Pennsylvania Land & Property Laws

• The area of law dealing with actual property is called "real property" law. Mark Lewis/Photodisc/Getty Images

  Property law is a very broad subject that encompasses everything from adverse possession law to landlord tenant rights to foreclosure recovery. Property law in Pennsylvania is an interesting subject as of 2010 because the amount of Marcellus shale in the Pennsylvania area is giving many property owners incentive to sell the resource rights to their property.

Landlord Tenant Law

• The Landlord Tenant Act of 1951 governs relationships between renters and the owners of the rental properties. Some of the basic areas covered include different types of leases, default terms for all leases, rules governing eviction, rules governing the collection and return of security deposits, and remedies provided to tenants when landlords are unresponsive to their requests.

Adverse Posession

• Adverse possession is the doctrine of law that allows property owners to claim lands abutting their property after continued use, improvement and occupation of the abandoned or unclaimed land. The necessary duration to adversely posses property in Pennsylvania is 21 years. For more information on adverse possession see Pennsylvania Code §42-5530.

Marcellus Shale

• Marcellus shale is in very high concentrations throughout most of the state of Pennsylvania. As a result many large companies are making land lease offers to property owners throughout the state. Although gas companies have known that Marcellus shale contains natural gas for many years, new drilling techniques have made extraction economical. Before signing any resource agreement with a third party you should thoroughly evaluate the worth of your property and make sure that you are getting a fair deal.