Philly SFH Max 3 Renters

[Mike McCarthy]

There seems to be a whole lot of confusion on this subject on the interwebs, and I'm looking for some experience on this.

Philadelphia zoning (and apparently a handful of other cities) define a family as "not to include more than 3 persons unrelated by blood, marriage, or adoption".  So a 4BR single family home can house an 8-person family, but only 3 unrelated college students. 

My questions:

1) Reading the zoning laws, this does seem to be accurate. True?

2) It sounds like it's basically unenforced.  Even with neighbors complaining, it sounds rare for anything to happen.  

3) I've been told that other landlords put 3 people on the lease and look the other way. Is this as common as it sounds?

4) I could not find anything regarding repercussions.  Do you know of any documentation or experience that calls out the 'worst case' scenario?

Thanks!