Month to Month Lease

[John Mano]

Is it easier to evict if the lease is month-to-month compared to a traditional 1 yr?  I'm considering doing a month to month lease for my upcoming tenants so it's easier to terminate and get them out if things don't work out.  I understand the drawback is that they can leave at any time but I think the trade off is worth it.  I feel it's not good for everyone if they are forced to stay due to lease and they are disgruntled.   

[Steve Babiak]

Quote from @Slawek Jakubowski:

I'm not sure, but I think I heard someone say a month to month lease is no longer legal in Philly.

No, month to month leases are still legal in Philadelphia, but they are stupid for the landlord to use. See the post from @Kevin M. to better understand why. But essentially, the landlord can’t just end a month to month lease, there has to be a reason that the law in Philadelphia considers to be valid. Any lease that is less than 12 months falls under that same law, so in Philadelphia I had to stop doing “trial” leases that were for like five or six months because of this law.

And in Philadelphia don’t let your 12 month lease renew for month to month like many leases do by default; this law kicks in if you do that. Lease renewal should always be for at least 12 months in Philadelphia. I think it might be acceptable to do a lease modification to extend a lease by a fixed number of months, where you change it from 12 months to say fifteen months.