Landlord Tenant Law - Why You Should Not Terminate a Tenant’s Lease When He Fails to Pay Rent

Posted on November 21st, 2008 | by John Glenn |

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The Arizona Landlord Tenant Act and other Arizona laws govern the legal bond between landlords and tenants. In some cases, the statutory requirements capture preference over the language in a lease contract, so landlords must be careful how they manage interactions with tenants who are violating their lease.Most lease violations engage the tenant’s failure to pay rent on time, and there is no question that when a tenant defaults, the landlord should take action on time. But if you choose to throw out a deadbeat tenant, you should be aware of your choice of words in order to make sure your capability to gather all of the damages you are supposed to recover as an Arizona landlord.

However, several Arizona landlords instantly inform their tenant that the lease is terminated when the tenant fails to pay rent within specific time period. Under Arizona law, a landlord cannot sue to get back any rent that may have accrued after he or she “terminates” a lease. This is true even if the termination was solely the result of the tenant’s failure to pay rent or other breach.

A landlord with a tenant in breach is allowed to throw out the tenant, and still recover future rent; if rather than terminating the lease he or she instead terminates the tenant’s right to possession of the property. This distinction in the alternative of words used can mean the difference in thousands of dollars of rent that may be recoverable.

Arizona landlords should make sure that there are some circumstances where terminating the lease might be appropriate to do. If there is a potential that the tenant might file bankruptcy to avoid the eviction, the landlord might be in an efficient position in bankruptcy court if the lease was terminated before the filing of bankruptcy.

Whatever may be the situation, Arizona landlord tenant matters may become problematic and you should seek guidance with an experienced Arizona real estate lawyer before taking any actions regarding your queries.