Found Mold in Your Apartment? A Pennsylvania Renter's Guide to What Comes Next

By John Calhoun, owner of Mold Remediation Gettysburg PA · Updated October 29, 2026

“The landlord says it’s just condensation.” Maybe. Maybe not. Here’s where Pennsylvania law stands. There’s no state law written specifically for mold in rentals. Mold falls under the warranty of habitability that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court read into every residential lease in Pugh v. Holmes in 1979, and that warranty comes with a condition: the tenant has to give the landlord notice and a reasonable chance to fix the problem. So the first step is always notice: a dated, written message the landlord can’t say they never got.

I’m a mold contractor, not a lawyer, and nothing here is legal advice. For your rights as a tenant, talk to a tenant resource or an attorney. What I can tell you is how the moisture side works and what the public rules say.

What Pennsylvania law says, and doesn’t

One more detail people miss: Pennsylvania’s Rent Withholding Act, the law with the formal escrow account, applies in cities of the first, second, second class A and third class. Gettysburg is a borough. That’s another reason to get advice before holding back rent here.

The Gettysburg layer

The Census Bureau estimates about 53% of Gettysburg borough households rent. The borough licenses residential rental units and requires them to meet its property maintenance code, which is the 2015 International Property Maintenance Code. The property maintenance code doesn’t use the word mold, but it says a lot about moisture. In the current published text of the code, which carries these long-standing sections, roof drainage must be adequate to prevent dampness in the walls or interior, interior surfaces must be kept in a good, clean and sanitary condition, bathroom exhaust must discharge to the outdoors, and plumbing fixtures must be kept free from leaks.

If you can’t get anywhere with the landlord, the borough has a code enforcement office you can contact. The college area and borough rentals page covers how rental inspections work in town.

How to document it so it counts

The Attorney General’s guide says to keep a record of the problem and every attempt to reach the landlord. Written notice isn’t required by that guide, but it’s the notice you can prove. Here’s what I’d put in it:

1. Dated photos, wide enough to show the room and close enough to show the growth.
2. Where it is and how big, roughly in square feet.
3. What you’ve noticed about water: a drip under the sink, a ceiling stain under the upstairs bathroom, spots that come back every winter on an outside wall.
4. A request for the landlord to find and fix the source.
5. A copy for yourself, and a note of when and how you sent it.

Condensation or a leak? Help the landlord find out

A lot of rental arguments are really this question. Winter spots on the corners of outside walls and inside closets are often condensation, and mold in the corners every winter explains how that works. A stain that grows after a neighbor’s shower, or a soft floor around a toilet, is usually water from somewhere. Moisture readings settle it. In an older building with units stacked or side by side, mold in rowhouses and shared walls explains why the water may not be coming from your unit at all.

What not to do

Don’t paint over it, bleach drywall or tear anything out before the landlord or an inspector has seen it. Light spots on a hard surface can be wiped with detergent and water. Keep humidity down, under 60% as the EPA recommends, and give outside walls some air. For health questions, the CDC’s mold pages are the place to start.

A practical next step

Send the note today, with the photos. It starts the clock, and it’s the step everything else depends on.

This is John Calhoun at Mold Remediation Gettysburg PA. Tenants and landlords both call me for the same reason: to find out where the water is coming from. I’ll take readings and write down what I find, so everyone’s looking at the same facts. The list of mold services and the overview of mold remediation in Gettysburg, PA explain how I work, and landlords may want mold remediation for landlords and multi-unit buildings.