Maintenance arguments rarely start with a disaster. They start with a 9 p.m. text about a cold radiator, a hanging gutter, or a smoke detector that chirps every few minutes, and nobody is sure whose job it is. If you own a rental in Philadelphia, you’ve probably guessed at who is responsible for what in rental property maintenance at least once. Guessing gets expensive.
This post is for owners and investors who want a clear line between what the landlord handles and what the tenant handles. We’ll cover what the city code puts on the owner, what tenants really are responsible for, where a lease stops helping you, and how to sort repair requests fast so nothing small turns into a violation.
In This Guide
The Basic Split Under City Code
The city’s Property Maintenance Code starts with a simple rule. The owner keeps the building and the outside property up to code. The owner also can’t live in, or let anyone else live in, premises that aren’t sanitary and safe.
Tenants have duties too. Occupants must keep the part of the unit or premises they occupy and control clean, sanitary and safe. Nobody gets to say “tenants have no maintenance duties.” They do.
But the weight sits on the owner. The code puts the owner’s duties on the owner “except as otherwise provided for in this code.” It doesn’t say “except as your lease provides.”
That one phrase explains most of the trouble owners run into.
What the Landlord Owns
Think of it as everything that keeps the building sound, dry, safe and pest-free. Here are the items we see owners underestimate most:
- Roof and exterior: The exterior has to stay in good repair and structurally sound. A roof that lets in rain, or siding and window joints that aren’t weather-tight, count as unsafe conditions.
- Rodents: Buildings and outside property must be kept free of rodents. If they show up, the code calls for prompt extermination and steps to keep them from coming back.
- Weeds and plant growth: Anything over 10 inches isn’t allowed. If nobody cuts it after a notice of violation, the City can cut it and bill the owner or the owner’s agent.
- Graffiti: The owner restores the exterior surface.
- Heat and building systems: Furnaces, boilers and the systems the building runs on stay on the owner’s side of the ledger.
“Anything over 10 inches isn’t allowed.”
Shared systems in rowhouse country
Philadelphia’s housing stock is full of rowhouses, twins and older multifamily buildings. That means shared roofs, party walls, shared drains and common-area wiring. Those belong to the owner, not to whoever happens to live in the second-floor unit.
Heat gets its own warning
Winters here lean hard on furnaces and boilers from fall into early spring. The city code sets a minimum heat standard for rentals, so a no-heat call is a same-day problem. Check the current code text for the exact temperature and dates before you write them into any policy.
A heating repair locally often runs $500 to $2,000 depending on the part. Ignoring it costs more.
A lease clause can’t hand the owner’s code duties to a tenant. If L&I cites a property, the violation goes to the owner, whatever the lease says about who fixes the furnace.
What the Tenant Owns
Tenants handle the day-to-day care of the space they control. That means keeping it clean, sanitary and safe, and keeping clean any outside area they occupy or control.
Leases can reasonably cover small, routine stuff. Here are examples owners often assign to tenants in writing:
- Replacing light bulbs
- Changing HVAC filters
- Taking trash out properly and on schedule
- Reporting leaks, pests and broken items promptly
Tenants also pay for damage they cause. A shattered window from a thrown ball is on them. But as we’ll get to, “on them” doesn’t mean “wait to fix it.”
Who Fixes What at a Glance
| Issue | Usually handled by |
|---|---|
| Roof leak or weather-tight exterior | Owner |
| Furnace or boiler failure | Owner |
| Rodent infestation | Owner (prompt extermination) |
| Weeds over 10 inches on the property | Owner, or the City bills the owner |
| Graffiti on the exterior | Owner |
| Keeping the occupied unit clean | Tenant |
| Light bulbs and filters | Tenant, if the lease says so |
| Damage the tenant caused | Tenant pays, owner still repairs promptly |
Why “Habitability vs. Preference” Beats “Cosmetic vs. Structural”
Most owners sort repairs into cosmetic and structural. It sounds sensible and it misleads you.
A cracked tile is cosmetic. A cracked tile that creates a trip hazard, or lets moisture reach the subfloor, is a habitability problem, and it’s yours. A scuffed wall is a preference. A wall with a damp, spreading stain is not.
So the better question is whether it affects safety, health, heat, water, security or weather-tightness. If yes, it’s not a preference.
Say an owner hears about a slow roof leak and decides it can wait because the tenant isn’t upset. By the time the repair happens, the sheathing underneath has rotted. A $400 patch becomes a $4,000 structural job, and now the tenant has a real habitability complaint on top of it. Nobody planned that. It just sat.
Sort repairs by what they affect, not how they look. If it touches safety, health, heat, water or the building envelope, treat it as the owner’s job and treat it as urgent.
Where a Lease Stops Protecting You
Leases do real work. They set expectations, spell out routine tenant duties and give you a paper trail. They just can’t rewrite the code.
Picture a landlord who writes into the lease that the tenant handles snow and ice, and then the sidewalk goes unshoveled. Don’t assume the lease covers you with the City. The code puts exterior duties on the owner, with tenants responsible for the parts they occupy and control. Look up the current ordinance before leaning on a clause like this.
Then there’s the damage question. Many landlords treat tenant-caused damage as the tenant’s problem and leave it there. But if you’re told about a problem and don’t fix it promptly, you can inherit the fallout, especially if it leads to mold, pests getting in, or structural decline. Documenting notice and acting fast protects you more than lease language does.
And if a repair request goes ignored long enough, Pennsylvania tenants may have legal remedies, including options around withholding rent. Those rules are specific, so ask a lawyer instead of guessing.
Paperwork the City Expects From You
Owners who are new to the city sometimes skip this part, and it bites later.
- Rental License: You need one to rent legally. Owners often ask how much a rental license in Philadelphia costs and how long it takes to get one. Fees and timelines change, so check L&I for current numbers.
- Certificate of Rental Suitability: At a new lease, you give the tenant this certificate. In it, you confirm no outstanding maintenance issues, fire code violations or health and safety defects in the systems, that smoke detectors and fire extinguishers work, and that you’ll maintain the property for the whole tenancy. It’s free, and you get it online through L&I’s eCLIPSE system. You can’t have outstanding violation notices, except ones under appeal that you’ve reported to L&I. Whether a renewal calls for a new certificate is worth confirming with L&I.
- Partners in Good Housing handbook: New tenants get this handbook, which lays out the maintenance duties of owners and tenants. The City released a new edition in October 2025, so use the current one.
- Lead certification: You must certify that the rental is lead-safe or lead-free. With so much older housing here, this one matters.
Notice that the certificate includes a promise to keep up the property. The owner’s duty doesn’t end at move-in.
What Happens When a Tenant Calls the City
A tenant doesn’t need your permission to complain. Tenants here can find a tenant rights phone number or the Philly Tenant Hotline hours with one search, and a complaint to the City can bring an L&I inspection. The violation lands on the owner.
Say a tenant reports a broken window latch late, and you decide that makes it their problem. If L&I inspects and finds a latch that doesn’t work, the violation is still yours. How and when it got reported doesn’t change who gets cited.
This is why landlord tenant Philadelphia disputes usually start small. A repair that sat for three weeks becomes a documented complaint, then a citation, then a fight over the lease. Fixing it in week one is cheaper than all of that.
Sorting Requests in a Minute
Every request fits one of three buckets. A quick sort keeps you from treating a gas smell like a sticky drawer.
- Act now: No heat in cold months, an active leak, sewage backup, no water, a smell of gas, a lockout, sparking wiring, or a smoke detector that doesn’t work.
- Schedule soon: Slow drains, a failing appliance, a loose window latch, a cracked tile that could trip someone, or a small stain that could mean moisture.
- Can wait: Scuffed paint, a sticky drawer, a worn caulk line with no water behind it.
When you’re not sure, ask whether it affects safety, health, heat, water, security or weather-tightness. If it does, it moves up a bucket.
Then do the same thing every time. Log the request, date it, send someone, take photos before and after, and confirm with the tenant in writing.
That’s the idea behind our 24/7 maintenance coordination. Furnaces don’t fail on a schedule, and neither do pipes.
One tenant who has lived in a New Age house for two years put it simply in a Google review: “Any time we had a maintenance issue they brought someone very quickly for no fee.” That’s what a consistent process looks like from the other side of the door.
This checklist helps you sort every repair request in a minute into act now, schedule soon, or can wait, then handle each one the same way from start to finish.
Free checklist
Maintenance request triage checklist
Sort every repair request in a minute: what needs action now, what needs scheduling soon, and what can wait. Then handle each one the same way, start to finish.
0 of 20 done
Set up before anything breaks
Emergency: act now
Urgent: schedule right away
Routine: schedule normally
For every request
Your ticks stay in this browser only.
Documentation at Move-In and Move-Out
Without dated records, you can’t prove what a tenant caused and what was already there. That makes tenant-caused damage hard to charge for. For deposit deductions, check the current rules on deadlines and itemized lists before you send anything.
Here’s a short routine that works:
- Move-in: Dated photos of every room, appliances and the exterior, signed off by the tenant.
- During the tenancy: Written, dated notes on every repair request and what happened.
- Move-out: A walk-through with matching photos, compared side by side against move-in.
Timing matters most in neighborhoods like West Philly, University City and Fairmount. Turnovers there follow academic-year cycles, which squeezes the window for repairs between tenants. A tidy move-out record means you can start work the day after keys come back.
When to Hand It Off
Some owners enjoy running the repair calendar. Plenty don’t. If you’ve got a few units and a day job, a missed furnace call in January can turn a quiet week into a bad one.
We’ve been in business for 40 years and manage more than 1,200 units across the city, and our management fee is a flat fee based on a percentage of monthly rent. Leasing is one month’s rent. Eric Hanson, one of our Property Managers, holds the A.R.M. (Accredited Residential Manager) designation and works through these calls as part of the job.
If you’re not sure whether your property fits our services, we offer a free rental property analysis. It includes an estimate of what the property could rent for, ideas for improving profitability, and an honest read on whether it fits how we work.
If sorting out who fixes what feels harder than it should, we’re open to a conversation.
FAQ
Who pays when a tenant breaks something?
Generally the tenant pays for damage they cause. The owner should still make the repair promptly and document it, because delay can turn a small problem into a habitability issue.
Can my lease make the tenant responsible for the furnace?
No. The city code puts the owner’s duties on the owner “except as otherwise provided for in this code,” and a lease isn’t the code. Routine items like filters and light bulbs are fair to assign to tenants in writing.
Does the tenant have any maintenance duties under city code?
Yes. Occupants must keep the part of the unit or premises they occupy and control clean, sanitary and safe. That includes any outside area they occupy or control.
How much notice should I give before entering for a repair?
Around 24 hours is commonly treated as reasonable for non-emergency repairs. Pennsylvania doesn’t set a fixed number that we can confirm, so check your lease and the current rules.
Do I have to give tenants a Certificate of Rental Suitability?
Yes, at a new lease. The certificate is free and you get it online through L&I’s eCLIPSE system. Check with L&I on whether a renewal needs a new one.
What happens if a tenant complains to the City?
A complaint can lead to an L&I inspection, and any violation goes to the owner. Fixing the issue quickly and keeping dated records puts you in a much better position.