Last month, I discussed how a trial court judge in Allegheny County in Brown v. Premier Properties, 2014 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 64 (March 6, 2014), highlighted the obligations of a landlord under the common law and under the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 to allow a tenant to retrieve her personal belongings after the tenant loses possession of the leased premises by way of eviction proceedings. What I failed to mention last month is that, beginning Dec. 22, that portion of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 will treat abandoned personal property radically differently and will afford additional protections to a tenant when his or her landlord fails to adhere to these statutory mandates regarding the tenant’s personal belongings.
Under the old law, Act 129 of 2012, a rental property would have been deemed abandoned when there was execution of an order of possession or if the tenant had physically vacated from the rental property, removed substantially all of his or her personal belongings and gave a forwarding address or written notice to the landlord stating that he or she had vacated from the rental property.
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