Philadelphia Safe Healthy Home Act: Complete Landlord Checklist for November 1, 2026
Philadelphia, PA — June 2026. On April 23, 2026, Philadelphia City Council passed the final two bills in the Safe Healthy Homes Act package by a vote of 16 to 1. Mayor Cherelle Parker signed them into law on May 7, 2026. The laws take effect November 1, 2026.
You have roughly five months. Here is exactly what you need to know and what you need to do.
What Is the Safe Healthy Home Act?
The Safe Healthy Homes Act is a package of three bills introduced by Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke in partnership with tenant advocacy organizations. The full package includes:
- Bill 250329 — Right to Repairs: Authorizes a proactive rental inspection program run by L&I, ties rental license renewal to a clean L&I compliance record, and clarifies licensing requirements
- Bill 250330 — Right to Safety: Expands good cause eviction to all leases regardless of length, strengthens retaliation protections, and codifies tenant organizing rights
- Bill 250331 — Right to Relocation: Established an anti-displacement fund for tenants displaced from unsafe housing — this bill passed separately in June 2025 and is already law
Bills 250329 and 250330 are what take effect November 1, 2026. This guide covers both.
What Changed — The Key Provisions Every Philadelphia Landlord Must Know
1. Good Cause Eviction Now Covers ALL Leases
Before the law: Good cause eviction requirements only applied to month-to-month leases or leases under one year. Landlords with longer leases could choose not to renew without stating a reason.
After November 1: Good cause eviction applies to every lease regardless of length. If you want to terminate a tenancy or not renew a lease, you must have a legally defined reason in writing. Deciding not to renew simply to reset rent at a higher rate is no longer sufficient on its own.
Valid causes still include non-payment of rent, documented lease violations, and owner move-in. What changed is that the previous exemption for longer leases is gone entirely.
2. Rental License Rules — New Notification Requirements
Your rental license is now effective from the date it is approved, not the date you apply. There can be a significant gap between when you submit your paperwork and when L&I processes it. Do not assume you are covered from the day you file.
Once you receive a new rental license, you have 7 days to provide a copy to your tenants — either by posting it in a common area or delivering it directly. This is a new hard requirement.
3. Certificate of Rental Suitability — New Eviction and Rent Rules
Two major changes here that will catch landlords off guard:
Eviction filing: You can no longer file for eviction without attaching a Certificate of Rental Suitability issued within 30 days of the filing date. If your CRS is expired or missing when you try to file, the eviction gets rejected. Full stop. This applies regardless of how much the tenant owes.
Tenant requests: Tenants now have the right to request a Certificate of Rental Suitability at any time during the lease, once every 90 days. You have 10 days to provide it. If you fail to provide it within 10 days, you are legally barred from collecting rent until you do.
4. Violation Disclosure — 24-Hour Window
If you receive a violation notice for an unsafe or unfit condition, you must share it with your tenants within 24 hours of the correction deadline. This is a tight window with no grace period.
5. Expanded Retaliation Protections
Bill 250330 makes it explicitly illegal to take any adverse action against a tenant because they:
- Organized with other tenants or allowed outside organizers access to the property
- Filed a code violation complaint with L&I or any city agency
- Communicated with government officials about property conditions
- Exercised any legally protected tenant right
Adverse actions covered include refusing to lease, restricting access to common areas, changing lease terms, and any other retaliatory measure. The law also specifically calls out using immigration-related threats as retaliation — explicitly illegal.
You now have a legal obligation to confer in good faith with tenant organizations about lease terms and property conditions.
6. Proactive Inspection Program
Bill 250329 authorizes L&I to create a proactive rental inspection program targeting all rental properties, with implementation targeted by July 2030. No more honor system — L&I will be able to inspect your property on a regular cycle without waiting for a tenant complaint.
If you have deferred maintenance or known violations, the clock is ticking. Do not wait until October.
7. Rent Abatement for Habitability Breaches
If a code violation is issued against your property and the correction deadline passes, there is now a legal presumption that you breached the warranty of habitability. The tenant can claim rent relief and the burden is on you to prove otherwise.
8. Four-Year Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations for tenant claims is now four years. Something that happened in 2022 can still be actionable today. Your record keeping must reflect this — all communications, signed documents, maintenance records, and lease-related files for every tenant going back to 2022 must be retained and retrievable.
9. Penalty Structure
Non-compliance means:
- $1,000 per violation or actual damages — whichever is higher
- Plus attorney's fees
- Willful violations trigger triple damages plus attorney's fees plus potential license suspension
A few violations stack up fast. This is not a law where ignorance is a defense.
10. Safe Harbor for City-Caused Delays
One protection for compliant landlords: if you are penalized because of a delay caused by the city — their backlog, processing time — you have a defense. You are not automatically on the hook for bureaucratic slowdowns outside your control. However, proving that the delay was the city's fault rather than yours will not be straightforward.
The Five-Step Checklist: What to Do Before November 1, 2026
✅ Step 1 — Audit Every Rental License You Hold
Go through every property. For each one:
- Is the license current?
- What is the exact approval date (not application date)?
- When does it expire?
- Set a calendar reminder to renew at least 30 days before expiration
If any license is expired or close to expiring, start the renewal process immediately. The new law ties license renewal to your L&I compliance record — outstanding violations could delay or block renewal.
✅ Step 2 — Know Where Your Certificates of Rental Suitability Are
For every property, ask yourself: can I pull a Certificate of Rental Suitability within 10 days on demand?
If you had to think about the answer, the answer is probably no. Build the process now:
- Log into eCLIPSE (the city's online portal)
- Confirm your rental license is active for each property
- Generate and save a current CRS for each property
- Know how to repeat this process within 10 days whenever a tenant requests it
A CRS is free and instant as long as your rental license is active. The bottleneck is always an expired or lapsed license — which is why Step 1 comes first.
✅ Step 3 — Fix Deferred Maintenance Now
If you have known L&I violations or maintenance issues you have been putting off, they just became urgent. The proactive inspection program is coming and you do not know which properties will be inspected first.
More importantly, under the new rent abatement rule, an open code violation creates a legal presumption that you breached the warranty of habitability. Tenants can claim rent relief based on this presumption. Fix your deferred maintenance before November 1.
✅ Step 4 — Extend Your Record Keeping to Four Years
As of today, you need documentation going back to June 2022 minimum. This includes:
- All tenant communications (email, text, written notices)
- All signed lease documents and addenda
- All maintenance requests and work orders
- All rent payment records
- All inspection reports and violation notices
If your records are not organized or easily retrievable, build that system now. In four years, something from today could still be actionable.
✅ Step 5 — Get a Philadelphia Landlord-Tenant Attorney to Review Your Lease
The specifics of how Bills 250329 and 250330 will be enforced are still being worked out. Get professional legal advice specific to your portfolio before November 1. At minimum, have a Philadelphia landlord-tenant attorney review:
- Your current lease language — especially non-renewal and termination clauses
- Your current notice procedures
- Your current maintenance and violation response process
Who Should Be Concerned — And Who Shouldn't
If you are already running clean, compliant properties — licensed, inspected, maintained properly, responsive to tenants — the Safe Healthy Home Act formalizes things you should already be doing. The $1,000 per violation penalty is not targeting you. It is targeting the landlord who has had an open violation for six months while continuing to collect rent.
If you have deferred maintenance, expired licenses, or properties that have not been inspected in years — this law is directly aimed at your situation. November 1 is not far away.
The bigger picture: This law may push some mom-and-pop landlords out of the Philadelphia market. Larger institutional investors who already have compliance infrastructure will adapt more easily. For small landlords who manage professionally, this is an opportunity to differentiate — your compliance becomes a competitive advantage.
Why This Matters for November 1
The November 1 deadline is real. These are not proposals. They are signed law.
Compliant landlords who act now will spend 2-4 weeks getting their records and processes in order. Non-compliant landlords who wait until October will face a scramble — and potentially open themselves up to liability for violations that already exist.
The time to act is now, not October 31.
Need Help Getting Compliant Before November 1?
TrustArt Realty has been managing Philadelphia rental properties since 2012. We handle rental licensing, Certificate of Rental Suitability management, maintenance compliance, and all lease documentation for every property we manage.
If you are a Philadelphia landlord trying to navigate the Safe Healthy Home Act before the November 1 deadline, we offer a free property management consultation — no obligation.
📞 (267) 929-1500
📧 info@trustartrealty.com
🌐 trustartrealty.com
For more detail on the Safe Healthy Home Act, including a full breakdown of the good cause eviction changes, retaliation protections, and tenant organizing rights, read our complete episode breakdown: Philadelphia Rental Market May 2026: 19149 Zip Code Deep Dive & the Safe Healthy Home Act Explained →
*TrustArt Realty is a licensed Pennsylvania real estate brokerage and Certified Residential Management Company (CRMC) serving Philadelphia landlords since 2012.
