What can a Tenant Do? My Landlord is not Following the Lease.

1. You are a tenant living in a rental property. However, your landlord is not following the rental agreement.
2. According to the rental agreement and the Arizona Residential Landlord Tenant Act, you may have rights if your landlord is violating the lease.
3. It is important to continue paying the rent. Your landlord’s violation of the lease agreement does not give you the right to withhold rent.
4. Let us look at the top complaints against landlords and the remedies you may have.
5. The first complaint is that the landlord is not making needed repairs.
6. If you want your landlord to make repairs, you must deliver a written notice to your landlord requesting repairs.
7. The time frame you give your landlord to make the repairs depends upon the seriousness of the repairs.
8. You have different options depending on the type of problem you have.
9. If there’s a failure to provide essential services, such as reasonable amounts of hot water and running water, gas, or electrical services required by the lease—
10. After you give the landlord reasonable notice in writing, you can do one of the following things:
11. You can get the service required by the rental agreement, such as bottled water, and deduct the cost from your rent.
12. You can put the utilities in your name and deduct the cost from your rent.
13. You can pay the past due utility bill and deduct it from your rent.
14. Or, while the utilities or services are not being provided in the rental unit, you can get other reasonable housing and not pay rent.
15. Reasonable means an amount that is not higher than your daily rent plus twenty-five percent. This means that you may receive a rent credit of up to twenty-five percent more than your daily rent.
16. For example, let’s say that your rent is $900. That calculates to $30 per day. Twenty-five percent of $30 is $7.50. Your rent credit would then equal $37.50 per day.
17. But, be very careful if you do any of these options!
18. You must first tell the landlord in writing that you are going to do one of these options and keep the receipts of your costs.
19. If, there’s a problem that affects health and safety issues, such as clogged pipes or a broken toilet you must give the landlord a five-day written notice to make the repairs.
20. Other types of repairs such as pest control, broken appliances, or pool equipment malfunctions require a ten-day written notice to the landlord.
21. If those time frames expire and the landlord does not make repairs you have options.
22. You can hire a licensed contractor for minor defects and deduct this from your rent with certain documentation. For example, $300 or an amount equal to one-half month’s rent, whichever is greater.
23. In each of these situations, you can choose to end the rental agreement and move out if the landlord does not fix the problem within those specific time frames.
24. Another common complaint is abuse of access.
25. Unless the landlord is there to complete a repair that you requested, abuse of access means that the landlord enters the premises without a two day notice and it is not an emergency.
26. What can you do about an abuse of access issue?
27. You may file for an injunction or end the rental agreement.
28. Your landlord is not allowed to lock you out without a court order.
29. The landlord may not retaliate if you complained to your landlord or to a government agency about the health and safety of the premises in the last six months.
30. If this happens, you may be entitled to damages.
31. If you are unable to resolve the issues with your landlord, you may file a lawsuit, or you can raise them as counterclaims if you are being evicted.
32. Another common complaint is failure to return the security deposit.
33. For more detailed information about this complaint, see the Legal Info Video entitled “How do I get my security deposit back?”

Resources:

Eviction Legal Info Sheets

Eviction Videos