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Pennsylvania rental application rules to know

• •Pennsylvania sets no statewide cap on application fees. In Philadelphia, though, the fee is capped at the actual cost of the credit or background check or $50, whichever is less, a landlord may charge you only one screening fee per 12 months, and must give you copies of the reports (Phila. Code § 9-814, effective December 2025).
• •Security deposits are capped at 2 months' rent during the first year of a lease and 1 month's rent in the second year and after (68 P.S. § 250.511a). Once you have lived there 5 years, a later rent increase cannot force you to top up the deposit.
• •Deposits over $100 must be held in a regulated bank, and the landlord must tell you in writing the name and address of that bank (68 P.S. § 250.511b). After the deposit has been held 2 years it must sit in an interest-bearing account, and from the third year on the interest is paid to you each year (the landlord may keep a 1 percent annual fee).
• •The landlord has 30 days after you move out to send an itemized list of any damages and return the rest (68 P.S. § 250.512). Missing that 30-day deadline forfeits their right to keep any of it and exposes them to double the amount held beyond any damages they can prove. You must give them a written forwarding address to trigger these protections.
• •Source of income is not protected statewide, so most Pennsylvania landlords may decline a Section 8 voucher. Philadelphia has long protected it under its Fair Practices Ordinance, which a December 2024 amendment updated to explicitly cover housing vouchers, while Pittsburgh's voucher-protection ordinance was struck down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2021.
• •Beyond the federal protected classes, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act adds ancestry, age (40 and over), and use of a guide or support animal (43 P.S. § 955). Philadelphia adds sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, source of income, and status as a victim of domestic or sexual violence.
• •Pennsylvania has no statewide fair-chance-housing law, but Philadelphia's Renters' Access Act requires landlords to publish uniform written screening criteria before taking applications, to assess applicants individually rather than with blanket bans, and to limit use of eviction records older than 4 years. This form omits a blanket criminal-history question, since such bans can still create Fair Housing Act disparate-impact liability.
• •In Philadelphia, if a landlord charges a security deposit larger than one month's rent, you may pay the extra amount in 3 equal monthly installments (Bill 250044-A, effective December 2025; landlords with 2 or fewer units are exempt).

Last reviewed 2026-07-15. General information, not legal advice.