{"id":191375,"date":"2026-05-13T16:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/191375\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:24:08","slug":"germantown-renter-avoids-eviction-wins-landlord-retaliation-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/191375\/","title":{"rendered":"Germantown renter avoids eviction, wins landlord retaliation case"},"content":{"rendered":"

The package also expands \u201cgood cause\u201d protections<\/a> to all tenants, regardless of the term of their lease. Currently, the law only applies to renters who have leases that are month-to-month and leases that run for less than a year. For these tenants, landlords must provide written notice stating why they want to terminate or not renew their lease.\n<\/p>\n

Advocates say the rare exemption has provided cover for unscrupulous landlords<\/a> to use this form of eviction to retaliate against tenants with longer leases, because they aren\u2019t required to justify their decisions or even give renters advance notice.\n<\/p>\n

In Ashby\u2019s case, RAM did not provide her with a reason for not renewing her lease but the company\u2019s motivation would soon come to light.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a rare case where the retaliation is explicit and it\u2019s out there in the open,\u201d said Madison Gray, Ashby\u2019s attorney.\n <\/p>\n

Fallout from a text message<\/p>\n

During a hearing in January, Gray pointed to an email thread from September as evidence that RAM had retaliated against her client. In the thread, the owners of Alden Park are told Ashby\u2019s \u201cnon-renewal will be sent in the coming weeks.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks, Jake. We should focus on the 2-3 ringleaders,\u201d Chaim Kiffel, president of L3C Capital Partners, tells attorney Jacob Segal within the message.\n<\/p>\n

The following day, a letter was slipped under Ashby\u2019s door stating that her lease would not be renewed. At the time, she was up to date on her rent, which remains the case now.\n<\/p>\n

Ashby landed on her landlord\u2019s radar after a security guard at Alden Park raised concerns about a message she had posted in a group chat for tenants. The security guard, who also lived at Alden Park, testified that he took issue with Ashby posting a public link with the address of one of the owners\u2019 homes.\n<\/p>\n

That prompted the security guard to reach out to property manager Theodore Berry.\n<\/p>\n

Berry, who also lives at Alden Park, said he suggested the non-renewal in response to Ashby\u2019s message, which was deemed a violation of her lease agreement.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt it raised a harm to the client, which we didn\u2019t feel was appropriate,\u201d Berry said during a second hearing in April.\n<\/p>\n

Ann Schildhammer, attorney for Alden Park, argued the message constituted a \u201cnuisance\u201d under the law, enabling her client to not renew Ashby\u2019s lease despite the open code violations.\n<\/p>\n

Schildhammer said Ashby posted the personal address of an owner to \u201cincite the community and instill fear.\u201d Ashby testified that it was posted to demonstrate the disparity in living conditions between ownership and Alden Park tenants.\n<\/p>\n

The fair housing commission said Ashby\u2019s message \u201cserved as a convenient excuse\u201d for RAM to terminate her lease.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The package also expands \u201cgood cause\u201d protections to all tenants, regardless of the term of their lease. Currently,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,2312],"class_list":["post-191375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-planphilly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}