After a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled unanimously in December 2025 that Pottstown's rental inspection program was unconstitutional — finding that its use of administrative warrants without probable cause violated the state constitution's stronger privacy protections — the borough has been navigating how to preserve housing oversight while complying with the ruling. Pottstown is appealing to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, but as a fallback, borough council adopted an amended ordinance allowing landlords to hire qualified third-party inspectors instead of borough officials. The ordinance also requires landlords to notify prospective tenants of the borough’s inspection requirements before leasing a unit and establishes a formal appeals process for rental license non-renewals, with the new rules taking effect Sept. 1 and full enforcement beginning Jan. 1, 2027. The Institute for Justice (IJ), the law firm that won the original ruling, has pushed back on that workaround, too, arguing that outsourcing the inspections to private parties doesn't make them constitutional. The borough is standing firm, calling the inspections a routine public safety measure, while IJ has suggested less confrontational alternatives, such as tenant anti-retaliation protections used by other Pennsylvania municipalities.
Source: Pottstown Borough; 6/2026