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Pennsylvania month-to-month lease agreement
Written for Pennsylvania law, checked October 1, 2026 General information, not legal advice
- Note the condition at move-in
- Hand over keys once signed
- Renews each month until notice
A month-to-month tenancy renews each month until the landlord or the tenant gives notice. Choose month-to-month as the lease type, or set a fixed-term lease to convert to month-to-month when its term ends.
Pennsylvania rules that apply
- Ending month-to-month
- 15 days
- from service of the written notice to quit; the lease may shorten or waive it
- 68 P.S. § 250.501(b), (e)
- Rent increase notice
- No state rule
- the Landlord and Tenant Act sets none statewide
- Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951
Ending a month-to-month tenancy
To end a month-to-month tenancy, give the tenant a written notice to quit that allows at least 15 days from the date it is served (68 P.S. § 250.501(b)).
More detail (3)
- The 15 days apply to a tenancy for an indeterminate time and to any lease of one year or less; a lease for more than one year needs 30 days (68 P.S. § 250.501(b)).
- The Act sets no notice period for a tenant who wants to leave, so the lease should set one (Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951).
- The lease may shorten the notice or let the tenant waive it (68 P.S. § 250.501(e)).
The lease states the 15-day notice to quit and, as a lease term, lets the tenant end a month-to-month tenancy on 15 days' written notice.
Rent increase notice
Partly readThe Landlord and Tenant Act sets no notice period and no limit for a rent increase. During a fixed term, the lease sets the rent (Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951).
More detail (3)
- After a tenant has been in possession five years or more, a rent increase cannot require a bigger deposit (68 P.S. § 250.511a(d)).See Security deposit limit on the Pennsylvania page
- If you raise the rent within six months after tenants paid your unpaid utility bill to keep service on, the increase is presumed to be a reprisal (66 Pa.C.S. § 1531; Utility Service Tenants Rights Act § 11).See Retaliation on the Pennsylvania page
- Philadelphia has its own notice rule for an increase at the end of a residential tenancy: at least 60 days before it takes effect for a tenancy of one year or more, and at least 30 days for a shorter tenancy, unless the lease requires longer. The notice must identify the increase amount, effective date and new payment amount. This is a Philadelphia rule, separate from the statewide notice-to-quit periods. Check the City's current requirements and any housing-program conditions before setting the date or treating refusal of a proposed increase as ending the tenancy (Philadelphia Code § 9-804(11): rent-increase notice).