learned that there was no formal action at any council meeting approving the changes. I now have a significant trash bill that I cannot pass on to my residents because I did not know of the change in time to provide notice of the increase. Is there anything I can do?

Unfortunately, the Borough Code does not include steps boroughs must take to increase trash fees and simply allows them to do it. It is up to individual boroughs to determine how such increases can be enacted. You should check the borough ordinances to see if a process is required to increase the trash rates. For example, some boroughs require a formal motion and vote at a regular council meeting, while others allow for increases by resolution. Some may not require any formal notice or advertising. If your borough council did not follow its requirements, you may be able to avoid paying the increase until it does. Since the nonpayment of trash fees can result in legal action and liens, I suggest that you get your attorney involved to advise you whether the council’s changes to the trash billing were proper.

With the highly charged political climate, I want to avoid problems in my community, so my Rules and Regulations clearly state that no flags or signs are allowed to be displayed in the community. However, residents are displaying flags and signs supporting political parties and various issues. While none appear to be offensive, I can predict that they will create problems. My residents tell me they can display them under their First Amendment rights. This is crazy. I am the property owner. Do I not have any control here?

The question implicates two issues: the First Amendment and the Manufactured Home Community Rights Act (MHCRA).

First, the First Amendment does not give your residents the right to display any messages you do not want in the community. The Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech,” protecting free speech from interference by the government. As a private property owner, you have no obligations under the Amendment, and your residents cannot claim a First Amendment right to get around “speech” restrictions in your Rules and Regulations.

Second, however, under the MHCRA, you are entitled to enact only “fair and reasonable rules and regulations reasonably related to the health, safety and upkeep of the community.” An argument could be made that your rule about displaying flags and signs may not impact health, safety or upkeep. If this argument prevailed, you could not enforce the rule. If, however, you have had problems in the past with signs and flags, your rule may be legitimate. For example, if residents have displayed so many signs and flags in the past that it became an eyesore, you may be able to establish a legitimate purpose behind the rule. Or, if signs and flags have, in the past, created disturbances among the residents, you may be able to justify the rule. When enacting rules and regulations, owners need to weigh their interests in controlling residents with the limitations the MHCRA places on them.