What this page covers. The written notice Arizona requires before a tenancy can end, how that notice has to be delivered, and which court hears the case afterward. It is not a guide to running an eviction. Once a matter is heading to court, that is the point to talk to a lawyer — see ask a lawyer.
Who it is written for. The landlord. If you are the tenant, the guide for tenants covers the same ground from your side.
Ending a tenancy in Arizona always takes written notice. How much notice depends on two things: the kind of tenancy you have, and whether anything has gone wrong.
How Notice Has to Be Delivered
Every notice on this page depends on this, and delivery is where a correctly worded notice most often fails.
A notice reaches your tenant when you hand it to them, or when you mail it by registered or certified mail to the address they gave for that purpose. If they never gave one, it goes to their last known place of residence.
Then comes the rule that moves your dates. A notice sent by registered or certified mail counts as received on the day it actually arrives, or five days after you mailed it, whichever comes first.
Set that against a five-day notice for unpaid rent. Hand it over on the 1st and your five days run from the 1st. Mail it on the 1st and, unless you can show it arrived sooner, it may not count as received until the 6th. The same notice, mailed rather than handed over, can put most of a week between you and the day you are able to file.
That is not an argument against mailing. Certified mail gives you a return receipt, and a receipt is evidence you will want. It is an argument for knowing which day your clock actually started before you begin counting.
Ending a Tenancy When Nothing Has Gone Wrong
Where nobody has done anything wrong and one of you simply wants the arrangement to finish, the rule is short. Either of you may end it.
A week-to-week tenancy takes written notice at least ten days before the termination date named in the notice. A month-to-month tenancy takes written notice at least thirty days before the periodic rental date named in the notice.
The notice has to be written. A conversation is not notice, however clear it was and however well the two of you got on.
Counting the Thirty Days
Getting this wrong costs you a full month, so it is worth doing slowly. The thirty days run to the periodic rental date, not to any date the sender would prefer.
Say rent falls due on the first of each month, and on 5 March you decide to end the tenancy. Counting thirty days forward lands on 4 April, but 4 April is not a rental date, so it will not do. The next rental date is 1 April, which is only twenty-seven days away and therefore too soon. The earliest date your notice can name is 1 May.
Remember too that a tenancy with no fixed length in the agreement is month to month, so this reaches a great many informal arrangements nobody ever thought of as a tenancy. That default is explained on what a lease should include.
No Reason Is Needed, But Some Reasons Are Forbidden
Neither of you has to give a reason for ending a periodic tenancy. That is not the same as saying the reason cannot matter, and this is worth understanding before you send anything.
Arizona forbids retaliation. You may not raise the rent, cut services, or bring or threaten an action for possession because your tenant has complained to a government agency about a building or housing code violation affecting health and safety, complained to you about your own maintenance duties, joined or organized a tenants’ union, or made a complaint under the wage-price stabilization act.
Here is the part that should change how you act. If your tenant made such a complaint within six months before the act you are accused of, the law presumes you were retaliating. That presumption can be answered with evidence, but you begin on the back foot, and a tenant with a retaliation defense can use it against your action for possession. The presumption does not arise where the complaint came after you had already given notice of termination.
So a no-cause notice is perfectly lawful. A no-cause notice sent three weeks after your tenant called the city about the furnace is a different proposition, because the absence of a stated reason does not stop the timing being read as one.
Separately, and outside this Act altogether, federal and Arizona fair housing law forbid ending a tenancy for a discriminatory reason. If you are ending a tenancy after any kind of complaint, that is a conversation to have with a lawyer before you send the notice rather than after.
How a Fixed Term Ends
Those notice periods are for periodic tenancies. A fixed term works differently, and the page would be incomplete without saying how.
A fixed term ends on the date the agreement names. The Act does not ask either of you to send a notice to make that happen, because the end date was agreed when you signed.
Your lease may ask for one anyway. Plenty of leases require thirty or sixty days’ notice of an intention not to renew, and some renew automatically unless somebody gives notice. Where the lease says that, the lease governs, and the deadline in it is a deadline you can miss. Read your own agreement before assuming the end date does the work by itself.
Which of the two arrangements to use in the first place is worked through on month to month or fixed term.
If Your Tenant Stays On After It Ends
A tenancy ending does not remove anybody by itself.
Where your tenant stays in possession without your consent after the agreement expires or is terminated, you may bring an action for possession. If the holdover is willful and not in good faith, you may also recover an amount of not more than two months’ periodic rent, or twice the actual damages you suffered, whichever is greater.
If you agree in writing to your tenant staying on, none of that applies. The arrangement continues on the statutory default terms, which is to say it becomes month to month.
Ending a Tenancy After a Breach
Different periods apply where something has gone wrong, and they are shorter. In every case the notice is written.
| What has happened | Written notice | Chance to put it right |
|---|---|---|
| Rent unpaid | Five days | Yes, by paying within the five days |
| Material breach of the agreement | Ten days | Yes, within the ten days |
| Noncompliance materially affecting health and safety | Five days | Yes, within the five days |
| A second breach of the same or similar kind, after the first was remedied | Ten days | No fresh chance |
| Breach that is both material and irreparable | Immediate | No |
The sections below explain each of those, including what the notice has to say, which is as easy to get wrong as the number of days.
Rent Unpaid: Five Days
If rent is unpaid when due, you may give written notice of the nonpayment and of your intention to terminate if it is not paid within five days.
Both parts have to be in the notice. A note saying only that the rent is late is not a five-day notice, because it never says what happens next.
Arizona also states plainly that a tenant may not withhold rent for any reason the Act does not authorize, so a complaint about repairs is not by itself an answer to unpaid rent.
Breach of the Agreement: Ten Days
For a material noncompliance with the agreement, your notice has to specify the acts and omissions, and terminate on a date at least ten days after your tenant receives it, if the breach is not put right within ten days.
Specifying the acts and omissions is doing real work in that sentence. A notice that says your tenant is in breach, without saying of what, gives them nothing to remedy and gives a court nothing to look at.
Lying on the Rental Application
Falsifying the application counts as a material noncompliance, which means discovering it mid-tenancy is itself grounds for a notice. Arizona then splits the falsehoods in two, and the split decides whether your tenant gets a chance to fix it.
Can be cured: untrue information about the number of occupants, pets, income, social security number, or current employment.
Cannot be cured under this section: untrue information about criminal records, prior eviction record, or current criminal activity.
The practical difference is the ten-day cure period. For the first group your tenant can correct the position and the tenancy continues. For the second there is nothing to correct.
Health and Safety: Five Days
Where your tenant’s noncompliance materially affects health and safety, the period is five days rather than ten, with the same chance to put it right inside the period.
The standard is easier to recognize once you know what it attaches to. The Act asks tenants to keep their part of the property clean and safe, to dispose of garbage and other waste in a clean and safe manner, to keep plumbing fixtures clean, and to use the electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems reasonably.
So the five-day category is for failures of that kind that have become a genuine health or safety problem: waste piling up inside the unit, a plumbing fixture misused to the point of causing a leak or a sanitation issue, a heating or cooling system damaged by being used in a way it was never meant to be. A tenant who is untidy is not in this category. A tenant whose rubbish has brought vermin into the building is.
A Second Breach of the Same Kind: Ten Days, No Cure
If a further breach of the same or a similar nature happens during the term, after an earlier one was already remedied, you may act ten days after written notice that a second such noncompliance has occurred.
There is no fresh chance to cure the second time. That is the whole point of the provision: the first notice was the chance.
Material and Irreparable Breach: Immediate
Material and irreparable breach has a specific meaning under Arizona law. It does not apply simply because a breach is serious.
The statute defines it by listing conduct occurring on the property: the illegal discharge of a weapon, homicide, prostitution, criminal street gang activity, the unlawful manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, use or storage of a controlled substance, and threatening or intimidating conduct, along with circumstances involving serious property damage. Where the breach is on that list, you may give written notice of immediate termination.
If what you are dealing with is not on the list, one of the other notices applies instead, however serious it feels.
Late Payment and Partial Payments
A tenant who catches up can stop the process, and the rules change with how far things have gone.
Before a case is filed, the tenancy is reinstated if your tenant pays all past due rent together with a reasonable late fee that is set out in a written lease agreement. After a case is filed, attorney fees and court costs are added. After judgment, whether to reinstate is entirely your decision.
You do not have to accept a partial payment. If you accept one and want to keep your right to proceed, Arizona requires a written agreement made at the time of the payment. That agreement has to set out the terms and conditions of the partial payment, and it has to state the date the balance is due.
The timing of the writing is the part that matters. Do not take the payment intending to document the arrangement afterward. Write it down and have your tenant sign it as the money changes hands.
When a Tenant Has Simply Gone
Abandonment has a statutory meaning narrower than the everyday one, and you cannot rely on it just because a property looks empty. It means one of two situations.
| How long absent | Rent unpaid for | Their belongings |
|---|---|---|
| At least seven days, without notice to you | Ten days | Still there, and nothing else suggests they are living there |
| At least five days | Five days | None left in the unit |
Even then you cannot simply take the property back. A notice of abandonment goes by certified mail, return receipt requested, to your tenant’s last known address and any alternate addresses you know of. You also post a notice on the door, or another conspicuous place, for five days.
Five days after the notice has been both posted and mailed, and if no personal property remains, you may retake the unit and lease it again at a fair rental value. You also have to make reasonable efforts to lease it again. Where a new tenancy begins before the old agreement would have run out, the old agreement is treated as ending on that date.
Which Court Hears It
An eviction in Arizona is brought as a special detainer action.
These are normally filed in the justice court for the precinct the property sits in. Cases involving larger amounts can be heard in the superior court, but the justice court is where residential matters usually begin. Municipal and city courts do not handle these cases, and filing in the wrong court delays everything.
The timetable is deliberately short. The summons is issued on the day the complaint is filed, and requires an appearance not more than six nor less than three days from the date of the summons. A trial can be postponed for good cause shown on affidavit, and only briefly.
The correct justice court is set by where the property is, not by which courthouse is closest to you. In Maricopa County most precincts share a building with several others, so an address does not identify a court. Our justice courts by county pages list the courts in each of Arizona’s fifteen counties, with the practical detail of getting to them.
Where These Rules Come From
Arizona’s laws are collected in a set called the Arizona Revised Statutes, usually shortened to A.R.S. The number that follows points to one section of it.
You do not need these numbers to use this page. They are here so that you, or a lawyer you hire, can check the exact wording. Each one links to the official text on the Arizona Legislature’s website, which opens in a new tab.
- A.R.S. 33-1313 defines notice and when it counts as received. It carries the rule that a notice sent by registered or certified mail is received on the day it arrives or five days after mailing, whichever comes first.
- A.R.S. 33-1375 is the periodic tenancy section: ten days for week to week, thirty days for month to month, and the holdover rule including the two months’ rent or twice actual damages for a willful holdover.
- A.R.S. 33-1381 prohibits retaliatory conduct. It lists the protected complaints and creates the presumption of retaliation where a complaint was made within six months beforehand.
- A.R.S. 33-1368 covers noncompliance by the tenant. Subsection A carries the ten-day breach notice, the five days for health and safety, the second-breach rule with no cure, the application falsification lists, and the definition of a material and irreparable breach. Subsection B is the five days for unpaid rent and the reinstatement rule.
- A.R.S. 33-1341 is the short list of what a tenant has to do. It is what the health and safety notice measures against.
- A.R.S. 33-1371 is partial payments, including the writing made at the time and the requirement that it name the date the balance falls due.
- A.R.S. 33-1370 is abandonment. The two definitions are at the end, in subsection J; the notice and posting requirements are at the start.
- A.R.S. 33-1377 is the special detainer procedure, including the summons issuing on the day of filing and the three to six day appearance window.
Common Questions
How much notice ends a month-to-month tenancy in Arizona?
Thirty days in writing, counted to the periodic rental date named in the notice. Either of you may send it.
Do I have to give a reason for ending a month-to-month tenancy?
No. But some reasons are prohibited. Arizona bars retaliation, and a tenant complaint in the six months before your notice creates a presumption that you were retaliating.
How much notice is required for unpaid rent?
Five days. The notice has to state both the nonpayment and your intention to terminate if the rent is not paid in that time.
When does a notice count as received?
When you hand it over, or when it arrives by registered or certified mail, or five days after mailing, whichever happens first. Mailing can delay the start of your count.
Does a fixed-term lease need a notice to end?
Not under the Act. It ends on its own end date. Your lease may require notice of non-renewal, and many do, so read the agreement.
Which court hears an eviction in Arizona?
Normally the justice court for the precinct the property is in. Larger cases can go to the superior court. Either way it is not a municipal or city court.
Does accepting part of the rent stop a landlord proceeding?
It can. You keep the right to proceed only if your tenant signs an agreement at the time of the payment setting out its terms and the date the balance is due.
When is a property legally abandoned in Arizona?
Seven days' absence with rent unpaid for ten days and no sign of occupancy beyond belongings, or five days' absence with rent unpaid for five days and nothing left behind.