This is a bit of a sticky situation, but here it is:

My girlfriend recently purchased her recently deceased parents home in March 2007. The house is in Philadelphia, PA.

A month prior to her purchasing the home, the house was found to have a gas leak, so my girlfriend's sister (35 years old) who was living in the house (rent free) came to stay with us in our apartment, since she had no where else to go, and little means to support herself.

During the time the sister was staying with us in our apartment, my girlfriend bought the house (March 2007), and we hired contractors to make many repairs and improvements to the house.

It is now June, and all renovations and repairs have been made to the house. We have now moved into the house, taking the sister with us since she has lost her job and has not yet found work.

The sister has become defiant and disrespectful to both my girlfriend and me. The sister does not contribite to the household. When she was told recently that she could not bring friends into the house until we were finished with decorating and unpacking she launched into a drunken tirade (yelling, slamming doors, breaking household items, etc.).

When we told her that this living situation is not going to work, and that she has to leave, she refused to go stating "This may be your house, but it's my home."

We would like to know how what steps/legal options we should follow to get her removed/evicted from the property.

I have been told by some police friends of mine that we can not have the police remove her, because she has "established residency" at this address from the time when she lived there with the parents (pre-sale to my girlfriend).

Any help that you can give would be very appreciated...

You need to treat her like a month to month tenant and give her a 30 day eviction notice. She has established residence, you gave it to her. Call your county court house and ask for help with the eviction paperwork. I may cost you $85 but it sounds like money well spent.

Thank you so much for your reply!

Well, we had to wind up going a different route.

Because her episodes and behavior became increasingly bizarre, and aggressive... and because we found that she had stopped taking her prescribed anti-depressants... after exhausting all other options to have family try to house her (she refused to leave, and was defiant about it), we finally (last night) had to end up getting a court ordered ("302") involuntary admission for her into a local mental health facilty.

She is there for a mandatory 3 day evaluation, and if the mental health professionals find reason to keep her longer, she will be there for 28 days of treatment.

I was going to ask about something like that since I found it unusual for a 35 yr old woman to be in a situation like that.

But this is only temporary. At some point she will be released and then need someplace to go. So you need to work at establishin so sort of care plan for her.

The whole family is meeting to discuss that tonight.

Thanks for the reply. :-)