Pennsylvania HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in Pennsylvania?

A Pennsylvania condominium restricts short-term rentals through its recorded declaration under the Uniform Condominium Act, and a planned community does so through its recorded declaration under the Uniform Planned Community Act.¹² The question is unusually central in the Pocono Mountains, where approximately 6,500 active short-term rentals operate, most described as vacation rentals, and much of that activity sits inside large private planned communities whose governing documents frequently decide whether a rental is permitted.¹³

Pennsylvania regulates common-interest housing through three separate statutes in Title 68 of the Consolidated Statutes: the Uniform Condominium Act (68 Pa.C.S. § 3101 et seq.) for condominiums, the Uniform Planned Community Act (68 Pa.C.S. § 5101 et seq.) for planned communities, and the Real Estate Cooperative Act (68 Pa.C.S. § 4101 et seq.) for cooperatives, which are less common.¹²¹⁴ Pennsylvania did not adopt a single unified Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act; it enacted three separate acts that share drafting concepts but are applied separately.

These acts descend from the uniform-law family (the condominium act from the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act, the planned-community act from the mid-1990s planned-community provisions) and predate the 2008 amendments to that family, so they do not contain a 2008-style rental owner-protection provision.¹⁵ Short-term-rental regulation is primarily local: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh license and permit STRs, many Pocono townships regulate, and the state hotel occupancy tax applies to stays of fewer than 30 days.³⁷ Pennsylvania also has two intermediate appellate courts, and the distinction matters, because an association-versus-owner dispute over a nonprofit association's affairs generally reaches the Commonwealth Court rather than the Superior Court.¹² The sections below set out the framework, the mechanics, and recent activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The three uniform acts

Condominiums are governed by the Uniform Condominium Act (UCA), 68 Pa.C.S. § 3101 et seq., enacted in 1980 and based on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act. It replaced the earlier Unit Property Act.¹⁵ Planned communities, the generic form of a homeowners association where owners hold title to lots and the association owns or controls common facilities, are governed by the Uniform Planned Community Act (UPCA), 68 Pa.C.S. § 5101 et seq., adopted in 1996 and generally applicable to planned communities created after February 2, 1997.¹⁶ Cooperatives are governed by the Real Estate Cooperative Act, 68 Pa.C.S. § 4101 et seq., enacted in 1992; its statutory short title is the "Real Estate Cooperative Act."¹⁴ Cooperatives are less common in Pennsylvania than condominiums and planned communities.

Pennsylvania adopted three separate acts rather than a single unified statute. The three share uniform-law concepts (the recorded declaration, the public offering statement, amendment mechanics, and assessment and lien provisions) but are codified and applied separately, so the correct act must be matched to the correct form.¹⁷ Because the acts predate the 2008 amendments to the uniform family, neither the UCA nor the UPCA contains a 2008-style provision protecting existing owners from later rental restrictions.

Each act reaches some communities created before its effective date. Under the UPCA, section 5102 applies an enumerated list of provisions, including the amendment provision (§ 5219) and the assessment-lien provision (§ 5315), retroactively to planned communities created before the act, though only as to events occurring after the effective date and without invalidating existing declaration provisions.¹⁸ The condominium act contains a parallel applicability provision in section 3102.¹ The practical source of rental authority under each act is the recorded declaration. Neither act itself declares whether short-term rentals are allowed; that answer lives in the declaration, read against the act's default rules.

2B. Restricting rentals, amendments, and grandfathering

An association adds or strengthens a rental restriction by amending the recorded declaration. Both acts set the same default threshold: a declaration may be amended by owners holding at least 67% of the votes in the association, or a larger percentage if the declaration requires one (68 Pa.C.S. § 3219(a) for condominiums; § 5219(a) for planned communities).⁵⁶ A recorded amendment is effective only on recording, and an action challenging its validity must be brought within one year.

Both acts otherwise require unanimous consent to change "the uses to which any unit is restricted," but each act expressly provides that this phrase "shall not include leasing of units" (§ 3219(d)(2); § 5219(d)(2)).⁵⁶ The effect is that a leasing restriction can be adopted at the 67% amendment threshold and does not require unanimous consent. This is a Pennsylvania amendment, not a 2008-style owner shield, and it cuts toward association authority rather than against it. That said, no statutory grandfathering shield protects an owner who bought before an amendment; whether a later restriction binds such an owner turns on the applicable act, the declaration's language, and Pennsylvania common law, under which restrictive covenants are strictly construed against the party seeking to enforce them.¹⁹

Recent Commonwealth Court decisions show the limits of association authority. In the Pocono resort communities, the recorded declaration frequently controls whether a short-term rental is permitted, as an application of the UPCA and the declaration rather than any special statute. Where a declaration permits rentals and limits structures to "single-family dwellings," courts have treated that language as a building restriction and have voided bylaw amendments that tried to restrict short-term rentals without amending the declaration.²⁰ Boards should not import a Florida-style or California-style statutory grandfathering rule; Pennsylvania has none.

2C. State law, tax, and the local layer

Pennsylvania does not appear to have a statute preempting local short-term-rental regulation, and regulation is primarily local. Philadelphia requires a limited lodging operator license for a primary residence rented short-term and a rental license with a hotel designation for a non-primary residence, along with a zoning permit and a commercial activity license.⁷ Pittsburgh and many Pocono townships regulate as well, producing a fragmented patchwork documented by the nonpartisan Joint State Government Commission study published in March 2025, which was directed by a 2024 House Resolution and recommended a tiered statewide framework.²¹

Lodging is taxed at two levels. The state hotel occupancy tax is 6%, the same rate as the sales tax, and applies to the rental of a room, apartment, or house for fewer than 30 days.³ The Department of Revenue collects an additional 1% local tax in Allegheny and Philadelphia counties on the state tax base, which it remits to those counties, and many counties impose separate hotel taxes collected locally; combined rates reach roughly 15.5% in Philadelphia and 14% in Allegheny County.²² Act 109 of 2018 (House Bill 1511), effective January 22, 2019, expanded the definition of "operator" to include booking agents such as online home-sharing platforms, requiring them to collect and remit tax on both the room charge and the accommodation fee.²³

The critical distinction for associations is that local regulation and the hotel tax govern the owner-to-government relationship. They neither grant nor remove association authority. An owner who holds a valid local license and remits the hotel tax may still violate the declaration, and an owner who satisfies the declaration may still owe a local permit and the tax. The two layers operate independently.

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common tool is a minimum-lease-term provision in the declaration, which functionally bars short stays by requiring leases of a stated length. Pennsylvania sets no statewide association minimum lease term, so any minimum is a creature of the declaration. A second tool is a cap on the number or percentage of units that may be rented; the acts do not set or limit such a cap, so it too must come from the declaration and be adopted under the amendment provision (§ 3219 for condominiums, § 5219 for planned communities) at the 67% threshold.⁵⁶ Because leasing restrictions are excluded from the unanimous-consent requirement, a board does not need every owner's agreement to adopt them, though the declaration may impose a higher threshold. An association may also impose internal requirements such as owner registration, tenant information, and lease filing where the declaration or bylaws authorize them.

B. Enforcement and the dual court structure

Before an association fines an owner for a rental violation, both acts require notice and an opportunity to be heard, then permit the association to levy a reasonable fine (68 Pa.C.S. § 3302(a)(11) for condominiums; § 5302(a)(11) for planned communities).⁸⁹ Available remedies are fines where authorized, injunctive relief to stop a prohibited use, and an assessment lien for unpaid fines and charges, which attaches when the amount becomes due and may be foreclosed like a mortgage (§ 3315; § 5315).¹⁰¹¹ The lien enjoys a limited six-month priority ahead of a first mortgage.

A contested association-versus-owner action begins in the Court of Common Pleas. On appeal, the routing reflects Pennsylvania's two intermediate appellate courts. Because Pennsylvania associations are typically nonprofit corporations, an appeal involving the association's corporate affairs falls within the Commonwealth Court's exclusive jurisdiction over matters involving the corporate affairs of a nonprofit corporation and the affairs of its members (42 Pa.C.S. § 762(a)(5)(ii)); the recent Pocono short-term-rental decisions took that path.¹²²⁰ Other civil appeals not involving corporate affairs go to the Superior Court (§ 742). Either court's decision may then be reviewed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania by allowance. A challenge to a municipal short-term-rental ordinance is a separate matter that also reaches the Commonwealth Court, on the local-government track.²⁴ Association enforcement and local-government enforcement proceed on separate tracks and can occur independently.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No other bill in the past 24 months amended the UCA, the UPCA, or the Real Estate Cooperative Act on rental authority, or changed the hotel occupancy tax as applied to associations.

B. Recent rulings

C. Active legislative or local debates

House Bill 2303 remains pending in committee as the most visible statewide proposal, and Pocono townships continue to adjust local short-term-rental ordinances, while Philadelphia continues to enforce its licensing framework. These actions touch the owner-to-government relationship and do not change association authority under Title 68.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Pennsylvania is a uniform-law-family state that adopted three separate statutes, the Uniform Condominium Act, the Uniform Planned Community Act, and the Real Estate Cooperative Act, so it provides full statutory coverage of common-interest housing rather than leaving the field to CC&Rs alone. It does not appear to preempt local short-term-rental bans, unlike Florida and Arizona, and it does not limit HOA rental authority through a single statutory provision, unlike California and Arizona. Local regulation and the hotel occupancy tax restrain local governments and owners, not associations. For a multi-state operator entering Pennsylvania, the practical implications are three separate acts to track, a large HOA-governed Pocono market where the declaration usually decides the rental question, and a dual intermediate appellate structure in which association corporate-affairs appeals generally reach the Commonwealth Court.

HOA Weekly's Pennsylvania Short-Term Rentals coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly, the Commonwealth Court, the Superior Court, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and local governments act. Federal frameworks, including the FHA, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and OTARD, also apply to Pennsylvania associations regardless of the state framework.

1. 68 Pa.C.S. Ch. 31-34, Uniform Condominium Act (Pennsylvania General Assembly, Title 68) ↩
2. 68 Pa.C.S. Ch. 51-54, Uniform Planned Community Act (Pennsylvania General Assembly, Title 68) ↩
3. Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Home-sharing / Third-party Broker Rentals (6% state hotel occupancy tax; fewer than 30 days) ↩
4. Joint State Government Commission, The Short-Term Rental Industry in Pennsylvania: A Staff Study (March 2025) (local, fragmented regulation) ↩
5. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3219, Amendment of declaration (67% threshold; § 3219(d)(2) leasing exclusion) ↩
6. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5219, Amendment of declaration (67% threshold; § 5219(d)(2) leasing exclusion) ↩
7. City of Philadelphia, Rent your property (short-term): Limited Lodging Operator License and Rental License with hotel designation ↩
8. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3302(a)(11), Powers of unit owners' association (fines after notice and an opportunity to be heard) ↩
9. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5302(a)(11), Power of unit owners' association (fines after notice and an opportunity to be heard) ↩
10. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3315, Lien for assessments (foreclosable like a mortgage; six-month limited priority) ↩
11. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5315, Lien for assessments (foreclosable like a mortgage; six-month limited priority) ↩
12. 42 Pa.C.S. § 762, Appeals from courts of common pleas (Commonwealth Court exclusive jurisdiction, including § 762(a)(5) nonprofit corporation matters) ↩
13. PoconoVacationHomeSales, Short-Term Rentals Win a Big Victory in Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Courts (July 22, 2024) ↩
14. Act of Dec. 18, 1992, P.L. 1426, No. 176 (Real Estate Cooperative Act, 68 Pa.C.S. § 4101 et seq.) ↩
15. Saxton & Stump, The Uniform Condominium Act in a Nutshell (UCA adopted 1980; replaced the Unit Property Act) ↩
16. UPCA overview (68 Pa.C.S. §§ 5101-5414; generally governs planned communities with more than 12 units created after February 2, 1997), cross-verified against 68 Pa.C.S. § 5102 ↩
17. Law Offices of Dornish & Morrison, Amending Title 68 (three separate statutes: UCA, RECA, UPCA in Title 68) ↩
18. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5102, Applicability (retroactivity list including §§ 5219 and 5315 for pre-act communities) ↩
19. Tractman v. Conner, Pa. Super. (2024) (restrictive covenants strictly construed against enforcement; "plain disregard" standard) ↩
20. Timoney Knox LLP, Protect Your Short-Term Rental Rights in Pennsylvania (Ruffed Grouse Ridge and Chan v. Hideout summaries) ↩
21. Joint State Government Commission, The Short-Term Rental Industry in Pennsylvania: A Staff Study (March 2025) ↩
22. BNBCalc, Complete Pennsylvania Airbnb Host Lodging Tax Guide (combined rates: Philadelphia and Allegheny County), cross-verified with PA Department of Revenue ↩
23. Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Hotel Occupancy Tax – Booking Agents (Act 109 of 2018; effective January 22, 2019) ↩
24. Johnson v. Pocono Township Zoning Hearing Board, 2024 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 46 (Feb. 7, 2024) (municipal STR ordinance challenge in Commonwealth Court) ↩
25. Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus, Legislation to reform short-term rentals introduced in state House (H.B. 2303; sponsors and committee referral) ↩
26. StaySTRA, Pennsylvania H.B. 2303 analysis (three operator tiers; $2,000 per-violation penalty cap; amends Title 48) ↩
27. MPL Law Firm, Restricting the Restrictions (Ruffed Grouse Ridge Owners' Ass'n v. Hura, 2024 WL 2787873 (Pa. Commw. May 31, 2024)) ↩
28. Timoney Knox LLP, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Denies Hideout Community's Application for Appeal (Chan v. Ass'n of Prop. Owners of the Hideout; allocatur denied Feb. 12, 2025) ↩