What the Word Means in Arizona Law
A lease is a rental agreement that has been written down.
If you are leasing out a home and trying to work out whether you need one, that is the short answer. The rest of this page explains what follows from it.
Arizona’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Act uses rental agreement as the broader term. A rental agreement can be written, spoken out loud, or implied by the way a landlord and tenant have actually behaved. The Act then defines the term of lease by reference to the written rental agreement. A lease is the written kind.
Why does that matter? Because Arizona’s landlord-tenant law does not apply only where there is a written lease. An oral agreement creates rights and duties for both people, exactly as a written one does. If nothing was ever put on paper, your tenant still has every protection the Act provides and you still have every obligation it imposes. What writing changes is what either of you can prove.
Everything on this page is about residential arrangements. Lot leases in mobile home parks and commercial tenancies fall under different Arizona acts.
Lessor, Lessee, Landlord, Tenant
Lessor means landlord. Lessee means tenant. You will see the older words on some lease forms, but Arizona’s Act uses landlord and tenant throughout. If an agreement names you as the lessor, it is naming you as the landlord.
Then Why Does Everyone Say a Lease Means a Year?
In everyday real estate practice, people use lease for an arrangement of a year or longer, and month-to-month rental for something shorter. That is common terminology, and it is not the distinction Arizona’s landlord-tenant Act makes.
There is another Arizona law that makes the one-year mark matter, though. The statute of frauds lists the agreements a court will not act on unless they are in writing and signed, and an agreement for leasing for longer than one year is on that list.
Past a year, writing is not a precaution. It is what makes the agreement enforceable. What that writing needs on it, and what it does not need, is on signing an Arizona lease.
When Does an Agreement Have to Be in Writing?
| Length of the term | Must it be in writing? | What it is usually called |
|---|---|---|
| Longer than one year | Yes — in writing and signed | A lease |
| Exactly one year, starting when you sign | Not required | A lease |
| Exactly one year, starting later | Yes — see the note below | A lease |
| Less than a year, with a fixed end date | Not required | A short lease, or a rental |
| Month to month, or weekly | Not required | A rental |
Notice that the rule applies to an agreement for longer than one year. An agreement for exactly twelve months is not on that list.
Before relying on that, though, there is a second provision to know about. The same statute also covers any agreement that cannot be performed within one year of being made. A twelve-month tenancy that starts the day you sign can be performed inside the year. A twelve-month tenancy signed in March to begin in May cannot, so that one does need to be in writing.
Whatever the arrangement is called, the Act applies to all of it. A tenant on a weekly arrangement has the same protections as a tenant on a two-year lease.
Why Putting the Agreement in Writing Matters
An oral arrangement is legally real, which surprises people. Here is what it costs you.
The term. An oral agreement can fix a definite term, so a verbal “one year” is not meaningless. The trouble starts if your tenant remembers it differently, because you then have to prove what was said. And where the agreement fixes no definite term at all, Arizona decides for you: month to month in most cases, or week to week for a roomer who pays weekly (a roomer is someone whose unit has no bathroom or kitchen of its own).
The rent. This one is often stated wrongly. If you and your tenant agreed a figure verbally, that is the rent, because an oral agreement is still an agreement. Fair rental value only comes into it where there was no agreement about rent at all, and then the tenant owes the fair rental value of the property. Here too the real exposure is proof rather than the rule.
The late fee. This one is different, because writing is built into the rule. Arizona sets no default late fee, and the single place the Act deals with one describes a fee that is reasonable and already set out in a written rental agreement. Agree a late fee verbally and you are outside what the statute addresses.
So the honest summary is narrower than saying you lose the term and the rent. With an oral agreement what you mostly lose is certainty, and evidence of what was agreed. What you lose outright is anything Arizona expects to be in writing, and the late fee is the clearest example.
Which points to the practical answer: put it in writing whatever the length. A three-month tenancy carries no writing requirement from the statute of frauds, and it is still worth writing down.
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. 33-1310 is the list of definitions at the front of Arizona’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. It is where rental agreement is defined to include written, spoken and implied agreements, and where term of lease is defined by pointing at the written agreement. Those two definitions together are the reason a lease is simply a rental agreement in writing.
- A.R.S. 33-1314 covers rent and how long a tenancy lasts. It is the section saying the tenant owes the fair rental value where no rent was ever agreed, and that a tenancy with no fixed length is month to month, or week to week for a roomer paying weekly.
- A.R.S. 33-1368 deals with unpaid rent. It is also the only section mentioning a late fee, and it does so at one moment: a tenancy behind on rent is reinstated when the arrears are paid, along with a late fee that is reasonable and was written into the rental agreement.
- A.R.S. 44-101 is called the statute of frauds, which is a confusing old name, because it is not really about fraud. It is a list of agreements a court will not act on unless they are written down and signed. Two items on that list matter here: leasing for longer than a year, and any agreement that cannot be finished within a year of the day it was made.
How Long It Runs Is a Separate Decision
People often treat two questions as one. They are separate.
A written rental agreement can be month to month, and many are. An agreement does not become a lease because it happens to last twelve months. It becomes a lease when somebody writes it down.
Length decides your obligations and your flexibility. Writing decides what you can prove and enforce.
Learn more about choosing between month to month and a fixed term. If you are putting an agreement together now, what a lease should include covers what belongs in it.
Common Questions
What is the difference between a lease and a rental agreement in Arizona?
A rental agreement can be written or oral. A lease is a written rental agreement.
Does a lease have to be for a year?
No. A written lease can run for a few months, for exactly a year, for longer than a year, or month to month.
Is an oral rental agreement valid in Arizona?
Yes, for a term of one year or less. The Act protects an oral arrangement the same as a written one.
Can a written agreement be month to month?
Yes, and many are. How long the tenancy runs and whether it is written down are separate decisions.
What do I lose by not putting the agreement in writing?
Mainly proof of what was agreed. You also lose the footing for a late fee, since every mention of one in the Act assumes a written agreement.
Is a lessor the same as a landlord?
Yes. Lessor means landlord and lessee means tenant.