This New York Times article discusses one of the most commonly broken laws in that city, which also happens to be a very popular law to ignore in Philadelphia. The law in question, in both New York and my fair City of Brotherly Love, says that no more than three unrelated people can live in the same single-family house together (not including boarding homes, group homes, etc.).
This law poses a major problem for many landlords who own large single-family properties, especially those looking to cash-in on Philadelphia's student-housing market where renting out large homes to large groups of students can be a cash cow. Thankfully, the law is rarely enforced, especially in the neighborhoods most popular with Philly's student population. Some neighborhoods do enforce the law though - mainly in places where local residents specifically want to keep student renters off their block. For example, in the area around Temple University, the "no more than three" rule is ignored on the west side of Broad Street where students now make up a majority of the renters. On the east side of Broad, in the Yorktown neighborhood, long-time homeowners throw up every obstacle they can to keep student renters out, including calling out landlords who break the "no more than three" law. I actually think that this uneven enforcement is a good thing for the city overall - it allows students to find plentiful rental housing in certain areas close to their schools, but keeps pockets of non-student neighborhoods interspersed within Philly's urban fabric maintaining a sustainable level of diversity.
A nuanced understanding of where and how this rule is enforced is one of the keys to making successful investments in Philadelphia's student housing market, and I always try to help the investors I work with develop this understanding as quickly as possible.
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