Evicted in Philly

Guests: Rasheedah Phillips and Coren Wise

Imagine you’re living in a home with no heat. You’ve asked your landlord to fix the problem, she ignores you for months, but still asks for rent. You try file a complaint to the Department of Licenses and Inspections, and they assess that your rental is unfit for human habitation. Can you simply just move? No, because you are on a fixed income. With the L& I violations in hand, you withhold rent putting it in escrow. Still, your landlord decides to evict your family by the end of the week. Imagine being a landlord with a tenant who doesn’t pay the rent and violates the terms of the rental agreement. In this hour, Marty talks with RASHEEDAH PHILLIPS, managing attorney of the landlord-tenant housing unit at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia about the legal rights tenants have in these disputes. Also joining the discussion is COREN WISE, managing attorney at Coren Wise Attorneys at Law, who represents landlords in these type of cases.