How to Fill Out and File the Pennsylvania Landlord/Tenant Complaint Form

To start a Pennsylvania eviction or rent-collection case, you file the Pennsylvania Landlord/Tenant Complaint form at the Magisterial District Court covering the property’s address, after first serving a written Notice to Quit and waiting out the required notice period. The form is available from the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania website or from your local Magisterial District Court office.¹ Filing before the notice period runs is the fastest way to get the case dismissed, so the notice always comes first.

Serve the Notice to Quit First

Pennsylvania law requires a written Notice to Quit before you can file the complaint. The clock starts on the date you serve it, not the date you wrote it, and the required waiting period depends on your grounds.²

Unpaid rent: 10 days from service.
Lease expiration or breach, lease of one year or less or month-to-month: 15 days from service.
Lease expiration or breach, lease longer than one year: 30 days from service.

Mobile home park spaces run on their own schedule under Section 501(c) of the Landlord and Tenant Act, with notice periods that range from 15 days to three months. Read that section directly if your property is a mobile home space.²

Write down the exact service date and keep proof of how you delivered it. You will enter that date on the complaint, and the judge will check it against the filing date.

What to Gather Before You Start the Form

Pull everything together before you sit down with the complaint. You will need:

The tenant’s full legal name as it appears on the lease. Initials, nicknames, and abbreviations are not acceptable. If more than one tenant signed, list each.³
The street address of the rental unit, which also determines which Magisterial District Court has jurisdiction.
Lease details: written or oral, start date, monthly rent, security deposit, and whether it is month-to-month or fixed term.
A clear financial breakdown of rent owed, any late fees authorized by the written lease, and any property damages, with ledgers, receipts, or bank records to support every dollar.
A copy of the Notice to Quit and proof of its service date.

Your money claim cannot exceed $12,000. That is the monetary jurisdiction cap for Magisterial District Courts; court costs and interest do not count against it. If the tenant owes more, you have to file at the Court of Common Pleas instead.⁴

Filling Out the Complaint Section by Section

The form is one page. Every field matters.

Party Information

At the top, enter the county where the property sits. You are the plaintiff (the landlord); enter your name and address. The tenant is the defendant; enter their name and address. The Magisterial District number corresponds to the court where you will file. If you are not sure which court covers the property, use the Pennsylvania Courts interactive map to look it up.⁵

Property and Lease Details

Enter the full address of the rental property and indicate whether the lease is residential or nonresidential. Fill in the monthly rent and security deposit. Mark whether the lease is written or oral and whether it is month-to-month or fixed. The form asks you to state that you are the landlord and that you leased the property to the named tenant.⁶

Grounds for the Complaint

Check one of three grounds:

Lease term ended, and the tenant has not vacated.
Breach of lease conditions. You must describe the breach on the form.
Unpaid rent that was demanded and remains unpaid.

If you check the breach box, write a brief factual description of what the tenant did. Keep it to the facts. The hearing is where you make your full case.

Relief Requested

You can ask for possession of the property, a money judgment, or both. If you want both, check both boxes and enter the dollar amount. Most landlords dealing with nonpayment check both.⁶

Notice to Quit and Verification

Enter the date you served the Notice to Quit. Then sign and date the verification at the bottom. Your signature certifies that the facts in the complaint are true and that the filing complies with the court system’s Case Records Public Access Policy.⁷ Bring one copy with an original signature for the court.

Where to File, What It Costs, What Happens Next

File at the Magisterial District Court that covers the property’s location. The filing fee depends on your money claim. The court system’s 2025 cost table lists:⁸

Claim of $2,000 or less: $100.50
Claim of $2,001 to $4,000: $122.50
Claim of $4,001 to $12,000: $167.00

A separate fee covers service of process, the cost of having the complaint officially delivered to the tenant. Budget for both when you walk in. If you are seeking possession only without a money judgment, expect the lowest tier.

Once the clerk accepts the complaint and payment, the court sets a hearing. Pennsylvania rules require the hearing to fall no fewer than seven and no more than fifteen days after filing.⁹ A sheriff or certified constable then delivers the complaint to the tenant by personal service or mail and files a proof of service with the court.

If the tenant is or might be an active-duty servicemember, federal law adds a step. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, you must file an affidavit stating whether the defendant is in military service before any default judgment can be entered. A false affidavit is a federal crime punishable by up to one year in prison.¹⁰ You can check active-duty status for free through the Department of Defense SCRA website.¹¹

The Hearing

Both sides appear before the Magisterial District Judge on the scheduled date. Bring everything: the lease, payment records, photographs of damage, the Notice to Quit with proof of service, and any written communications with the tenant. Evidence you leave at home will not be considered.

The judge hears both parties and issues a judgment, which may include possession, a money award, or both. If it goes against you, the case is dismissed.

One point to know going in on a nonpayment case: the tenant can stop the eviction at any point before they are actually removed by paying the full unpaid rent and fees. This pay-and-stay right comes from Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 518 and survives even after a judgment for possession is entered.¹² It does not apply to evictions based on lease breach or lease expiration.

Getting the Tenant Out After You Win

Winning does not let you change the locks the next day. The judgment opens a waiting period, and only after it expires can you request the Order for Possession, which authorizes a constable or sheriff to physically remove the tenant.

Residential lease: request the Order for Possession after the 10th day following the judgment, but no later than 180 days after the judgment date.¹³
Non-residential lease: request the Order after the 15th day following the judgment.¹³

File the request with the same Magisterial District Judge who entered the judgment. The judge issues the Order for Possession and sends it to the sheriff or a certified constable for execution. In residential cases you can request reissuance for up to two additional 60-day periods, but everything must stay inside the 180-day window from the judgment date.

Do not attempt a self-help eviction. Changing locks, shutting off utilities, or hauling out the tenant’s belongings yourself is unlawful. Only a sheriff or certified constable acting on a court-issued Order for Possession can carry out the removal.

Appeals

Either party can appeal, and the deadline depends on what is being appealed. Appeals go to the Prothonotary at the Court of Common Pleas in the county where the Magisterial District Court sits.

Judgment for possession: appeal within 10 days of the judgment date.
Money judgment only, with no possession dispute: appeal within 30 days of the judgment date.

A tenant who appeals a possession judgment and wants to stay in the property during the appeal must also obtain a supersedeas, a stay that halts the eviction. The tenant does this by depositing with the Prothonotary a sum equal to the lesser of three months’ rent or the total rent in arrears at the time of the appeal, then continuing to deposit each month’s rent as it comes due.¹⁴ If the tenant misses a required payment, you can file a request to terminate the supersedeas and proceed with the eviction.

Philadelphia Uses a Different Court

If your rental is in Philadelphia, do not use this process. Philadelphia landlord-tenant cases go through the Philadelphia Municipal Court’s civil division, which handles eviction disputes regardless of the dollar amount of the claim. The forms, service rules, and available programs differ. Philadelphia allows service by posting on the property and sending a copy by first-class mail, which is not standard elsewhere in Pennsylvania, and the court also runs the Philadelphia Eviction Prevention Project, which provides tenants with a lawyer of the day and a court navigator at hearings. Get the city-specific instruction sheet and forms from the Municipal Court’s website before you file.³

1
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. For the Public
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code – The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951
3
Philadelphia Municipal Court. Instruction Sheet for the Landlord and Tenant Form
4
Lancaster County Legal Journal. Starting a Civil Suit in the Magisterial District Court
5
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Courts Launch New Interactive Magisterial District Court Map
6
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. Landlord/Tenant Complaint
7
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. Request for Order for Possession
8
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. Magisterial District Judge Cost Table Effective 2025
9
Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure for Magisterial District Judges Rule 504
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3931 – Protection of Servicemembers Against Default Judgments
11
SCRA (Servicemembers Civil Relief Act). Welcome to SCRA
12
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Consumer Guide to Tenant and Landlord Rights
13
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure for Magisterial District Judges Rule 515
14
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure for Magisterial District Judges Rule 1008