In the State of Pennsylvania, how many days out of a month or year
must a person physically reside at an address for *that* address to be
considered their home?

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 13 Dec 2003 16:48 PST

Are you interested in knowing when you can legally claim 123 Main
Street, Anytown, PA your home after moving from your former house just
across the street?

Or are you wanting to know when, after moving to Pennsylvania from
another state, you are legally considered a permanent resident of the
state of Pennsylvania?

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by imnopatzer-ga on 13 Dec 2003 18:09 PST

I am a landlord of a property that I recently rented out to a woman
and her two daughters. After taking her on as a tenant, I found out
that she had two other children...sons...from the previous marriage.
In her application, she only mentioned that she had two kids. These
other two kids come to visit on the weekends, so they are there at
least 8 days out of the month.

Since the kids already live in Pa with their father, my question is
seeking the legal statute that dictates whether or not a person is
considered a resident of that home or not, based on the number of days
of the month/year they reside there.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 13 Dec 2003 18:56 PST

In this case residency of the visiting children would be established
only by the custodial orders or visitation orders issued by the court.
Unless there is a joint custody situation between the parents the
children are merely guests of the tenent. If the father has sole
custody and the mother has visitation rights, under Pennsylvania law,
their primary residence is that of their father - which makes them,
for residency purposes, "guests" of the mother.

If this answers your question I can post it as an answer and close the
question for you.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by imnopatzer-ga on 13 Dec 2003 19:42 PST

Thank you very much! :)

Dear imnopatzer-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. Keep in mind that we cannot provide legal advice in this
forum and that it is always best to seek the advice of an attorney on
all legal matters. Having said that, you may want to consider this:

Under Pennsylvania law a child of divorced, separated or unmarried
parents becomes the responsibility of a designated parent and his or
her primary residence is that location in which he or she spend the
majority of their time:

?Sole Custody is when both legal and physical custody are given to one
parent. The child has only one primary residence.?

?Joint Custody is actually broken down into three categories. Joint
Legal custody is where the parents share care and control of the
upbringing of the child, but the child has only one primary residence.
In Shared Physical Custody the child has two residences, spending at
least 35% of their time with the other parent. Additionally, you can
make your own special joint custody agreement that is any combination
of Shared Physical and Joint Legal Custody. One example of this is
when there is one residence for the child and the parents live with
the child there on a rotating basis.?

CUSTODY AND VISITATION LAW IN PENNSYLVANIA
http://www.divorcelawinfo.com/PA/pacustody.htm


When staying at the alternate residence, the child, for all practical
purposes, is a "guest" of the non-custodial parent:

?Visitation is the right of a parent to visit (usually supervised)
with the child at the child?s primary residence or another location,
but does not include the right to remove the child from the primary
custodian?s control.?

PENNSYLVANIA BAR ASSOCIATION
http://www.pabar.org/childcustodyblurb.shtml

Clearly then, the alternate address (the location where the child
visits and spends only a portion of his or her time) is not considered
the child?s primary residence and the child is, in effect, a ?guest?
in the home of the non custodial parent ? thus the term ?visitation?

While you may have, or be able to enter into some form of legal
contract with your tenant based on the number of days guests are
allowed to stay at the home rent-free, it is doubtful (in my opinion,
which is of non-legal authority, of course) that you would have a
terribly difficult time winning a civil suit against your tenant for
back-rent or future rent adjustment if your position is that you wish
to prorate rent fees to accommodate the visitation of a non-custodial
child. Family courts endeavor to make visitation as painless and as
productive as possible in these broken families and I foresee the
court quickly shooting down such a claim as being without merit.

Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
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following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


INFORMATION SOURCES

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Pennsylvania custody residence

Pennsylvania child ?primary residence?

Absolutely perfect!