Is it necessary to hire an attorney to draft a Residential Lease Agreement in Pennsylvania

Although you may certainly draft your residential lease contract yourself, you may want to have an experienced Pennsylvania landlord-tenant attorney review the document before you present it to a prospective tenant for signature.  Clearly, there are a multitude of websites and publications that sell legal form documents to laypeople.  However, as with most things, some are better than others and one needs to do extensive research to be able to tell the difference. 

Additionally, to protect the rights and set forth the duties of all parties – property owners and tenants – these documents almost always need to be re-written to comport with the current laws and procedural rules of your state and/or local jurisdiction.  It may be best for you to rely upon an experienced landlord-tenant attorney who knows what is required for residential lease agreements to be valid under Pennsylvania state and local  laws and procedures.

The Pennsylvania Bar Association recommends that, at a minimum, a residential rental contract contain the following terms:

• Names and addresses of both the tenant and the property owner;
• Term of the lease;
• Rent amount and payment terms;
• Amount of security deposit;
• Renewal terms;
• Notice required to end the lease;
• Person responsible for paying utility bills and other expenses; and
• Duties of the tenant and the landlord
• Grace period and penalty for late payments

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