Bad tenant in Pennsylvania

[Chris War]

I own a rental property that has been a massive headache since day 1. Anyway, my current tenant is a single woman who owes me a month and a half back rent at this point. She's always giving excuses and lying about payment. I've done the eviction process in PA before. This one is a little different though because I was lenient with her due to her situation and she took advantage of that. She says she's moving out at the end of this month and I'm sure I won't see a penny. I'm going to post the eviction notice on the house this Monday just for legal purposes in case she doesn't leave when she says she will. 

I'm curious if there's anything legal I can do in the meantime to shake her up a bit and try to get paid what I'm owed? PA is ridiculous when it comes to the landlord/tenant situation. Landlords have to jump through hoops to get irresponsible deadbeats to pay their bills. I wish it were as easy as changing locks. 

Any advice? Thanks.

[Chris K.]

@Natalie Schanne

As @Steve Babiak said, you will likely need to bring an ejectment action in that scenario. In some cases, you might need to bring an eviction action instead --- but those cases are rare and the reasoning for it gets pretty technical.

In most cases, the REO department will do nothing for you. If you review the contract you signed, it probably says something to that effect.

You really have no guarantee that the occupants won't trash the property. Having done foreclosure work, I've seen occupants utterly trash a property in a matter of a week. Pretty remarkable actually. 

There was a gentleman on BP that ended up with a nightmare occupant. I think the thread got deleted, but the occupant was a former owner and had means to hire a lawyer and fight. You'll have to think about such risks when buying an occupied property. 

Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it as legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.