Judge Grants Penn State Fraternity Access to House After Members Were Locked Out on Move-In Day

A Centre County judge on Tuesday issued an order allowing Penn State fraternity members to return to their off-campus house after they said they were locked out by their landlord on move-in day last week because of a lease dispute.

Judge Brian Marshall granted Alpha Phi Delta’s emergency petition for a preliminary injunction following a hearing at the Centre County Courthouse Annex. The decision requires property manager Greek Housing Services and owner 329 Prospect Ave. Corp. to open the house at 329 E. Prospect Ave. in State College for use by the fraternity members no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

The order is conditioned on the chapter paying the landlord $6,000 per month through July 2027 for unfulfilled individual contracts it was required to attain as part of a master lease for the house.

The preliminary injunction does not resolve the case, and the next court date has not yet been set.

Alpha Phi Delta filed the lawsuit and emergency petition on Thursday, two days after members say they were locked out of the house and left scrambling for a place to live when they arrived for their scheduled move-in just before the start of the fall semester.

According to the complaint, the fraternity signed a seven-year master lease for the house in 2021, with terms that required the chapter to secure an increasing number of individual housing contracts for chapter members each year. For 2026, the fraternity was required to have 55 housing contracts, but did not reach that number.

Marshall’s order indicates five contracts were not fulfilled.

The lease, however, had no provision for what would happen if the required number of housing contracts was not met, attorney Carolyn Fenton wrote, and the fraternity’s executive group unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate a resolution with Mark Maloney, who the complaint identifies as leader of the property management and ownership companies.

A March 5 email from Maloney and the chapter president said the fraternity was in a “developing crisis” for housing for the 2026-27 academic year with only 27 housing contracts signed at the time.

Members and their families arrived on Tuesday to find the house locked, with Maloney telling them they were in default and would not be granted access. One member, Fenton wrote, has type 1 diabetes and needed to refrigerate his insulin. Rather than allowing him inside, Maloney had workers place a refrigerator on the porch, according to the complaint.

The lockout, Fenton wrote, was an illegal “self-help eviction” done without court authorization.

In a response filed on Monday, Greek Housing Services and 329 Prospect Ave. Corp. said they were not required to grant the fraternity members possession of the property because they “anticipatorily breached their master lease.” The chapter, attorney Laura Robbins wrote, informed the landlords multiple times prior to the start of the 2026-27 lease term “that it would not pay all monies due and payable to Defendants, and would not fully deliver on its contractual obligations, including by not securing the requisite number of housing contracts.”

The landlords did not illegally lock out the chapter because it was not in possession of the property and did not fulfill the financial and contractual obligations that were a pre-condition of moving in for the new lease term, according to the filing.

Alpha Phi Delta also says Greek Housing Services owes a $5,000 penalty payment for failing to complete a bathroom renovation by Aug. 18. That issue is not addressed by the preliminary injunction.

The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.