Free Pennsylvania Notice to Enter

This Pennsylvania Notice to Enter gives a tenant clear written notice before the landlord enters the rental unit. Pennsylvania has no statewide entry statute – the Landlord and Tenant Act is silent on entry – so access is governed by the lease and the covenant of quiet enjoyment; the accepted standard is 24 hours of written notice at reasonable hours. See our tenant screening laws by state hub and how to screen tenants guide to keep your Pennsylvania tenancies documented from the start.

Complete the fields below to generate a Pennsylvania Notice to Enter. Pennsylvania sets no statewide notice period, so the lease controls – give reasonable written notice, with 24 hours the accepted standard, at reasonable hours, and deliver it per the lease. The form records the date, time window, purpose, the persons entering, and how the notice is delivered.

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Pennsylvania is one of the states with no statewide entry statute. The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951, codified at 68 P.S. sections 250.101 through 250.602 – the law that governs most of the landlord-tenant relationship in the Commonwealth – does not address landlord entry at all. It sets no notice period, lists no permitted purposes, and defines no reasonable hours, the way the landlord-tenant acts of most other states do. That silence is not an accident a careful reader should try to fill in; it is a deliberate feature of Pennsylvania law, which leaves entry to the agreement between the parties and to the background rules of the common law.

Because the statute books are silent, the lease is the controlling document. Whatever the entry clause says about notice and access is what binds both sides. Most Pennsylvania leases include a right-of-entry clause, and a well-drafted one states the notice period – 24 hours is typical – the permitted reasons for entry, and the hours during which the landlord may come in. If the lease grants that right and the landlord follows its terms, entry is authorized. If the lease grants no entry right at all, the tenant who signed for possession is entitled to control who comes into the home and may refuse entry except in a genuine emergency, because possession for the term of the lease is exactly what Pennsylvania law protects.

The background principle that fills the statutory gap is the covenant of quiet enjoyment, which Pennsylvania implies into every lease. The Supreme Court confirmed in Kohl v. PNC Bank, N.A., 590 Pa. 151 (2006), that this covenant is part of every Pennsylvania tenancy, and the Superior Court in Pollock v. Morelli, 245 Pa. Super. 388 (1976), applied it to a landlord whose conduct interfered with the tenant’s beneficial enjoyment of the leased premises. The practical meaning is simple: even with no entry statute, a landlord cannot enter so unreasonably or so often that the entries interfere with the tenant’s use and enjoyment of the home, because doing so breaches a promise the law reads into the lease itself.

No Pennsylvania city sets a separate entry-notice rule, and that includes Philadelphia. Philadelphia has broad tenant protections generally – its Fair Practices Ordinance is an anti-discrimination law – but it does not set an entry-notice period, and there is no Philadelphia entry ordinance. Statewide and citywide, the 24-hour figure is custom and a lease term, not a local code, so entry everywhere in the Commonwealth comes back to the lease and the covenant of quiet enjoyment. The one clear exception everywhere is a genuine emergency: if there is a fire, a flood, a burst pipe, or another immediate threat to life or property, a landlord may enter at once without advance notice – just document the emergency and what was done. The sections that follow walk through the purposes that justify entry, the timing that keeps an entry reasonable, how the emergency exception works, how showings and abandonment are handled, what the lease can and cannot do, and – most important for a landlord managing risk – exactly what remedies a Pennsylvania tenant has if entry goes wrong.

Even though Pennsylvania does not list permitted purposes by statute, a workable list comes straight from the kinds of property-management tasks that courts and leases treat as legitimate. The unifying test is simple: the landlord must have a real, property-management reason to be inside the unit, not a pretext for checking up on or pressuring the tenant. When the reason is genuine and the notice is reasonable, entry is rarely controversial.

Repairs and maintenance are the most common reason a landlord needs access. This includes responding to a tenant’s repair request, performing scheduled upkeep, and addressing problems the landlord is obligated to fix to keep the unit in habitable condition. Inspections – annual condition checks, move-out walkthroughs, and pre-renewal assessments – are equally routine, and a clear notice describing the inspection keeps it from feeling intrusive.

Showings are a frequent flashpoint. A landlord may need to show the unit to a prospective tenant near the end of a lease, to a prospective buyer if the property is on the market, or to a lender or appraiser during a refinance. Each of these is a legitimate purpose, but each also brings strangers into the tenant’s home, so generous notice and reasonable scheduling matter most here.

Building services and safety work round out the list: pest control treatment, servicing heating and cooling systems, and testing smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors. Safety-device testing in particular protects both sides, and most tenants welcome it when it is scheduled with notice. Across all of these purposes, the form lets the landlord state the exact reason, describe the work, and list everyone who will enter, which is the single most effective way to turn a potentially contested entry into a routine, documented visit.

It is worth being explicit about what is not a legitimate purpose, because that is where landlords get into trouble. Entering to check whether the tenant is keeping the unit “well enough” without any maintenance reason, to look for lease violations on a hunch, to confront a tenant over a dispute, or simply to remind a tenant who is in control of the property are not property-management purposes; they are the kind of pretextual entries that look like harassment and that interfere with the tenant’s quiet enjoyment. The discipline of writing down the purpose on a notice is itself a useful filter: if a landlord cannot articulate a concrete, legitimate reason for the visit on paper, that is a strong signal the entry should not happen at all. A purpose that reads “inspect HVAC condenser and replace filter” is defensible; a purpose that reads “check on tenant” is not.

Some purposes also carry their own follow-on courtesies. A repair that will shut off water or power should say so, so the tenant can plan around it. A pest-control treatment that requires the tenant to clear cabinets or keep pets out for a period should spell out those steps in advance. A move-out inspection is far smoother when the tenant is invited to attend, because a jointly observed walkthrough heads off later disputes about the unit’s condition. Tying each legitimate purpose to its practical logistics, right there in the notice, is what separates a professional operation from one that generates friction and complaints.

With no statutory notice period, the word that does the real work in Pennsylvania is reasonable. A landlord who gives reasonable notice and enters at reasonable hours for a legitimate purpose is on solid ground;