Home should be a safe place. When a low-income tenant’s home is not habitable, often they have little recourse: they fear retaliation from their landlord if they file a complaint with the code official and they are unable to move elsewhere due to a severe shortage of safe, sanitary, affordable housing. The City of Pittsburgh sought to remedy this problem with a rental licensing ordinance requiring the proactive inspection of all rental properties. The Landlord Service Bureau sued the city to prevent such an ordinance from being implemented.
The Commonwealth Court struck down Pittsburgh’s rental registration ordinance, holding that several aspects of the ordinance are beyond the city’s legal authority as a home-rule municipality. Those aspects were (1) mandatory inspection of rental properties, (2) a requirement that out-of-county landlords appoint a responsible local agent, (3) a proposal to create a best landlord practices manual, (4) a proposal to create a landlord academy, and (5) the publication of rental inspection and property ownership information on an online public database. The city appealed, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
Although the Commonwealth Court’s decision was based on the Pennsylvania Home Rule Law, it could potentially be used to challenge similar rental registration and licensing ordinances in non-home rule municipalities. Bob Damewood, Senior Staff Attorney at RHLS, and Kevin Quisenberry, the Litigation Director of CJP, wrote the amicus brief on behalf of the Housing Law Group of the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network.