Free Arizona Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable Arizona residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — the one-and-a-half-month deposit cap that counts prepaid rent, the 14 business-day return, and the landlord’s duty to supply reasonable cooling.

Arizona A.R.S. 33-1301 1.5-Month Cap Free PDF 2026 Edition

An Arizona residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act at A.R.S. 33-1301 and following. Arizona’s version of the uniform act has three features that catch out landlords using an imported template. The deposit cap of one and one-half month’s rent expressly includes prepaid rent, so collecting first month, last month and a deposit can breach it without anyone intending to. The return deadline of fourteen days excludes weekends and legal holidays and is triggered by the tenant’s demand. And Arizona is one of the very few states that requires the landlord to supply reasonable air conditioning or cooling — a duty no out-of-state template carries. Arizona’s attorney-fee rule is also narrower than the flat bans in neighbouring uniform-act states: a one-sided landlord-fee clause is prohibited, but a reciprocal prevailing-party clause is expressly allowed.

Complete the fields below to generate an Arizona residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling Arizona section at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening — the lease governs the relationship, screening decides whether you want it. Pair the signed lease with an Arizona move-in / move-out checklist so the itemized list you owe at move-out rests on documented condition.

Arizona recognizes the standard range of residential arrangements. A fixed-term lease runs for a stated period and expires on its own terms. A periodic tenancy renews each period until one side gives notice — thirty days for month-to-month, ten days for week-to-week. A room or roommate agreement covers a tenant renting one room in an occupied dwelling; a sublease passes the tenant’s interest to a subtenant while leaving the original tenant liable; and a lease-to-own agreement adds a purchase option that sits outside the Act.

Two categories fall outside this form. A commercial lease is not governed by the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act at all. And Arizona has a separate statutory scheme for mobile home parks, so a space rental in a park is governed by its own act rather than by A.R.S. 33-1301 and following. Using a residential lease for either attaches the wrong body of law to the arrangement.

One drafting note: a lease for a term longer than one year must be in writing to satisfy Arizona’s statute of frauds at A.R.S. 44-101(6). Beyond that, Arizona adds a requirement most states do not — under A.R.S. 33-1322 the landlord must tender and deliver a signed copy of the rental agreement to the tenant, and the tenant must sign and deliver back one fully executed copy within a reasonable time. A lease that only ever exists in the landlord’s filing cabinet does not satisfy that.

No more than one and one-half month’s rent — and prepaid rent counts. A.R.S. 33-1321(A) provides that a landlord shall not demand or receive security, however denominated, including prepaid rent, in an amount or value of more than one and one-half month’s rent.

The phrase “however denominated” defeats relabelling: calling money a fee, a deposit, or last month’s rent does not take it outside the cap if it functions as security. The express inclusion of prepaid rent is what makes Arizona different from most states, and it produces a very common breach. A landlord who collects the first month’s rent, the last month’s rent, and a security deposit of one month’s rent has taken one month of ordinary rent plus two months of security in the statute’s terms — a half-month over the line. The form above keeps deposit and prepaid rent in separate fields so the total is visible at signing.

The remedy matters too. A landlord holding security above the cap is holding money the statute says may not be demanded or received, and the excess is recoverable. The deeper treatment lives in our Arizona security deposit laws guide.

Only if the purpose is stated in writing. A.R.S. 33-1321(B) requires that the purpose of all nonrefundable fees or deposits be stated in writing by the landlord, and then supplies the consequence in a single sentence: any fee or deposit not designated as nonrefundable is refundable.

That default flips the usual assumption. The customary move-in fee, cleaning fee, redecoration fee or administrative fee is refundable unless the lease says, in writing, that it is nonrefundable and what it is for. “Nonrefundable” alone is thin; the statute asks for the purpose. A fee described as “nonrefundable cleaning fee, applied to end-of-tenancy carpet cleaning” is doing what the statute asks. A line item reading “admin fee” is not, and is refundable at move-out however the landlord intended it.

This is also the point at which the deposit cap and the fee rule interact. A fee that is genuinely nonrefundable and properly designated is not security, so it sits outside the one-and-a-half-month cap. A fee that fails the written-designation test is refundable, which makes it look a great deal like security — and it may then count toward the cap it was supposed to avoid.

Fourteen days excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other legal holidays — roughly three calendar weeks. A.R.S. 33-1321(D) requires the landlord to provide the tenant an itemized list of all deductions together with the amount due and payable to the tenant, if any, within that period.

The trigger has three components, and template summaries usually mention only the first two: termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, and demand by the tenant. A tenant who moves out and says nothing has not started the clock in the statute’s terms. In practice a careful tenant makes written demand on the way out and a careful landlord treats move-out as the start date regardless, because arguing about whether demand was made is a poor use of everyone’s time. Build the itemization with our Arizona security deposit itemization form.

Yes — and this is the Arizona duty imported templates never carry. A.R.S. 33-1324(A) requires the landlord to supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times, reasonable heat, and reasonable air conditioning or cooling.

The statutory language is “reasonable,” not “functioning to a specified temperature,” so what satisfies it depends on the unit and the season. But the duty is unambiguous in existence, and in a state where summer temperatures are a genuine health matter it is the habitability provision most likely to be litigated. Two consequences follow for drafting. First, allocating the electricity account to the tenant does not transfer the landlord’s duty to supply cooling — who pays the bill and who must provide the equipment in working order are different questions. Second, a lease clause purporting to disclaim responsibility for the cooling system is a waiver of a right under the Act, and therefore a prohibited provision under A.R.S. 33-1315. Our Arizona habitability laws guide covers the standard in more detail.

Beyond cooling, A.R.S. 33-1324 requires the landlord to comply with applicable building codes materially affecting health and safety; make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition; keep common areas clean and safe; maintain in good and safe working order all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning and other facilities and appliances; and provide receptacles for garbage and arrange for its removal.

Duty-shifting is permitted but tightly channelled. For a single-family residence, the landlord and tenant may agree in writing that the tenant handles waste removal, hot water supply or specified repairs, provided the agreement is made in good faith and does not evade the landlord’s core obligations or shift the duty to remedy a code violation. For any other dwelling, such an agreement must be by separate signed document, must not diminish other tenants’ rights, and may not cover fundamental health and safety compliance. That is why the form asks for the property type before it asks about maintenance.

A.R.S. 33-1341 sets the tenant’s eight duties, and the eighth is easy to overlook: the tenant must promptly notify the landlord in writing of any situation or occurrence requiring maintenance, repair or other action under A.R.S. 33-1324. A tenant who complains verbally for months and then withholds rent has not built the record the statute contemplates. A dated Arizona notice to enter on the landlord’s side and written maintenance requests on the tenant’s side are what make either party’s position provable.

Two days, with one significant exception. A.R.S. 33-1343(D) requires the landlord to give at least two days’ notice of intent to enter and to enter only at reasonable times, except in case of emergency or where it is impracticable to give notice. The landlord may enter without consent in an emergency, and the tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent to entry for inspections, repairs, decorations, alterations, improvements, agreed services, or showings to prospective purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workmen or contractors.

The exception is practical and widely misunderstood. Under A.R.S. 33-1343(B), where the tenant submits a service or maintenance request, that request is itself permission for the landlord to enter for that purpose, and the separate two-day notice is not required for the work requested. So a tenant who reports a broken air conditioner on Monday cannot object that the technician arrived Tuesday. What the exception does not do is open the unit for unrelated purposes, and a landlord who uses a repair visit as cover for an inspection is back under the two-day rule. See Arizona landlord entry laws.

Arizona runs three tracks under A.R.S. 33-1368. For unpaid rent, the landlord gives written notice of nonpayment and the tenant has five days to pay; failing that, the landlord may terminate and file for possession. A reasonable late fee may be charged only where the written lease provides for it. For a material breach other than nonpayment, the landlord delivers written notice specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach, with termination on a date not less than ten days after receipt unless the breach is remedied. For a material and irreparable breach, the landlord may terminate immediately with no opportunity to cure — the statute names illegal discharge of a weapon, homicide, prostitution, criminal street gang activity, and the unlawful manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, use or storage of a controlled substance.

One tenant protection sits inside the nonpayment track and is worth knowing on both sides: before the landlord files an eviction action, the tenant may reinstate the rental agreement by paying all past due and unpaid periodic rent together with a reasonable late fee. Once the action is filed that right is gone. Our Arizona five-day notice to pay rent or quit and notice to cure or quit cover the first two tracks, and Arizona eviction notice laws covers the sequence.

For a tenancy without a fixed term, A.R.S. 33-1375 sets the periods: a week-to-week tenancy ends on at least ten days written notice before the termination date stated in the notice, and a month-to-month tenancy on at least thirty days written notice before the periodic rental date stated in the notice. Arizona has no separate rent-increase notice statute, so a rent change on a periodic tenancy is accomplished by giving that same notice and offering new terms. See Arizona rent increase laws.

If the tenant remains in possession without consent after expiration or termination, the landlord may bring an action for possession, and where the holdover is wilful and not in good faith the landlord may recover in addition the greater of not more than two months’ periodic rent or twice the actual damages sustained. Arizona’s holdover exposure is therefore materially higher than in states that cap at a flat multiple of rent. Our Arizona breaking-lease laws guide and Arizona lease termination laws cover the tenant’s side.

A.R.S. 33-1370 supplies two distinct fact patterns, and the day counts differ because the presence of the tenant’s belongings changes what the absence means. The premises is deemed abandoned where the tenant has been absent without notice for at least seven days and rent is unpaid for ten days, and there is no reasonable evidence of occupancy other than the tenant’s personal property. Alternatively, it is abandoned where the tenant has been absent for at least five days, rent is unpaid for five days, and none of the tenant’s personal property remains.

Once abandonment is established the landlord must notify the tenant by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the tenant’s last known address and post notice on the unit for five days; hold the tenant’s personal property for fourteen calendar days after retaking possession, exercising reasonable care; and release the property where the tenant responds before disposal and pays reasonable removal and storage costs within five days. Only then may the landlord donate the property to charity, sell it and apply the proceeds to rent and costs, or destroy it if the value is minimal.

A.R.S. 33-1315 lists five, and two of them are unusual enough that most templates have never heard of them. A rental agreement may not provide that the tenant:

• Agrees to waive or forego rights or remedies under the Act.
• Agrees to pay the landlord’s attorney fees — except that a written agreement may provide for an award of reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party in a court action or forcible detainer action.
• Agrees to the exculpation or limitation of the landlord’s liability arising under law, or to indemnify the landlord for that liability.
• Agrees to waive the right to contact peace officers or emergency services during an emergency.
• Accepts a penalty for summoning emergency assistance.

The last two exist because “crime-free” and nuisance clauses in some leases penalised tenants for calling police — a pattern that fell hardest on domestic violence victims. Arizona put the protection in the prohibited-provisions section itself.

The attorney-fee exception is the point most coverage gets wrong in one direction or the other. Arizona has not banned fee clauses outright, as Alabama and Alaska have; nor has it made fees automatic and non-waivable, as Florida has. It has banned the one-sided clause under which the tenant pays the landlord’s fees regardless of outcome, while expressly permitting a reciprocal written clause running to whichever party prevails. The optional fee clause in the form above generates only the permitted reciprocal version.

The penalty is substantial. Under A.R.S. 33-1315(B) a prohibited provision is unenforceable, and where the landlord knowingly uses a rental agreement containing one, the tenant may recover actual damages plus not more than two months’ periodic rent. Copying a fee clause from an out-of-state template is precisely the fact pattern that provision addresses.

Three under state law, plus one federal, and two of the three are procedural rather than hazard-based.

Manager and owner identification — A.R.S. 33-1322(A). The landlord must disclose in writing the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises, and of an owner or a person authorized to act for the owner for service of process and for receiving notices and demands.

Notice that the Act is published — A.R.S. 33-1322. The landlord must inform the tenant that the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is available on the Arizona Department of Housing’s website. This is a genuinely Arizona-specific requirement, and it is absent from every lease template written for another state.

A fully executed copy — A.R.S. 33-1322. The landlord must tender and deliver a signed copy of the rental agreement to the tenant, and the tenant must sign and deliver back one fully executed copy within a reasonable time after execution.

Lead-based paint — federal, 42 U.S.C. 4852d. Any dwelling built before 1978 requires the federal disclosure, the EPA pamphlet, and any known records or reports. Our Arizona lead-based paint disclosure form handles it.

Arizona does not require a radon, flood-risk, bed bug, mold, asbestos, methamphetamine, military ordnance, demolition or sex-offender registry disclosure in a residential lease. Each comes from another state’s statute book.

• Forgetting that prepaid rent counts toward the deposit cap. First month, last month and a one-month deposit exceeds the one-and-a-half-month limit in A.R.S. 33-1321(A).
• Charging a nonrefundable fee without stating its purpose in writing. Under A.R.S. 33-1321(B) it is refundable, and the statute offers no way to fix it later.
• Treating the fourteen-day return as calendar days. Weekends and legal holidays are excluded, and the tenant’s demand is part of the trigger.
• Copying a one-sided attorney-fee clause. Prohibited by A.R.S. 33-1315(A)(2). Only a reciprocal prevailing-party clause is permitted.
• Omitting the cooling duty. A.R.S. 33-1324(A) requires reasonable air conditioning or cooling, and no out-of-state template carries it.
• Disclaiming responsibility for the air conditioner. That is a waiver of an Act right, itself a prohibited provision carrying the two-months’-rent penalty.
• Skipping the Department of Housing notice. A.R.S. 33-1322 requires telling the tenant the Act is published on that website.
• Never delivering a signed copy. The same section requires the landlord to tender one and the tenant to return a fully executed copy.
• Serving a ten-day cure notice for unpaid rent. Nonpayment runs on five days under A.R.S. 33-1368(B); ten days is the other-breach track.
• Refusing a pre-filing reinstatement. Before the eviction action is filed, the tenant may reinstate by paying past due rent plus a reasonable late fee.
• Penalising a tenant for calling police. Expressly prohibited by A.R.S. 33-1315(A).
• Disposing of abandoned property too early. A.R.S. 33-1370 requires certified-mail notice, five days’ posting, and a fourteen-calendar-day hold.

A well-drafted lease decides who wins a dispute; screening decides whether there is one. Arizona’s prohibited-provision penalty and its doubled holdover damages both put real money on the outcome, and its deposit rules put the landlord’s own compliance under scrutiny before the tenant’s conduct is ever reached. Verifiable income, a clean payment history, and no prior eviction filings remain the strongest predictors of a quiet tenancy. Our tenant screening report covers credit, eviction filings, criminal background, and employment verification. Screen first, then paper the tenancy with this lease.

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