Rent my parents five bedroom house, have room mates so I can afford the whole amount. Although we are younger parents, we are very straight laced. My last room mate locked me, my boyfriend, and our 2 yo out of our house with the slide lock (no key). She was smoking pot and cigarettes in her room. She stopped paying her rent, she threatened to have her mafia and gang family kill us (obvi this is a joke, was a mafia or a gang going to come over and demand she be allowed to smoke pot in our home and live there for free?) We went and got the legal eviction, but the problem is that even when you get the eviction ruling, no one enforces it and it costs $130. We packed her stuff and left on the road and told her to come pick up the stuff she left. She showed up with 10 of her scrawny want to be in a gang brothers and a few sisters, they pulled into our lawn in a truck, they entered our home w/o permission, and threatened to kill my mom and boyfriend and other things very loudly with all the neighbors out of their houses listening. The cops literally did nothing! Prior to the eviction she would call the police and they would come over and tell me she was allowed to smoke pot or cigarettes in our home because it was her home too... and that "pot was going to be legal soon anyways". They were absolutely wrong but its not very comforting knowing that they refuse to help because they don't want our haughty community to have any reports of death threats, drug use, etc. Now our new room mate has hoarded in our home (I mean when I went up to our third floor and discovered her hoarding I started tearing up because I had never seen anything like it, not even in the homes of addicts) and was smoking pot in the home (thanks lg police for making these aholes think they are allowed). I told her she had to get rid of all of the stuff and absolutely no pot on the property. She said she was moving out and has not paid us a dime since. All her garbage is now hoarded in my once clear garage and her room. She comes during the day when we are at work and showers and sleeps, smokes cigarettes and pot up there, and drinks beers out of our cooler. She was a seemingly young, nice, professional girl. The day she moved in she got on disability through the company she works for and spends her days taking aderall (among other rx's), drinking rockstars, redbulls, monsters, making coffee and drinking pots upon pots of it, then goes to drinking a margarita, beer, wine, etc. to smoking pot, then back to the amphetamines, then out to the store to find things to hoard, then to destroying my clean house. I have changed the locks and from all I've read, a subleasee has very little rights and if someone is renting a room, pa law states that if a room renter does not leave when asked, all that has to be done is the locks can be changed and you are golden. Now, from what I've read here I feel I may be misinformed? I want to clarify that she stated she was furious she had to minimize the amount of stuff she was hoarding (that is too large to fit in a three bedroom apartment) and *she* stated she was moving out and now refuses to answer/communicate with us, get her stuff out, pay any rent or for any damage, and still lives here when we are at work. In her hoarding, addict ways, she has taken apart all sorts of weird stuff and done A LOT of damage, She was taking up all three bed rooms on our third fllor but only paying for one, she had all sorts of weird cord set ups (large power strip running a little two prong extension crd, to another 2 prong ext cord, to a 2 - 3 prong converter, to contractor lights she had stolen from us). The light in her bathroom is taken apart. The fuse kept flipping and she was complaining we had an electrical problem. Little did we know she was the electrical problem and a gigantic fire hazard, if the smoking, candles, and delayed forgetful ways weren't bad enough. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. If you are going to say no room mates, I have to tell you that I would love nothing more. However, these are very tough times. We have an 8 camera surveillance system, a keypad lock on my daughters door, and we are sort of attachment parents; she is never very far from either of us and ends up in our room in our bed most of the time. Thank you! I really appreciate any responses!

That is a lot to cope with, jastapasta, did you ever think of cutting your losses, dropping everything, moving out and leaving the country and leaving everything to the 'room-mate from hell'?

A lot of this could have been avoided by having rigorous application processes for even living there. Many questions, references, bank statements. You have the tenants who have been rejected by everyone else. You can even require direct deposit of rent!
Granted some deadbeats slip past even the best interviewer. But things like hoarding can easily be stopped - just announce that anything outside of the bedroom will be thrown out, and put locks on the empty bedroom doors. And so on - it's a lot of work being a landlord.

Anyway, no one is allowed to lock a tenant out, whether they are a lodger (roommate) or tenant with their own apartment. Nor put possessions out on the lawn or curb. When you evict (and yes there are fees), you finalize it by having a sheriff or whoever is in charge of it where you live come to the house and escort them out - then you can change the locks.

I'm confused. You went to court and got an eviction order. Correct? The next step was to hire a sheriff to physically remove her. And then you change the locks.

Also, I would complain to the chief of police. If you have a valid eviction order, then she is trespassing if she enters the house. I also don't understand what happened when her "crew" came. Were the police called? Are you telling us the police did not remove any individual who entered your house without your permission?


if someone is renting a room, pa law states that if a room renter does not leave when asked, all that has to be done is the locks can be changed and you are golden.

Wherever you read that, you were misinformed. BUT, you said you obtained a legal eviction order from a court? If that is true you CAN change the locks after the sheriff puts her out.

Once she is removed, you can keep her deposit towards any damages and unpaid rent and if that doesn't cover it, you can sue her for the balance.