Hi, there! Joe White here from Grow Property Management, your trusted property management company in Philadelphia.
I just left Ward Tenant Court – again. Lately, it feels like I’m there every couple of weeks, which never used to be the case. What’s changed is that more and more distressed property owners are coming to my property management company asking for help. These aren’t tenants we’ve placed ourselves. They’re tenants we’ve inherited – usually from landlords who placed them personally, through real estate agents, or from other property management companies that didn’t properly screen applicants. There are still a lot of bad actors in Philadelphia’s rental space when it comes to tenant screening.
Now, I’m stuck trying to clean up the mess. Owners want us to stabilize the property, remove the non-paying or problematic tenants, and get things back on track. The real challenge is how much harder that process has become due to Philadelphia’s shifting legal landscape. The city has leaned heavily in favor of tenants, to the point where nonpayment of rent alone is no longer sufficient grounds for eviction.
When we go to landlord-tenant court now, we’re forced into mediation – though it often doesn’t feel like mediation at all. Regardless, as the landlord or property manager, you’re required to act in good faith. So, if the tenant says they’re willing to pay rent, even if they haven’t paid in months, you have to allow them to stay. In my experience, that’s a major problem, because we often already know the tenant is unreliable and has no intention of actually paying. But the moment you accept even a dollar from them, you reset the entire legal process.
That means repaying legal fees, restarting the eviction timeline, and waiting months to take action again. What used to take two months now takes four or five. So if you give in and accept partial rent, you’re just prolonging the inevitable and making things more expensive and difficult.
That’s why I’m in court so often – not for simple nonpayment, but to help build and support stronger cases for eviction based on other lease violations. In order to remove a tenant, we now have to prove they’ve violated other terms: failing to get required tenant insurance, not putting utilities in their name, denying access for repairs, and so on. These lease defaults require evidence and a live witness, which is often where I come in. I have to show up to court, sometimes spending hours there on a Wednesday morning, just to testify to the tenant’s lease violations. Then my attorney negotiates with the tenant’s attorney – who, by the way, is usually provided to them for free by the city.
If you’re a landlord in Philadelphia, here’s what you need to know: you can’t rely solely on nonpayment to remove a tenant. You need to build a case with multiple lease violations, and you need documentation and a witness to support it. The good news? Very few tenants actually show up to court. When I’m there, I see law firms handling 35–40 evictions at a time, and maybe three or four tenants even bother to show. When they don’t, it results in a default judgment in the landlord’s favour – as long as the landlord is present.
That’s a small silver lining in what’s otherwise a very frustrating process. The system doesn’t make it easy for landlords to remove bad tenants, but it’s still possible – if you’re thorough, consistent, and proactive. Just know that it takes more work now than ever before.
So, that’s life right now as a humble Philadelphia property management company owner – spending a lot of time in court, doing my best to help property owners fix difficult tenant situations.
As always, happy rental property investing.