Pet Policy Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Pennsylvania law says, what's specific to Philadelphia - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Pennsylvania sets no cap on nonrefundable pet fees or monthly pet rent - your lease is the only limit.
- A refundable pet deposit is security money, so it counts inside the two months' rent ceiling during your first year.
- From the second year on, everything your landlord holds in escrow drops to one month's rent, pet money included.
- Philadelphia's Chapter 9-800 lets you pay any deposit above one month's rent in three monthly installments.
- Assistance animals are never pets, so no pet deposit, fee, or pet rent may be charged for them.
Understanding the Pet Policy Clause
The pet policy clause decides three things: whether your animal is allowed at all, what it costs up front, and what happens when a property manager finds out later. In Philadelphia, that cost is whatever the lease says - Pennsylvania caps none of it.
What state law does control is the refundable half. A pet deposit is security money under 68 P.S. § 250.511a, capped at two months' rent in year one and one month's rent after that. Philadelphia adds the piece that helps at signing: the right to pay anything over one month in three installments.
What renters assume
Renters treat a pet deposit as its own separate charge, sitting outside whatever limit applies to the regular security deposit.
What is actually true
If it's refundable, it's security money. Pennsylvania counts it inside the two months' rent first-year ceiling no matter what the lease calls it - while a nonrefundable pet fee sits outside that cap entirely.
Pennsylvania sits at the no-cap end of this chart with Texas, Florida, and Illinois, so nobody is going to tell your landlord the number is too high. Denver holds the same deposit to $300 and Seattle to 25% of the first month's rent - here, your leverage is the refundable label and Philadelphia's three-installment right.
Plain English Version
Think of your move-in money as one bucket, not several. Pennsylvania limits how full the refundable bucket can get, but a nonrefundable pet fee gets poured outside it and never comes back.
Pet Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Philadelphia, PA
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
PETS. NO PETS ARE PERMITTED. IF THERE ARE PETS, LESSEE(S) AGREES TO PAY AN ADDITIONAL $10 PER MONTH PER CAT OR DOG UNDER 40 POUNDS AND $20 PER MONTH PER DOG OVER 40 POUNDS. ONE DOG PERMITTED, NO ADDITIONAL FEE.
Quoted from the published opinion in Oldendick v. Crocker, 2016-Ohio-5621, 70 N.E.3d 1033 (Ohio Ct. App. 8th Dist.). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“IF THERE ARE PETS”
A conditional immediately after a ban, which is the drafting fault the Ohio court named. Pennsylvania has no statute regulating pet deposits, pet fees or pet rent at all - those terms are set entirely by the lease - so a self-contradictory paragraph is not a technicality here. It is the only text there is.
“LESSEE(S) AGREES TO PAY AN ADDITIONAL $10 PER MONTH”
Monthly pet rent is unregulated in Pennsylvania. It is not security, so it never touches the escrow cap, and nothing sets a ceiling on it. That makes pet rent the route a Philadelphia landlord will usually take - the money is unlimited, it arrives every month, and none of it comes back.
“$20 PER MONTH PER DOG OVER 40 POUNDS”
If instead the lease takes a refundable pet deposit, it is part of your security deposit and 68 P.S. § 250.511a applies: no escrow sum over two months' rent in the first year, and over one month's rent from the second year on. So a pet deposit added at renewal can push the total past a line the landlord is required to come back under - a refund you have to ask for, because it does not happen automatically.
“NO ADDITIONAL FEE”
Worth holding onto in a state that caps nothing. And there is one category the lease cannot price at all: an assistance or service animal is not a pet, and both the federal Fair Housing Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (43 P.S. § 955(h)) require a reasonable accommodation with no pet deposit and no pet rent. You remain responsible for damage the animal actually does - you are not chargeable for its presence. In Westmont Mirador LLC v. Shurtliff (Utah Ct. App. 2014) a renter argued exactly that, and lost: the court held a $200 nonrefundable fee plus $20 a month bought only “the privilege of keeping [a] pet in the apartment”, and pet damage still came out of the ordinary deposit. Utah law does not bind a court here, but the reasoning is the reasoning landlords use.
The court called it what it is - an “internally inconsistent pet clause”. It bans pets and prices them in the same breath, so the court refused to read the rent out of it at all and used the parties' own stipulation instead. The tenant then won the part that matters: because the pet fee paid for pet-related risk, and the next tenant had no pet, the landlord suffered no actual loss and had no business keeping that money out of her deposit. She recovered the $640 balance plus $640 more in statutory double damages - $1,280 - under Ohio's deposit statute.
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Pennsylvania Law on Pet Policy Clause
- Pennsylvania has no statute regulating pet deposits, nonrefundable pet fees, or monthly pet rent, so those terms are set entirely by the lease.
- A refundable pet deposit is part of the security deposit: 68 P.S. § 250.511a bars any escrow sum over two months' rent in the first year and over one month's rent from the second year on, whatever the landlord labels it.
- Nonrefundable pet fees and recurring pet rent fall outside that escrow cap and are not limited by Pennsylvania law.
- Assistance and service animals are not pets: the federal Fair Housing Act and the PA Human Relations Act (43 P.S. § 955(h)) require a reasonable accommodation with no pet deposit, fee, or rent, though the tenant still owes for actual damage the animal causes.
68 P.S. § 250.511a - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Pennsylvania has no pet statute at all. Nothing in state law caps a pet deposit, a one-time pet fee, or monthly pet rent, so those numbers come straight out of the lease you sign. The only rule that reaches pet money is the escrow limit in 68 P.S. § 250.511a.
That section caps everything your landlord holds at two months' rent during the first year and one month's rent from the second year on, whatever the landlord labels it. That's looser than Arizona, where all security combined stops at one and a half months, and far looser than Colorado, which caps a pet deposit at $300 and pet rent at $35 a month. Nonrefundable fees escape the Pennsylvania cap completely, which is exactly why so many leases favor them.
Pennsylvania Tenant Protections
A refundable pet deposit is escrow money under 68 P.S. § 250.511a, so it cannot push what your landlord holds past two months' rent in your first year or one month's rent from the second year on. Because that cap counts every sum however it is denominated, a landlord cannot dodge it by renaming ordinary security money a refundable pet deposit.
The federal Fair Housing Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act at 43 P.S. § 955(h) place service and assistance animals outside the pet clause entirely, so no pet deposit, fee, or pet rent applies to them, though you still owe for actual damage the animal causes.
What's Specific to Philadelphia
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Philadelphia caps pet fees and pet rent no more than Harrisburg does - there is no local dollar limit either. What the city adds is timing: under Chapter 9-800 (Bill 250044-A, effective December 2, 2025), any deposit above one month's rent can be paid in three monthly installments, and a refundable pet deposit folded into that amount rides along. Pennsylvania law gives you no such right.
That matters in a city where two months of deposit plus first month's rent is a four-figure ask before you've moved a single box. Watch how your lease splits the money: a landlord in Fishtown or Graduate Hospital who charges a nonrefundable pet fee instead of a deposit puts it outside both the escrow cap and the installment right. Breed and weight limits in Center City buildings usually come from the owner's insurer rather than from city hall.
Refundable makes it escrow money under 68 P.S. § 250.511a - capped and returnable. A nonrefundable fee is gone the day you pay it.
Breed, weight, and name in writing is what stops a new property manager from later calling your approved dog an unauthorized pet.
In your first year, every refundable sum your landlord holds - security plus pet deposit - is capped at two months' rent. Add it up before signing.
Philadelphia lets you pay anything above one month's rent in three monthly installments. A landlord demanding it all at signing is ignoring Chapter 9-800.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- 68 P.S. § 250.511a, read on codes.findlaw.com. Pennsylvania publishes the official text at www.palegis.us. FindLaw marks its copy of this section current as of January 1, 2026.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Deposit renamed a nonrefundable fee
Only refundable money counts inside Pennsylvania's two months' rent escrow cap. Relabel it a pet fee and it sits outside the limit - and outside your refund.
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Uncapped monthly pet rent
Pennsylvania sets no ceiling on pet rent, and it renews with every lease term. Colorado holds the identical charge to $35 a month.
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Full deposit demanded at signing
Philadelphia lets you spread anything over one month's rent across three monthly installments. A lease requiring the whole sum upfront conflicts with Chapter 9-800.
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Per-day unauthorized pet penalties
Daily fines for an animal management says was never approved stack up fast and usually arrive attached to a lease-violation notice. Get written approval before move-in.
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No assistance-animal carve-out
A flat no-pets clause isn't enforceable against a service or support animal. Assistance animals are never pets under the FHA or the PA Human Relations Act.
Your Rights as a Philadelphia Tenant
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Your pet deposit money is capped
A refundable pet deposit is escrow under 68 P.S. § 250.511a, so everything your landlord holds can't top two months' rent in year one.
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One month's rent after year one
From the second year forward, the total your landlord may keep in escrow drops to one month's rent - pet deposit included.
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Pay the deposit in installments
Philadelphia's Chapter 9-800 gives you three monthly installments for any deposit above one month's rent, a right Pennsylvania law does not provide.
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Assistance animals cost nothing extra
Service and support animals sit outside the pet clause, so no pet deposit, fee, or pet rent applies - though you still owe for actual damage.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find the refundable line
Search your lease for the words refundable and nonrefundable. That single distinction decides whether the money is capped and returnable or gone for good.
Split the three charges apart
List them separately: refundable deposit, one-time pet fee, monthly pet rent. Landlords quote one lump sum because the pieces follow completely different rules.
Add up the escrow total
Security plus refundable pet deposit can't exceed two months' rent in your first year. Do that math before you sign, not after.
Ask for installments in writing
Philadelphia gives you three monthly installments on anything above one month's rent. Get the payment schedule into the lease or a signed addendum.
Get the pet approved on paper
Name the animal, breed, and weight in a signed addendum. Verbal approval from a leasing agent evaporates the moment the building changes hands.
Document, then demand
Photograph floors, trim, and carpet at move-in and move-out. If your deposit doesn't come back properly, send a dated demand letter and call a Philadelphia legal aid or tenant hotline.