HARRISBURG–Gov. Tom Wolf today signed into law House Bill 447, legislation authored by Rep. Stan Saylor (R-York) to protect consumers from the “death penalty” practiced by landlords in Pennsylvania.
Now Act 116 of 2016, Saylor has been pursuing this measure for the last three legislative sessions because of complaints by many tenants that landlords will include a death payment provision in their lease agreements. What these lease provisions do is place the liability upon the estates and surviving family members of deceased tenants to pay rent and penalties anywhere from one month to the full-year balance of the lease.
“This new law, which received strong bipartisan support, ensures such death payment provisions are limited in their financial impact upon families of a deceased tenant,” Saylor said. “This commonsense measure prevents landlords from billing the estate for the remainder of the full-year lease while protecting landlords who are left with abandoned personal property.”
With this new law, Pennsylvania has removed from financial liability the estate of a deceased tenant for any rent accruing from one month after the tenant’s death, or upon surrender of the rental unit and removal of all personal property, whichever is the later.
Source: Representative Stan Saylor press release
