61 Pa. Code § 401.54 — Proration of taxes or rent paid to reflect ownership or rental interest

When a homestead is owned or rented by two or more individuals and one or more of such persons is not qualified to be a claimant under the Senior Citizens Property Tax or Rent Rebate Act, ‘‘real property taxes’’ or ‘‘rent paid’’ shall include only that part of the real property taxes or rent paid which reflect the ownership or rental interest of the claimant and the other members of the household who meet the qualifications of a claimant. The ownership or rental interest of the claimant will be deemed to include the ownership or rental interest, if any, of the claimant’s spouse. Where title to property is held by a claimant and another or others, either as tenants in common or as joint tenants, or where a rental interest in property is held by a claimant and another or others, the share of each tenant in the property will be deemed to be equal, unless it is proven that the interests in question are not equal, in which event the claimant’s proportionate share shall be as proven. Example 1. Claimant H and W, his wife and their son S own the homestead as tenants in common. H and W live in the homestead. S lives elsewhere and is not a member of the household. In this case, ‘‘real property taxes’’ means an amount equivalent to ½ of the taxes on the homestead since this amount reflects the ownership interest of the claimant and his spouse as H and W are deemed to hold the property as tenants by entirety. Since son S does not reside in the household, he would not qualify as a claimant and his ½ ownership interest may not be included in the calculation of ‘‘property taxes paid.’’ Example 2. Claimant A, a disabled person qualifying for a rent rebate in lieu of property taxes and B, his nonqualifying brother, jointly lease an apartment in which they both reside. In this instance, rent paid means ½ of the total rent since this amount would reflect the rental interest of claimant A. No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit. This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Code full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.