CHAPTER 9-1600. PROHIBITION AGAINST UNLAWFUL EVICTION PRACTICES 1179

 

Notes

1179
   Added, 1987 Ordinances, p. 1173.
§ 9-1601. Legislative Findings.
   The Council of the City of Philadelphia hereby finds:
   (1)   Each year, thousands of tenants in the City of Philadelphia are subjected to actual or threatened use of self- help eviction practices.
   (2)   Many tenants victimized by self-help eviction are low and very low income persons and are particularly vulnerable to being deprived of their rights to judicial process.
   (3)   Self-help evictions exacerbate the incidence of homelessness among the City's low and very low income population.
   (4)   Existing remedies do not afford adequate protection against unlawful eviction.
   (5)   Self-help eviction practices include the use of violence and the infliction of physical harm upon tenants in efforts to force tenants to vacate their rental dwellings without recourse to judicial process.
   (6)   Typical examples of self-help practices include lock-outs without court authorization, intentional interference with vital utilities, such as heat, electricity, water and gas, and the seizure of tenants' personal property.
   (7)   Self-help evictions deprive tenants of their opportunity to assert defenses, such as the existence of defective conditions within the leased premises, in a judicial proceeding and thereby impacts adversely upon the City's efforts to enforce the Housing and other Chapters of The Philadelphia Code.
   (8)   Termination of utilities and blockage of means of ingress and egress from dwelling units create conditions that are themselves violations of The Philadelphia Code.
   (9)   The existing remedy to prevent self-help eviction is limited to a private civil action to obtain injunctive relief in the Court of Common Pleas.
   (10)   Court costs, attorney fees and, most significantly, the delays inherent in private civil actions, frequently deter tenants from taking action against self-help eviction processes.
   (11)   The provisions of this Chapter are necessary to discourage unlawful, self-help evictions by providing substantial penalties for said offenses.
§ 9-1602. Definitions.
   (1)   Self-Help Eviction Practices.
      (a)   Self-help eviction practices are actions by a landlord or landlords' agents taken without legal process to dispossess or attempt to dispossess a tenant from a dwelling unit or engaging or threatening to engage in any other conduct which prevents or is intended to prevent a tenant(s) from lawfully occupying their dwelling unit. Such self- help eviction practices include, but are not limited to, the following activity: plugging, changing, adding or removing any lock or latching device to a dwelling unit or otherwise blocking access to the unit; removing windows and doors from a dwelling unit; interfering with utility services to the unit, including, but not limited to, electricity, gas, hot or cold water, heat, or telephone service; forcing a tenant to vacate by the use of force or threat of violence or injury to a tenant's person or property; by engaging in any other activity or pattern of activity rendering a dwelling unit or any part thereof inaccessible.
      (b)   Self-help eviction practices include the failure to take reasonable and prompt remedial action to restore access and habitability to a dwelling unit following any incident of the landlord conduct described in subsection (1)(a) above.
   (2)   Landlord. The term "landlord" as used in this Chapter includes the lessor of any residential dwelling unit.
   (3)   Dwelling Unit. The term "dwelling unit" as used in this Chapter includes any building or structure, or part of a building or structure, which is used for living or sleeping by human occupants, subject to the licensing requirements of Chapter 7-500  1180 of The Philadelphia Code.
   (4)   Tenant. The term "tenant" as used in this Chapter shall include any person or persons in possession of a dwelling unit for a week-to-week term or any longer term by virtue of a written or oral agreement with a landlord. The term "tenant" shall include, for purposes of this ordinance, a purchaser under an installment land sales contract as defined in 68 P.S. § 903, 1965, June 8, P.L. No. 81, § 3. The term shall not include a traveler or transient guest in a hotel or motel.

 

Notes

1180
   Referenced material now appears in Title 4, Subcode PM, Chapter 1.
§ 9-1603. Unlawful Self-Help Eviction Actions Prohibited.  1181
   (1)   No landlord or landlord's agent may engage in self-help eviction practices, as defined in Section 9-1602 of this Chapter, under any circumstances, in the City of Philadelphia. The requisite, legal process for lawful eviction must consist of execution of a judgment of possession entered by a court of competent jurisdiction in accordance with State law. Lawful execution of judgment may be performed only by a Sheriff or court-appointed landlord and tenant officer.
   (2)   Any agreement between a landlord and tenant which purports to exempt the Landlord from the prohibitions of this Chapter 9-1600 or any penalty imposed hereunder shall be void and unenforceable.

 

Notes

1181
   Amended, Bill No. 200304 (approved July 1, 2020).
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