It’s always rental season in Pittsburgh, which means you or someone you know could be pondering the fine print of a lease right now.

The pandemic broke the typical May-to-August peak in apartment hunting and replaced it with a constant demand, according to Megan Confer-Hammond, chief executive of the Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh. 

Housing costs, meanwhile, are rising: Apartment listing firm Dwellsy.com found that Pittsburgh rents leapt 13% in the 12 months ending in August. That means signing a lease can be more consequential than ever.

Attorneys and advocates in landlord-tenant law say the perfect lease is elusive, but it’s important to be aware of your rights and obligations as a renter before putting pen to paper. 

Read on to learn about common elements of a lease, legal guardrails on the landlord-tenant relationship and potential red flags. 

What laws govern rental housing? 

First off, some good news: You won’t have to master obscure legal jargon to understand a lease. The Pennsylvania Plain Language Consumer Contract Act requires that leases be written in simple and direct terms. 

This clarity will come in handy. Your rights and responsibilities as a tenant exist mostly on a lease-by-lease basis in Pennsylvania. The state’s landlord-tenant laws lack guidelines on fees for late rent, notices of entry by a landlord and other key clauses. 

At the federal level, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination against renters based on race, nationality, religion, sex, familial status, age, status as a victim of domestic violence or disability. That last category can be particularly relevant to rentals. 

Tenants with disabilities can count on receiving “reasonable accommodations,” such as ramps, grab bars or having the landlord waive their “no pets” policy for assistance animals. The Fair Housing Act also requires landlords to treat disability checks as equivalent to earned income during the application process. 

Pittsburgh added gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes in 2019. City Council also tried to ban all forms of discrimination by source of income, which would have effectively forced landlords to accept Housing Choice Vouchers, but the state Supreme Court struck down the ordinance. 

What can you expect from the screening process?

Landlords commonly run credit and background checks on applicants. They’re also able to reject prospective tenants with incomes below what may be necessary to consistently make rent. 

It’s trickier for a tenant to dig into a landlord’s history, as there’s no broadly accessible way to view previous code violations. 

Worse yet for tenants, Pittsburgh lacks a rental registry, meaning that anyone can become a landlord without first undergoing property inspections. Some local municipalities, including Penn Hills, have implemented registry programs, and it may be possible in these cases to verify whether a landlord is properly permitted before signing a lease.

What should you look for in a lease?

It’s best practice to do the following before signing a lease, according to local landlord-tenant attorneys and advocates: 

• Ensure that each term of the lease is in writing, and never leave anything to a verbal pledge and a handshake 
• Tour the unit, if at all possible 
• Obtain keys to the property
• Obtain a copy of the lease.

While the typical lease contains dozens of sections, experts said there’s some you should pay particular attention to. 

Contracting parties

When you sign your name as a tenant, you become legally bound to the terms of the lease. Occupants, on the other hand, may be listed separately on the lease, but won’t answer to a judge for late rent.

“This is a very important issue. And it’s a cause for a lot of conflict” between tenants, said Brad Sommer, a landlord-tenant attorney and arbitrator. 

Property

Dan Vitek, staff attorney at the Community Justice Project, said the property you’re leasing should be well-defined. Check for an address, unit number and which areas you’ll be able to access.

Note who’s responsible for maintaining common areas, Sommer added. For example, a duplex basement may be shared between the two units or only belong to one. 

Rent

It’s important to look at the monthly rent, but also the arrangements for late payments. Many landlords advertise rent with a $100 discount, only applicable if tenants pay on time. 

Tack on the typical late fee of $50, and now there’s, in effect, a $150 penalty for delinquency. Most district judges will reduce the penalty if challenged during eviction proceedings, Vitek said. 

And make sure you’re comfortable with the grace period for late rent, Sommer said, because after that your landlord could move to evict you for non-payment. The standard grace period is five days. 

Security deposits

Landlords typically ask for a deposit equivalent to one month’s rent as insurance against any damages to the property. Asking for two months of rent — the maximum allowed by Pennsylvania law — has become more common lately, according to Sommer.  

Start and end dates

A lease should list the beginning and end of your tenancy as well as terms for renewal. Many leases renew automatically, requiring the landlord or tenant to give at least 30 days’ notice before terminating the lease, but this arrangement can vary. 

Some leases renew on a year-to-year basis, while others become monthly after the first year. If either party opts for non-renewal and the lease term has expired, a tenant’s failure to vacate the property could lead to eviction. 

Utilities 

When it comes to utilities, “know who’s responsible for what,” Sommer said. Many leases have a series of checkboxes to indicate whether the landlord or tenant must pay for electricity, gas, water, sewage and trash removal. 

Before signing, know whether you’ll be setting up an account with utility companies directly. Some landlords may choose to put the entire building’s utilities in their name and then individually bill tenants. In this case, make sure your landlord agrees to send copies of these bills to avoid inaccurate charges.

Appliances

Determine whether the apartment comes equipped with a refrigerator, dishwasher, laundry machines, air conditioning and other appliances. Like the utilities section, expect checkboxes here. 

Maintenance contacts 

“You should have a concern” about leases that don’t list a 24/7 emergency maintenance contact, Sommer said. Run a hypothetical, such as a burst pipe: Who can you call as your apartment floods? 

The lease should also list a contact for routine maintenance requests. 

What can’t be in a lease?

Landlords hold tremendous leverage, and Confer-Hammond said “arguably fundamentally illegal” clauses are common in leases. 

Vitek concurred, but said he often advises tenants to go ahead and sign the lease anyway. 

“It’s a take-or-leave-it scenario; fight it on the back end if you have to,” Vitek said. 

Technically, there are limits to what landlords can stick in a lease. For example, landlords can’t assert their right to evict tenants on their own through methods such as removing personal property or shutting off water. 

“You don’t pay your landlord, they don’t get to just show up and lock you out,” Vitek said. They need to file for eviction, triggering a hearing before a district judge.

In addition, landlords are held to a warrant of habitability, meaning that the property must be livable before tenants can move in. You can’t be asked to waive this right and accept an uninhabitable property as is. 

The “American rule” dictates that each party in a legal matter must pay their own attorney fees, though many leases require the tenant to cover the landlord’s costs for going to court. This provision isn’t ironclad, according to Vitek, and a judge could toss it aside because it’s so advantageous to the party who drafted the contract.

Can you negotiate?

It’s possible to negotiate the lease before signing, though don’t expect to make any major rewrites, Vitek said. 

Bargaining over terms of the lease, such as the late fee, could be interpreted by a landlord as a reflection of your reliability as a tenant.

“The landlord is going to be like, ‘You’re already planning on not paying me on time? I’m not going to rent to you,’” Vitek said. 

Sommer recommended the grace period as a modest target for negotiation. Trying to extend this time can give you more wiggle room in the event of an income shock, such as an illness, without necessarily raising a red flag for landlords.

With reasonable expectations and knowledge of landlord-tenant laws, you can make the best of what little leverage you have as a renter, Confer-Hammond said. 

“It’s about understanding how to engage,” she said, “and not necessarily that you’ll be able to get the lease that you want.”

Jack Troy is a PublicSource editorial intern and can be reached at jack@publicsource.org or on Twitter @jacktroywrites.

This story was fact-checked by Ladimir Garcia.

The post Looking to rent in Pittsburgh? Here’s what to know before signing a lease appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Brookline’s Moore Park boasts a water spray feature on its playground, an abundance of sports courts and fields and a pool that recently underwent a $900,000 renovation. 

Just a 1.5-mile drive away in Beltzhoover, McKinley Park features deteriorating tennis courts, a football field flanked by a corroded retaining wall and a skate park that resembles a junkyard.

McKinley Park used to be the neighborhood’s hub for recreation, but deferred maintenance has caused it to “go down over the years,” according to Alicia, a frequent parkgoer who was walking her dog there on a November morning.

The courts are discolored and cracked, and the nets have come off as well.

“We use the tennis courts because no one comes down here,” said Alicia, who plays tennis and runs her dog on the courts. She asked that her last name not be published. 

Inequities among Pittsburgh’s parks often follow lines of neighborhood disadvantage, such as income and race. A Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy analysis of park conditions and neighborhood needs found, for instance, that parks in Homewood, Beltzhoover, Spring Hill and the Hill District begged for investment and served neighborhoods of high need. 

In 2019, residents voted to do something about it. A narrow 52% of Pittsburgh voters approved a parks tax on property owners of $50 for every $100,000 of assessed value. 

Collection began last year, after Pittsburgh City Council approved the tax in December 2020. The tax will raise an estimated $10.9 million next year.

The parks tax was meant for “improvement, maintenance, creation and operation of public parks; improving park safety; providing equitable funding for parks, including those in underserved neighborhoods,” according to the language added to the city charter as a result of the referendum.

Mayor Ed Gainey’s first capital budget, formally unveiled last month, would spend parks tax money on 20 physical improvements to parks, including $2.5 million for Moore and $770,000 for McKinley.

But it would also spend $1.83 million in parks tax revenue on 18 trucks, five tractors, two skid loaders and a car.

That spending has raised questions about whether the budget follows the spirit of the parks tax referendum.

“I don’t think people would have voted to tax themselves just for trucks,” said Cathy Qureshi, president and CEO of the nonprofit Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak said the planned vehicle purchase is “entirely in line with the stated uses of the parks tax,” and will not be used to supplement other functions of city government except during emergencies. Parks workers currently rely on hand-me-down vehicles once used for road maintenance or public safety, he said.

After campaigning hard for the parks tax, and touting a history of public-private collaboration, the conservancy asked for $2.8 million in parks tax funds. Gainey’s budget includes no parks tax money for the conservancy.

“Frankly, through that process, other needs scored more highly,” said Pawlak.

Request denied 

This is the city’s second year collecting the parks tax. Drawing in part from collections since 2021, the administration has proposed budgeting $13.4 million in parks tax funds for capital improvements. 

The biggest items are:

• A Manchester spray park, $2.25 million
• Renovations to Moore’s recreation building, $1.97 million
• Equipment for the Schenley Park Ice Rink, $1.3 million
• Allegheny Commons court upgrades, $857,000
• McKinley tennis court upgrades, $770,000
• Kennard basketball court upgrades, $664,000
• Moore tennis court upgrades, $519,000.

City council must approve the budget and can also amend it. Council is set to hold a public hearing on parks tax spending on Dec. 8. Council members contacted for this story declined to comment ahead of the hearing.

The Parks Conservancy hoped for funds to pursue a set of priorities including:

• Construction in Allegheny Commons and McKinley, $2 million
• Planning and design work in Baxter, McKinley, Kennard, Spring Hill and Heth’s Run, $350,000
• Conservancy operations, staffing and workforce development, $525,000.

In an agreement initiated under former Mayor Bill Peduto and implemented under Gainey’s administration, the conservancy can submit capital budget requests as though it’s a city agency. 

The Capital Projects Facilitation Committee, created by city council in 2010, scores proposals and makes recommendations to the mayor about which to include in the capital budget. The committee has representation from city departments, council and the controller’s office. 

None of the conservancy’s proposals made the final cut this year. That prompted a campaign of around 20 letters from community groups to the administration. 

“We all understand that competition for tax dollars is fierce, but suggest that it is shortsighted to shut the Parks Conservancy out of the use of this revenue stream when they have programs and projects teed up now, and are able to bring additional funding of their own to make them happen,” wrote David Hance, president of the Highland Park Community Development Corp., in one of the letters.

Qureshi said the conservancy appreciates the relationship they have with the city and the Gainey administration. “We met with representatives from the mayor’s office all year, every month, and we’re very grateful for that,” she said.

“It’s a long game,” she added. “Not only is it a long game, it’s a full game, and we support the city. They are our prime partner and we want to work well together.”

Keeping it in-house

City government careened toward fiscal disaster in early 2003 and spent the next 14 years under state oversight. 

Basic park services, like grass cutting and bench repairs, deteriorated under cost-cutting measures. From 2003 to 2004, the city about halved its spending to maintain tennis, basketball and other sport courts. 

After years of revenue surpluses under Peduto, Pawlak said the city has recovered financially.

Gov. Tom Wolf removed Pittsburgh’s designation as a financially distressed city in 2018, but the city’s roughly 160 parks remained underfunded. 

A 2019 analysis by the conservancy, aided by city workers, estimated the annual maintenance deficit at $13 million, in addition to a $400 million backlog on capital projects. 

“The task that sort of falls to this administration is to turn that financial health into restoring our own in-house ability to deliver high-quality services, first and foremost,” Pawlak said. 

The city plan to spend $1.83 million in parks tax revenue on vehicles for the Department of Public Works – which includes a Parks Maintenance Division – is part of that effort, per Pawlak.

Founded in 1996, the Parks Conservancy doesn’t handle routine parks maintenance, but acts as a fundraiser and sometimes manager for projects like the recently built Frick Environmental Center. 

For every $1 in city funding for that project, the nonprofit secured around $2 in private fundraising and grants, according to Qureshi. 

The Parks Conservancy now receives 85% of the city’s annual withdrawal from the Frick Park Trust Fund to maintain the facility, one of 48 cooperative agreements it has had with the City of Pittsburgh over more than 20 years. 

To Qureshi, the Frick Environmental Center offered a natural template for spending some of the parks tax money.

The conservancy was a strong backer of the tax. By Election Day 2019, the conservancy had spent $634,000 to directly fund ad buys, mailers and paid workers to gather petition signatures. 

Three years later, some residents are waiting for results.

Becki, a Spring Hill-City View resident who was walking her dog in Spring Hill Park on a November day, has noticed the lack of attention the city provided to that park.

She noted cosmetic issues like the overgrowth of grass and the absence of a basketball hoop that she believes has been gone since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A staircase was halfway renovated and the lights on the baseball field had been left on consistently for nearly two and a half weeks, she said.

Becki, who asked that her last name not be published, said some residents bring their own lawn mowers to tend to the grass and some strap fencing to their backs to smooth out the baseball infield.

“It’s just been kind of neglected recently,” she said.  

Nowadays, the summer is the only time the park gets used, often by mothers who bring kids to play, but she said you won’t see much of that during the winter. 

“I’ve been here for so long, I’ve seen it up and I’ve seen it down,” Becki said. “It’s quiet, so I don’t mind.” 

Ladimir Garcia is a PublicSource editorial intern. He can be reached at ladimir@publicsource.org.

Terryaun Bell is an editorial intern with PublicSource and can be reached at terryaun@publicsource.org or on Twitter @Terryaun_Bell.

Jack Troy is a PublicSource editorial intern and can be reached at jack@publicsource.org or on Twitter @jacktroywrites.

Aavin Mangalmurti contributed.

This story was fact-checked by Abigail Nemec-Merwede.

The post Gainey budget would spend some parks tax money on trucks — and none via nonprofit conservancy appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

By next month, Pittsburgh may know whether renovating basements and building backyard “granny flats” could cut into the city’s affordable housing shortage.

And Brian Gaudio — plus other potential occupant-landlords like him — might get a hint as to whether a proverbial grandparent, in-law or tenant will be allowed to move in downstairs. 

Gaudio’s home in Garfield doubles as an office for Module, the design-build housing company he heads. A couple of desks on the ground floor sit in a combined kitchen-living room with a hallway leading to a bed and bath. The space is ready to be rented as an accessory dwelling unit [ADU] the moment it’s legal.

“I think a city that has ADUs legal is a signal that it’s a progressive place to develop and build. It’s almost a signal that this city is in the 21st century when it comes to zoning,” Gaudio said.

ADUs are compact and relatively affordable units that can sit within a primary residence like Gaudio’s or in a detached building on a property. They’ve emerged in cities such as Boston and Chicago to help provide low-cost rentals, but have really gained a foothold on the west coast. 

In Los Angeles, one in every four homes built last year was an ADU. That probably hasn’t been the case in Pittsburgh for nearly a century. 

Under legislation introduced by city Councilwoman Deb Gross and passed last month, the Department of City Planning and the Department of Permits, Licensing and Inspections must report on present-day ADUs, plus potential incentives and regulatory changes that might make them prevalent once again. 

The report is due to council by Nov. 23, though Gross told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that might be ambitious for the busy Planning Department. 

“We’re trying to just be methodical and take one step at a time and get this set of shared facts in front of everybody so they can learn and see if this works for Pittsburgh,” Gross told PublicSource. 

A strong regional demand has yet to be seen. Dormont remains hopeful that ADUs could help douse soaring home prices, but the borough hasn’t received a permit request since updating its zoning code to allow them in June 2021. 

Evidence from other cities shows challenges not only in encouraging ADU uptake, but ensuring that benefits don’t concentrate among affluent households that can bear the costs of construction. 

Advocates recognize a range of pitfalls with these units, but anticipate net benefits with carefully crafted legislation. 

Chris Rosselot, policy director for the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, said working professionals on budgets, homeowners looking to supplement their mortgages and family members on fixed incomes all stand to benefit. 

“Looking at an increase in ADUs would definitely help solve the affordable housing crisis that we’re in, but it’s not the only answer,” Rosselot said. 

A return to form

Accessory dwelling units aren’t unheard of in Pittsburgh. 

Online real estate marketplace Zillow lists several Pittsburgh properties built before the first citywide zoning ordinance in 1923 as having “in-law suites,” one of many colloquial terms for ADUs. 

Homes that share a lot with another property but face away from the main residential street are common in parts of the city. A vast majority of these “alley houses” were built before the advent of modern zoning, according to Gross, and they make up a substantial portion of the housing stock in Bloomfield and Lawrenceville. 

“Fast forward 100 years and I also have residents in Morningside and Highland Park who have tried to [build an alley house] and had to jump all these hoops and go through all this red tape,” Gross said. 

There’s nothing illegal about the concept of separate dwellings on the same lot, but property owners in single-unit zones can’t rent out their renovated garages or basements under current ordinances.  

A change in zoning laws could be a full-circle moment for Pittsburgh and reinstate “the density of what our neighborhoods once were,” said Andrew Dash, deputy director of city planning.

Struggles in Garfield

For all the measured optimism in government and advocacy groups, a recent pilot effort in the city warns of obstacles to widespread ADU adoption. 

Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation [BGC] and the City Planning Commission partnered to craft a two-year zoning overlay permitting new ADUs, beginning in September 2018. 

The terms of the expired program hint at what a permanent, more expansive piece of legislation could look like. It required units to be under 800 square feet, limited to two stories and owned by an occupant of the primary residence. The city also waived onsite parking requirements and put a 30-day minimum on ADU leases.

BGC Executive Director Rick Swartz viewed the program as a tool for increasing density in the neighborhood’s single-family zone and making homeownership “a more affordable proposition” for lower-middle income residents. 

In the end, the pilot produced just two permits and no construction, though the permits remain valid. 

Extra units did not materialize, in part due to fears of property reassessments, Swartz said, but also because of untimely overlap with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Construction costs have plagued ADU efforts in other cities. With few, if any grants available in Pittsburgh for this kind of development, lower-income homeowners might balk at borrowing funds to finance ADU construction, according to Swartz.  

Swartz added that some residents, believing the pilot would drive market-rate development, expressed opposition at city council hearings on the legislation. 

“I think everything has to be cast in such a way that the average Pittsburgher can understand what’s the intent of what we’re trying to do here,” Swartz said.

“If the city can take another run at it, [BGC] would certainly jump on board.”

No Airbnbs, please

The Garfield legislation had little impact, but did set some precedents that advocates find important for future legislation. 

Demi Kolke, a senior program manager for Neighborhood Allies, said owner-occupancy requirements could prevent large developers or absentee landlords from entering the market for ADUs. 

“By having an ADU on your property, you’re going to be there, you’re going to be present,” said Kolke. “It could really be a game changer.”

Wary of short-term rentals such as Airbnbs, Rosselot praised the 30-day minimum tenancy clause. 

Done right, ADUs could preserve generational wealth by allowing aging parents to share homes with their children, for example, and keep the property within the family. 

Alternative financing from groups like Bridgeway Capital and the Urban Redevelopment Authority could help lower-income neighborhoods get in on the action. And design templates could make the zoning review process more predictable while limiting pre-development costs. 

“If we’re serious about affordable housing in Pittsburgh,” said Gaudio, “which we as a city say we are serious, then we have to look at how can you add density to single-family zoning.”

Jack Troy is a PublicSource editorial intern and can be reached at jack@publicsource.org or on Twitter @jacktroywrites.

The post City looks to ‘in-law suites’ to shrink affordable housing deficit appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.