Evicting a tenant in Pennsylvania costs a landlord roughly $300 to $500 in unavoidable court and constable fees for a straightforward, uncontested case handled without a lawyer. Add an attorney, and the total typically climbs to $1,500 to $5,000 or more. Neither figure includes the rent you lose while the case moves through the courts or what you spend cleaning up afterward, and those two line items often outweigh everything else combined.
Court Filing Fees
Your first out-of-pocket cost is the filing fee at your local Magisterial District Court, where you file a Landlord and Tenant Complaint once the required notice period has run. The fee scales with how much the tenant owes. For 2026, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s adjusted schedule sets the amounts as follows:
- Claims of $2,000 or less: $102.50
- Claims between $2,001 and $4,000: $125.50
- Claims between $4,001 and $12,000: $171.00
These are the statewide base figures.1Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. 2026 Magisterial District Court Fee Schedule On top of them, expect $40 to $50 in automation and access-to-justice surcharges that vary slightly by judicial district, plus postage for the court’s mailings to the tenant.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42 – Section 1725.1 Costs The $12,000 cap is the jurisdictional limit of the magisterial district courts. If the tenant owes more than that, the excess has to be pursued separately at the Court of Common Pleas.
Constable Fees for Service and Lockout
After you file, a constable has to deliver the summons to the tenant. Pennsylvania fixes these fees by statute, and they’re smaller than most landlords assume. The base charge is $13 to serve a complaint or summons, plus $5 for each additional tenant at the same address and $2.50 for the return of service.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 44 – Section 7161 Fees
The constable also bills mileage at the IRS standard rate, which for 2026 is $0.725 per mile.4Internal Revenue Service. Standard Mileage Rates for 2026 A typical single-defendant service runs $25 to $45 all in. If the constable has to make repeat trips to find the tenant, each attempt adds mileage.
You’ll pay the constable twice. The second charge comes after your hearing, when the court issues an Order for Possession and the constable has to serve that too. Service of the order follows the same $13 base plus add-ons. Then, if the tenant still hasn’t left by the set-out date, the constable returns to physically remove the occupants. That full ejectment costs $90 plus mileage and return-of-service charges.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 44 – Section 7161 Fees
One warning on this piece: you cannot change the locks, remove belongings, or shut off utilities yourself before the constable executes the order. Self-help eviction exposes you to liability that will dwarf any constable fee you were trying to avoid.
Attorney Fees
You don’t need a lawyer for the magisterial district court hearing, and many landlords with clean nonpayment cases handle the whole thing themselves. If you do hire counsel, flat-fee packages for simple evictions typically run $500 to $1,500. That usually covers the notice to quit, the complaint, and one hearing appearance.
Contested cases shift the economics. When a tenant raises counterclaims about the condition of the property, or the matter requires multiple appearances, billing often moves to hourly rates between $200 and $450 depending on the attorney’s experience. A contested matter that stretches into an appeal can push legal costs past $3,000 without much trouble.
If your lease has a prevailing-party fee-shifting clause, you may be able to recover attorney fees from the tenant, assuming the court finds the fees reasonable and the tenant has anything worth collecting. Pennsylvania law implies a reciprocal right, so the tenant can collect from you under the same clause if they win. Keep that in mind before adding aggressive fee language to future leases.
What an Appeal Adds
If the tenant appeals to the Court of Common Pleas, your budget changes shape. The appeal filing fee itself runs roughly $145 to $150 depending on the county. The real expense is what follows: formal discovery, motions, and potentially a trial. If you had been handling the case on your own, this is the point where you’ll almost certainly need to hire an attorney.
To stay in the property during the appeal, the tenant has to post a bond or escrow deposit (for a non-indigent tenant, the lesser of three months’ rent or the total arrears at the time of appeal) and continue depositing monthly rent with the court. If they miss those deposits, you can ask the court to lift the stay.5Legal Information Institute. 246 Pennsylvania Code Rule 1008 – Appeal as Supersedeas The escrowed money eventually comes to you if you win, but during the appeal your cash flow is tied up and your legal bills keep running.
Cleanup, Locks, and Leftover Belongings
Once the property is back in your hands, the spending isn’t finished. Changing the locks is the immediate priority. Rekeying a typical three-door home runs roughly $195 to $295. Installing new deadbolts costs $195 to $395 per lock.
Deep cleaning after an eviction usually costs more than a routine turnover. Professional move-out cleaning for a three-bedroom unit runs $250 to $450, and seriously neglected properties cost more.
Abandoned belongings carry their own rules. You can’t just throw them out. You have to send written notice to the tenant’s last known address and any forwarding address they gave you. The tenant then has 10 days from the postmark to pick up the items or request storage for up to 30 more days. If they request storage, you pick the location and they owe the cost.6Pennsylvania General Assembly. The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 If they do neither within the 10-day window, you can dispose of the property. Hauling large items or hiring junk removal can add $300 to $1,000.
Lost Rent Is Usually the Biggest Number
The expense that dwarfs the filing fees, constable charges, and often the attorney bill is the rent you aren’t collecting while the process runs. An uncontested nonpayment case moves through notice, filing, hearing, the 10-day appeal window, and the 10-day minimum between service of the Order for Possession and the lockout. In the best case, that’s five to seven weeks. With a continuance, an appeal, or a backed-up constable schedule, three to six months is realistic.
At $1,200 a month in rent, a three-month eviction costs you $3,600 in lost income before any attorney or cleanup spending. You can apply the security deposit to unpaid rent and damages after the fact, but most deposits cover one month at best. A money judgment for the remaining balance is only worth what you can collect on it, and collection is a separate action with its own costs. For most landlords, the vacancy during the eviction turns out to be the single largest line item in the whole experience.