Tuesday, November 20, 2012

A.R.S. ? 33-1368 - Issues Related To Tenant's Noncompliance With ...

The Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, together with any written agreements between the parties, governs the relationship between residential landlords and tenants in the State of Arizona. One of the primary landlord and tenant law issues that arises between landlords and tenants is the tenant's failure to comply with the rental agreement or with Arizona law. Section 33-1368?addresses various noncompliance issues, the required notices that must be provided by landlords, tenants' opportunities to cure any default, and how a landlord may proceed if there is no such cure. The statute provides as follows:

A. Except as provided in this chapter, if there is a material noncompliance by the tenant with the rental agreement, including material falsification of the information provided on the rental application, the landlord may deliver a written notice to the tenant specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach and that the rental agreement will terminate upon a date not less than ten days after receipt of the notice if the breach is not remedied in ten days. For the purposes of this section, material falsification shall include the following untrue or misleading information about the:

1. Number of occupants in the dwelling unit, pets, income of prospective tenant, social security number and current employment listed on the application or lease agreement.

2. Tenant's criminal records, prior eviction record and current criminal activity. Material falsification of information in this paragraph is not curable under this section.

If there is a noncompliance by the tenant with section 33-1341 materially affecting health and safety, the landlord may deliver a written notice to the tenant specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach and that the rental agreement will terminate upon a date not less than five days after receipt of the notice if the breach is not remedied in five days. However, if the breach is remediable by repair or the payment of damages or otherwise, and the tenant adequately remedies the breach before the date specified in the notice, the rental agreement will not terminate. If there is an additional act of these types of noncompliance of the same or a similar nature during the term of the lease after the previous remedy of noncompliance, the landlord may institute a special detainer action pursuant to section 33-1377 ten days after delivery of a written notice advising the tenant that a second noncompliance of the same or a similar nature has occurred. If there is a breach that is both material and irreparable and that occurs on the premises, including but not limited to an illegal discharge of a weapon, homicide as defined in sections 13-1102 through 13-1105, prostitution as defined in section 13-3211, criminal street gang activity as prescribed in section 13-105, activity as prohibited in section 13-2308, the unlawful manufacturing, selling, transferring, possessing, using or storing of a controlled substance as defined in section 13-3451, threatening or intimidating as prohibited in section 13-1202, assault as prohibited in section 13-1203, acts that have been found to constitute a nuisance pursuant to section 12-991 or a breach of the lease agreement that otherwise jeopardizes the health, safety and welfare of the landlord, the landlord's agent or another tenant or involving imminent or actual serious property damage, the landlord may deliver a written notice for immediate termination of the rental agreement and shall proceed under section 33-1377.

B. A tenant may not withhold rent for any reason not authorized by this chapter. If rent is unpaid when due and the tenant fails to pay rent within five days after written notice by the landlord of nonpayment and the landlord's intention to terminate the rental agreement if the rent is not paid within that period of time, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement by filing a special detainer action pursuant to section 33-1377. Before the filing of a special detainer action the rental agreement shall be reinstated if the tenant tenders all past due and unpaid periodic rent and a reasonable late fee set forth in a written rental agreement. After a special detainer action is filed the rental agreement is reinstated only if the tenant pays all past due rent, reasonable late fees set forth in a written rental agreement, attorney fees and court costs. After a judgment has been entered in a special detainer action in favor of the landlord, any reinstatement of the rental agreement is solely in the discretion of the landlord.

C. The landlord may recover all reasonable damages, resulting from noncompliance by the tenant with the rental agreement or section 33-1341 or occupancy of the dwelling unit, court costs, reasonable attorney fees and all quantifiable damage caused by the tenant to the premises.

D. The landlord may discontinue utility services provided by the landlord on the day following the day that a writ of restitution or execution is executed pursuant to section 12-1181. Disconnections shall be performed only by a person authorized by the utility whose service is being discontinued. Nothing in this section shall supersede standard tariff and operational procedures that apply to any public service corporation, municipal corporation or special districts providing utility services in this state.

E. The landlord shall hold the tenant's personal property for a period of twenty-one days beginning on the first day after a writ of restitution or writ of execution is executed as prescribed in section 12-1181. The landlord shall use reasonable care in moving and holding the tenant's property and may store the tenant's property in an unoccupied dwelling unit owned by the landlord, the unoccupied dwelling unit formerly occupied by the tenant or off the premises if an unoccupied dwelling unit is not available. If the tenant's former dwelling unit is used to store the property, the landlord may change the locks on that unit at the landlord's discretion. The landlord shall prepare an inventory and promptly notify the tenant of the location and cost of storage of the personal property by sending a notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the tenant's last known address and to any of the tenant's alternative addresses known to the landlord. To reclaim the personal property, the tenant shall pay the landlord only for the cost of removal and storage for the time the property is held by the landlord. Within five days after a written offer by the tenant to pay these charges the landlord must surrender possession of the personal property in the landlord's possession to the tenant upon the tenant's tender of payment. If the landlord fails to surrender possession of the personal property to the tenant, the tenant may recover the possessions or an amount equal to the damages determined by the court if the landlord has destroyed or disposed of the possessions before the twenty-one days specified in this section or after the tenant's offer to pay. The tenant shall pay all removal and storage costs accrued through the fifth day after the tenant's offer to pay is received by the landlord or the date of delivery or surrender of the property, whichever is sooner. Payment by the tenant relieves the landlord of any further responsibility for the tenant's possessions.

F. A tenant does not have any right of access to that property until all payments specified in subsection E of this section have been made in full, except that the tenant may obtain clothing and the tools, apparatus and books of a trade or profession and identification or financial documents including all those related to the tenant's immigration status, employment status, public assistance or medical care. If the landlord holds the property for the twenty-one day period and the tenant does not make a reasonable effort to recover it, the landlord, upon the expiration of twenty-one days as provided in this subsection, may administer the personal property as provided in section 33-1370, subsection E. The landlord shall hold personal property after a writ of restitution or writ of execution is executed for not more than twenty-one days after such an execution. Nothing in this subsection shall preclude the landlord and tenant from making an agreement providing that the landlord will hold the personal property for a period longer than twenty-one days.

G. For the purposes of this chapter, the tenant shall be held responsible for the actions of the tenant's guests that violate the lease agreement or rules or regulations of the landlord if the tenant could reasonably be expected to be aware that such actions might occur and did not attempt to prevent those actions to the best of the tenant's ability.

H. For purposes of this section, "days" means calendar days.

One of the primary characteristics of A.R.S. ? 33-1368 is that before a landlord may proceed with legal action in almost all cases a prior written notice and opportunity to cure is required. For example, subsection A requires a 10-day notice for a "material noncompliance with the rental agreement" and allows the landlord to terminate the rental agreement only if the breach "is not remedied in ten days." Shorter notices are allowed for issues relating to health and safety, and in some limited cases immediate termination of the lease is permitted.

The most common breach complained of by landlords is the tenant's failure to pay rent in a timely manner. For such a breach, A.R.S. ? 33-1368(B) requires a five day notice before the landlord may pursue a forcible detainer action.

Assuming a tenant fails to cure a breach after notice by the landlord, the landlord may proceed with a forcible detainer lawsuit to have the tenant removed from the property and to recover damages incurred by the landlord. Pursuant to?A.R.S. ? 33-1368(C) a landlord is entitled to recover reasonable damages stemming from the tenant's noncompliance plus court costs and attorneys' fees.

Once the tenant is removed from the property the landlord may discontinue utility services and assuming the tenant does not retrieve property held by the landlord pursuant to subsection E, may sell such property and apply the proceeds to the amounts owed to the landlord.

If you are a landlord or a tenant involved in a dispute related to?A.R.S. ? 33-1368 you should contact an experience Arizona landlord tenant lawyer?to discuss your situation as soon as possible.

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Source: http://www.harperlawarizona.com/2012/11/ars-33-1368-issue-related-to-tenants-noncompliance-with-rental-agreement.html

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