Arizona generally leaves a landlord and tenant free to agree on the amount of rent. State law does regulate several related questions. When rent falls due. What a late fee has to look like. What happens when you accept a payment. And one charge that may no longer be passed to a tenant at all.
This page is written for the landlord. If you are the tenant, the guide for tenants covers the same ground from your side.
| The charge | The basic rule |
|---|---|
| Rent | Set by agreement. No state cap, and no city or town may impose one on private housing |
| A rent increase | Depends on the kind of tenancy. The Act sets no notice period for one |
| Late fee | The Act mentions one in a single place, and asks there that it be reasonable and in the written agreement |
| Returned payment fee | Capped by a statute outside the Act, plus what your bank actually charged you |
| Security, and any fee you intend to keep | One and one-half month’s rent for everything held as security, with its own rules |
| Utilities you bill separately | Recovery of cost plus actual administration, with its own disclosure rules |
| The old residential rental tax | May no longer be charged to a tenant |
Arizona Generally Prohibits Local Rent Control
The power to control rents on private residential housing is preempted by the state. The legislature declared the question one of statewide concern and took the power away from cities and towns, charter cities included.
There is one carve-out, and it turns on who is behind the property rather than where it sits. The preemption does not reach residential property owned, financed, insured or subsidized by a state agency, or by a city or town. Publicly supported housing can carry rent conditions. Privately owned housing cannot have them imposed locally.
For an ordinary landlord that means no statutory ceiling on the rent, and none on an increase.
Raising the Rent
Arizona’s landlord and tenant law contains no notice period for a rent increase. There is no thirty-day rule for raising rent, no sixty-day rule, nothing. Several states do have one. Arizona does not.
What decides the question instead is the tenancy you are in.
A fixed term sets the rent for its length. You cannot raise it partway through unless the lease itself provides for a change. That is why a longer lease sometimes carries a scheduled increase, written in from the start.
A periodic tenancy, month to month, runs on its existing terms until the two of you agree different ones. A rent increase is a change to those terms, so a tenant who accepts the new rent has agreed to it, and a tenant who does not is still on the old terms.
Where that leaves a landlord whose tenant will not agree is the part Arizona does not spell out. The statutory tool for ending a month-to-month tenancy is thirty days of written notice, and in practice a rent change is worked around that timetable. But the Act does not describe a rent increase as a termination, and it does not say how the two combine. Month-to-month or fixed term works through the thirty-day count and the trap in it. If you need certainty about the form of the notice, put it to a lawyer rather than a general page.
One further caution that is not about timing at all. An increase that follows a tenant’s complaint can raise a retaliation question, which carries its own rules and its own presumptions. Ending a tenancy sets those out.
When Rent Is Due
Rent is payable without demand or notice, at the time and place the two of you agreed. A landlord who never sends an invoice has not thereby excused the rent, and a tenant waiting to be asked is already late.
Where nothing was agreed, Arizona supplies the answer: the money is due at the property, monthly, up front. Rent is also apportionable from day to day unless you agreed otherwise, which means a part month at either end of a tenancy divides by the day rather than being argued about. Those defaults are set out on what a lease must say.
Late Fees
Arizona sets no late fee figure, and the Act mentions a late fee in exactly one place. It is worth being precise about what that place says, because it is narrower than the general rule people quote.
The provision is about putting a tenancy back together after a nonpayment case has begun. Before a special detainer action is filed, the agreement is reinstated if the tenant pays the past due rent together with a reasonable late fee set forth in a written rental agreement.
So what Arizona actually tells you is what a late fee has to be at the one moment the statute addresses: reasonable, and already in the written agreement. The Act contains no other provision setting, capping or authorizing a residential late fee, and it does not say what happens to a fee that fails those tests outside the reinstatement context.
The practical course follows from the one rule that does exist rather than from anything broader. Put the late fee in the written agreement, and keep it at a level you could describe as a charge rather than a punishment.
What About Other Fees?
Arizona does not publish a master list of every charge a residential landlord may make. Different charges sit under different provisions, several sit outside the Act entirely, and some are governed by nothing more than what the rental agreement says. Here is what is settled.
A returned payment. This one has a hard number, and it comes from a statute outside the Act. The holder of a dishonored check may charge a service fee of no more than twenty-five dollars, plus the actual charges the holder’s own bank assessed because of it.
Application and screening fees. The Act has no provision about them. What it does regulate is security, however you label it, and money taken before a tenancy starts can raise the question of which one it is. A payment that holds a property is a different thing from a payment for running a credit check. Where an up-front payment might count toward the deposit ceiling, security deposits is the page that deals with it.
Pet fees, cleaning fees and anything else you mean to keep. These are not separately regulated as fees. They run into the deposit rules instead. Arizona counts what a payment does rather than what it is called, and a fee has to be described as nonrefundable in writing before it is one.
Early termination charges. There is no general Arizona rule, so a charge of this kind lives or dies on the agreement. Two exceptions are legislated: a tenant ending a term early for domestic violence or sexual assault, and a servicemember doing so under federal law. Neither may be charged an early termination fee. Month-to-month or fixed term covers both.
The Residential Rental Tax Is Gone
This section of the statute is itself scheduled to be repealed on 1 January 2027. Until then the rule below applies.
Arizona cities, towns and other taxing jurisdictions used to levy a transaction privilege tax on the business of leasing residential property. Landlords in those places passed it to tenants as a line on the bill.
That tax was repealed. From the start of 2025 a landlord in a jurisdiction that levied it may no longer charge the tenant the amount of the repealed tax.
The provision carries an unusual companion rule, and it is the part to know. In a civil action challenging a charge under this section, the landlord has the burden of proof. You have to show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the challenged amount is not attributable to and does not represent any part of that repealed local tax.
Read the words the statute uses for what can be challenged: a charge, an assessment, or other amount. That is deliberately wider than a line labeled tax, and it is the reason this is worth attention rather than a footnote. If you took over a property with an existing rent roll, this is the line to check. A rental tax line that was correct in 2024 is not correct now.
Accepting Rent After a Breach
Accepting rent, or any part of it, while you know the tenant is in default waives your right to terminate the agreement for that breach. So does accepting performance that varied from what the agreement or your rules required. The waiver covers that particular breach rather than every future one, but the breach in front of you is gone.
That is not a reason to refuse the payment that fixes the problem. A tenant who pays the past due rent within the five days after a nonpayment notice is curing the nonpayment, which is what the notice exists to give them the chance to do. Taking that money is the process working as designed. The trap is different: it is taking rent while sitting on a breach you have not resolved and still mean to act on.
You are never required to accept a partial payment. To take one and keep your position, Arizona asks for a writing made at the same time and agreed by the tenant. It has to set out the terms of the partial payment and name the date the balance falls due. Ending a tenancy covers how that fits with a nonpayment notice you have already served.
One thing that is not a partial payment: a housing assistance payment. Accepting one is neither a partial payment of rent nor a waiver of your right to terminate for a breach by the tenant.
Withholding Rent
Arizona does not give a tenant a general right to stop paying rent whenever there is a dispute. A tenant may not withhold rent for any reason the Act does not authorize, and the Act provides particular remedies for particular landlord failures, each with its own conditions and its own notice. Those routes are on repairs and habitability.
What that does not mean is that your own compliance stops mattering once a case begins. Arizona has a section devoted to precisely that. Say you bring an action for possession based on nonpayment, or an action for rent while the tenant is still in possession. If you are not in compliance with the agreement or the Act, the tenant may counterclaim for whatever those give them. The court may order rent paid into court while it works out what each side owes, and pays the net to whoever is owed it. If no rent remains due after that, or the tenant is found to have acted in good faith and satisfies a rent judgment, judgment on possession goes to the tenant.
So a withheld payment is a nonpayment, and it still takes the five-day notice to act on. It is not a shortcut for the tenant. But it is also not a reason to assume the case is simple, because your own obligations can be put in front of the same judge.
Other Charges
The five utilities a landlord may bill separately are covered on charging tenants for utilities. The short version is that a utility is a recovery of cost rather than a source of margin.
Anything you hold as security, and any fee you mean to keep, is on security deposits, along with the rule about naming a fee nonrefundable in writing and what happens when nobody does.
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. 33-1329 is rent control. Subsection A is the preemption and the statewide concern finding. B is the carve-out for property owned, financed, insured or subsidized by a state agency, city or town.
- A.R.S. 33-1314, subsection C, is when and where rent is payable, the defaults where nothing was agreed, and the day-to-day apportionment. Subsection D is the one that makes a tenancy with no fixed term month to month.
- A.R.S. 33-1375 is periodic tenancies, and subsection B carries the thirty days for a month-to-month tenancy. Neither this section nor any other in the Act sets a notice period for a rent increase, which is why this page describes the practice and says where it stops.
- A.R.S. 33-1368, subsection B, holds three things used here: the ban on withholding rent, the five days for nonpayment, and the reinstatement rule — which is the Act’s only mention of a late fee.
- A.R.S. 33-1365 is the counterclaim section: the landlord’s own noncompliance as a defense to an action for possession or rent, the rent-into-court procedure, and the good faith provision.
- A.R.S. 33-1332 is the repealed rental tax. Subsection A is the charge a landlord may no longer make; B puts the burden of proof on the landlord and describes what may be challenged as a charge, assessment or other amount. The section is marked for repeal on 1 January 2027.
- A.R.S. 33-1371 is partial payments. Subsection A is the contemporaneous writing and the date the balance is due. B is the housing assistance exception. C is the waiver: accepting rent with knowledge of a default gives up the right to terminate for that breach.
- A.R.S. 44-6852 sits outside the Act and is the dishonored check service fee, together with the actual bank charges the holder may add.
Common Questions
Is there rent control in Arizona?
No. The power to control rents on private residential property is preempted by the state, and cities and towns have no authority to impose it, charter cities included. Property owned, financed, insured or subsidized by a state agency, city or town sits outside that preemption.
How much notice must a landlord give before raising the rent?
The Act sets no notice period for a rent increase, which surprises people. A fixed term holds its rent for its length unless the lease provides otherwise. On a month-to-month tenancy the terms continue until you both agree new ones. Your route to different terms is then the same written notice that ends the tenancy, given at least thirty days ahead.
How much can an Arizona landlord raise the rent?
There is no statutory cap and no city may impose one. What can still go wrong is the timing rather than the amount: an increase following a tenant's complaint can raise a retaliation question.
Is a late fee enforceable in Arizona?
Arizona sets no figure, and the Act mentions a late fee in one place only. Before a nonpayment case is filed, a tenancy is reinstated on payment of the past due rent plus a reasonable late fee set out in a written rental agreement. That is what the statute addresses, and there is no other provision setting or capping a residential late fee. So the practical course is to put the fee in the written agreement and keep it at a level describable as a charge rather than a punishment.
What other fees can an Arizona landlord charge?
There is no master list. A dishonored check carries a service fee capped by a statute outside the Act, plus the bank charges the landlord actually incurred. Application and screening fees are not covered by the Act at all, though money taken up front can raise the question of whether it is really security. Pet and cleaning fees run into the deposit rules, because Arizona counts what a payment does rather than what it is called.
Can an Arizona landlord still charge residential rental tax?
No. The local transaction privilege tax on residential leases was repealed, and from the start of 2025 a landlord may no longer charge a tenant the amount of that repealed tax.
Who has to prove a disputed rental tax charge?
The landlord. In a civil action challenging such a charge, the landlord must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the amount does not represent any part of the repealed local tax. That is the reverse of the usual position. It matters most where the old tax was rolled into the rent rather than removed.
Does accepting late or partial rent cost a landlord anything?
It can. Accepting rent while knowing the tenant is in default waives the right to terminate for that breach. You are never obliged to accept a partial payment. If you take one, you keep your position only where the tenant agrees in a writing made at the same time, setting out the terms and naming the date the balance is due. A housing assistance payment is neither a partial payment nor a waiver.
Can a tenant withhold rent over repairs?
Arizona does not give a tenant a general right to stop paying rent over a dispute, and a withheld payment is a nonpayment that still takes the five-day notice to act on. It does not follow that a landlord's own compliance stops mattering. Where you are not in compliance, a tenant sued for possession over nonpayment may counterclaim for what the agreement or the Act gives them. The court can then order rent paid into court while it works out what each side owes.
Does rent have to be demanded before it is late?
No. Rent is payable without demand or notice at the agreed time and place. Where nothing was agreed, it falls due at the property, monthly and up front, and divides day by day across a part month.