Free Arizona Landlord Forms
Every Arizona landlord form we publish, ordered by the stage of the tenancy it belongs to, each one paired with the Arizona Revised Statutes section and the deadline it starts — plus the official Arizona court form codes, including the mandatory third document almost every other site forgets.
Every form linked from this page is free, fillable in your browser, and downloads as a finished PDF — no account, no membership, no paywall. That is worth stating at the top, because the pages competing for this search largely do not hand you a form: the biggest landlord-association result puts its Arizona forms behind a membership wall, and the large commercial publishers charge for the same documents. Arizona tenancies run on the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act at A.R.S. Title 33, Chapter 10, and the correct form is almost always decided by which section of that Act you are acting under.
The short version
- Unpaid rent — a written five-day notice under A.R.S. § 33-1368(B). Arizona defines these as calendar days, expressly, at § 33-1368(G).
- Other material lease breach — ten days to cure. A breach affecting health and safety under § 33-1341 gets five days.
- Material and irreparable breach — immediate termination, with an expedited court track.
- Month-to-month termination — thirty days before the periodic rental date (§ 33-1375). Week-to-week is ten days.
- Entry — at least two days notice at a reasonable time (§ 33-1343(D)).
- Security deposit — capped at one and a half months’ rent including prepaid rent, itemised within fourteen business days — but only once the tenant demands it (§ 33-1321).
- Court — the case is a special detainer in justice court, and the tenant answers at the hearing, not by a day-counted deadline.
Every Arizona Landlord Form, by Stage of the Tenancy
Most sites list forms alphabetically, which is the least useful order, because a landlord rarely arrives knowing the document’s name. They arrive knowing what has happened. The index below is ordered by where you are in the tenancy, and each entry names the statute that makes the form necessary and the clock it starts.
Starting the tenancy
- Arizona residential lease agreement — the master document. Arizona does not require a written lease, but late fees are purely contractual here, so an oral agreement generally means no enforceable late fee at all.
- Rental application and application template — collect consistent information from every applicant, which is also your best defence on a fair-housing complaint.
- Lead-based paint form — required by federal law, not Arizona law, for any dwelling built before 1978.
- Move-in and move-out condition checklist — not required by statute and the most valuable optional form here. Arizona lets the tenant dispute deductions for sixty days; a signed move-in record is what turns a deduction from an argument into a documented fact.
- Roommate agreement and sublease agreement — general-purpose versions, not Arizona-specific.
During the tenancy
- Notice to enter the property — § 33-1343(D), at least two days notice, entry at reasonable times only.
- Rent increase notice — Arizona has no statewide rent control. Mid-term increases need the tenant’s agreement, so for a month-to-month tenancy the practical vehicle is the § 33-1375 thirty-day notice.
- Late rent notice — a courtesy reminder. It starts no statutory clock and is not a substitute for the five-day notice below.
- Rent receipt — general-purpose, and worth issuing for every cash payment.
- Lease Renewal Agreement
- Month-to-Month Rental Agreement
- Roommate Agreement
- Sublease Agreement
When the tenant breaches
- Five-day notice to pay rent or quit — § 33-1368(B). The notice must state both the nonpayment and your intention to terminate if it is not paid.
- Notice to cure or quit — ten days for general material noncompliance, five days where the breach affects health and safety under § 33-1341.
- Unconditional quit notice — for a breach that is both material and irreparable, where Arizona allows immediate termination and no cure right at all.
Ending the tenancy without fault
- Notice of non-renewal — when a fixed term is ending and you do not intend to renew.
- Tenant notice to vacate — the tenant’s side of § 33-1375, and the obligation is mutual.
After the tenant moves out
- Security deposit itemisation — § 33-1321(D), the itemised list of every deduction.
- Security deposit return letter — the covering document that goes out with the refund.
Arizona Court Forms: the Official AOC Codes
If the tenancy ends in court you leave our forms behind and use the Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts forms. The action is a special detainer under A.R.S. § 33-1377 for a residential tenancy governed by the Act — forcible detainer is the broader term — and it is filed in justice court.
| Step | Statewide AOC form | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Start the eviction | AOCLJEA2F — Complaint | Counties also issue their own numbered versions; Maricopa uses EA 8150-212. |
| Summons | AOCLJEA1F — Summons | A separate document, unlike some states where it is printed on the complaint. |
| Serve with the above | AOCLJEA3F — Residential Eviction Information Sheet | Mandatory third document. Spanish version AOCLJEA3FS. |
| Tenant responds | LJEA00004F — Answer | No filing fee for the tenant’s answer. |
| Tenant does not appear | No motion form exists | Default is entered at the hearing; judgment issues on AOCLJEA6F. |
| Recover possession | LJEA00007F — Writ of Restitution | Pima County uses JP406. |
| Cannot afford the fee | AOCDFGF1F — Application for Deferral or Waiver of Court Fees | Includes consent to entry of judgment for the deferred amount. |
The mandatory document nearly every competitor omits. Arizona requires a third paper at service: the Residential Eviction Information Sheet, AOCLJEA3F, served with the summons and complaint and carrying the notation that its publication and distribution are required by the Arizona Supreme Court. If you serve only a summons and complaint, you have served an incomplete packet. Almost no commercial Arizona forms page mentions it.
Two further Arizona peculiarities are worth knowing before you file. There is no default-judgment motion form — if the tenant fails to appear, default is entered at the hearing itself, so any page offering you an Arizona “motion for default” number is describing a general civil form, not an eviction one. And there is no statewide eviction proof-of-service form; the affidavit comes from the constable, sheriff or registered process server who served it. Small claims, oddly, does have one.
Arizona’s optional statewide notice forms
Unusually, Arizona publishes official templates for the pre-suit notices themselves. They are convenience forms, not court filings, and not statutorily mandatory — a correctly drafted notice of your own is equally valid:
- AOCEAGN1F — five-day notice to pay rent
- AOCEAGN2F — five-day notice to comply, health and safety violation
- AOCEAGN3F — ten-day notice to comply, material breach
- AOCEAGN4F — immediate notice to move, material and irreparable breach
- AOCEAGN9F — ten-day notice to move, repeat breach
Which Arizona Form Do I Need?
Work down this list and stop at the first line that matches. The section reference fixes your deadline.
- Rent is unpaid. Five-day notice under § 33-1368(B), counted in calendar days.
- The tenant has broken the lease in a way that affects health or safety under § 33-1341. Five days to cure.
- Any other material lease breach. Ten days to cure.
- The same or a similar breach has recurred after a previous remedy during the lease term. Ten days, no cure right — and note this one is measured from delivery, where the ordinary cure notices run from receipt.
- The breach is material and irreparable — the statute lists illegal weapon discharge, homicide, prostitution, criminal street gang activity, controlled-substance offences, threatening or intimidating conduct, assault, conduct found to be a nuisance, and imminent or actual serious property damage, and says expressly that the list is not exhaustive. Immediate termination.
- Nobody is at fault and you simply want the tenancy to end. Thirty days before the periodic rental date for month-to-month; ten days for week-to-week.
- You need access. Two days notice under § 33-1343(D).
- The tenant has gone. The deposit clock starts — but see the demand requirement below, because it does not start on its own.
The Arizona Eviction Timeline
Arizona is one of the faster states, and the special-detainer track for a material and irreparable breach is faster still. Two features surprise landlords coming from elsewhere: the summons issues the same day you file, and the tenant is never given a day-counted written answer deadline.
| Step | Who acts | Timing | Form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serve the statutory notice | Landlord | Day zero | Our fillable notice, or the optional AOCEAGN series |
| Notice period runs | Tenant may cure | 5 or 10 calendar days — or none, if material and irreparable | — |
| File the complaint | Landlord | After the period expires | AOCLJEA2F |
| Summons issues | Court | The day the complaint is filed | AOCLJEA1F + AOCLJEA3F |
| Service | Constable or process server | At least two days before the return day | — |
| Hearing | Court | Three to six days from the date of the summons | LJEA00004F answer, filed or made at the hearing |
| Expedited track | Court | Material and irreparable: trial no later than the third day after filing; restitution ordered twelve to twenty-four hours later | — |
| Recover possession | Court, then constable | After judgment | LJEA00007F |
Reinstatement is the rule most likely to catch a landlord out. Before you file, if the tenant tenders all past-due rent plus a reasonable late fee set out in a written rental agreement, the rental agreement shall be reinstated — you do not have a choice. After filing but before judgment, the same applies once attorney fees and court costs are added. Only after judgment does reinstatement become discretionary. Budget for the possibility that a tenant pays on the courthouse steps and the tenancy simply continues.
How to Fill Out an Arizona Five-Day Notice
- Name every tenant on the lease. A notice naming one of two signatories is contestable.
- Identify the property exactly as the lease does, including unit number.
- State the rent owed as a figure and the period it covers. Do not merge several months into one undifferentiated total.
- State your intention to terminate if it is not paid. Section 33-1368(B) requires the notice to convey both the nonpayment and the intention — a bare demand for rent is not a statutory notice.
- Count five calendar days. Arizona removes the usual ambiguity: § 33-1368(G) defines “days” as calendar days for that section. Weekends and holidays count.
- Add any late fee only if the written lease creates one, and keep it reasonable — that is the sole statutory constraint.
- Deliver it by a method the statute allows — see the next section, and note that taping it to the door is not one of them.
- Date it, sign it, and keep proof of delivery.
How to Serve an Arizona Notice
Arizona’s general notice rule is at § 33-1313, and § 33-1368 prescribes no method of its own, so § 33-1313 governs the pre-filing notice. Service on a tenant is by hand delivery, or by registered or certified mail to the place the tenant has held out for receiving communications, or in the absence of such a designation to the last known place of residence.
Posting on the door is not authorised for the pre-suit notice, and the mailing rule is a ceiling rather than an extension. Under § 33-1313 a mailed notice is deemed received on the date it is actually received or five days after mailing, whichever occurs first. That is the opposite of an add-days-for-mailing rule: it does not lengthen your notice period, it caps how long constructive receipt can be deferred. Post-and-mail service is permitted for the court summons under § 33-1377(B) — a different step entirely, and conflating the two is a common and expensive error.
Because the ordinary cure notices run from receipt while the repeat-breach notice runs from delivery, keeping proof of both the sending and the receipt is worth the small extra effort of certified mail with return receipt alongside ordinary first-class mail.
Security Deposits: the Cap, and the Demand Nobody Mentions
Section 33-1321(A) prevents a landlord demanding or receiving security — however denominated, including prepaid rent — of more than one and one half months’ rent. Prepaid rent counts toward the cap, which surprises landlords who treat first-and-last plus a deposit as three separate things. The one exception is tenant-initiated: the subsection does not prohibit a tenant voluntarily paying more in advance.
On fees, § 33-1321(B) requires the purpose of any nonrefundable fee or deposit to be stated in writing, and provides that anything not designated nonrefundable is refundable. A refundable pet deposit is security however you label it and counts toward the cap.
The deposit clock does not start on its own. Section 33-1321(D) gives the landlord fourteen days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, running from three cumulative events: termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, and demand by the tenant. No demand, no running clock. Note also that the “calendar days” definition at § 33-1368(G) is confined to § 33-1368 and does not reach the deposit section — so the pay-or-quit notice is counted in calendar days while the deposit deadline is counted in business days, in the same Act.
The itemised list and any balance go by first-class mail to the tenant’s last known place of residence unless the tenant has made other arrangements in writing. The tenant then has sixty days to dispute the deductions; after that the amount is deemed valid and final and further claims are waived. Miss the duty and § 33-1321(E) allows the tenant to recover the property and money due together with damages equal to twice the amount wrongfully withheld. Our Arizona security deposit guide works through the deduction categories.
Rent, Grace Periods, Late Fees and Returned Payments
Arizona sets no statutory grace period and no numeric late-fee cap. The only statutory constraint is that a late fee be reasonable and set out in a written rental agreement — there is no percentage, per-day or dollar ceiling in the Act. Two consequences follow: an oral lease will generally not support a late fee at all, and an aggressive fee invites challenge as an unenforceable penalty rather than a genuine estimate of loss.
Do not mistake the five-day pay-or-quit period for a grace period. It is a precondition to terminating the tenancy, not a window in which rent is not yet late — rent is late the day after it is due, and the late fee attaches then if the lease says so. Returned-payment fees sit outside the landlord-tenant act: A.R.S. § 44-6852 permits a service fee of not more than twenty-five dollars plus any actual charges the financial institution assesses. See our Arizona late fee guide.
Entry, Repairs and the Waiver Most Landlords Miss
Section 33-1343(D) requires at least two days notice of intent to enter and confines entry to reasonable times, with carve-outs for an emergency or where notice is impracticable. The statute specifies no delivery method and does not require writing, though writing is obviously the sensible practice.
The provision worth knowing is § 33-1343(B): when a tenant makes a maintenance request, that request constitutes permission to enter for the purpose of the request, and the tenant waives any separate or additional access notice. It applies only to that request’s purpose — it is not a standing permission — but it removes a genuine practical friction from repair scheduling. Our Arizona landlord entry guide covers the limits.
What the Tenant Can Do Back
Every form here has a counterpart on the tenant’s side, and a landlord who understands the return fire drafts better notices.
- Double the amount withheld. Section 33-1321(E) is the most commonly triggered penalty in Arizona practice, and it is triggered by a missed deadline rather than by bad faith.
- Reinstatement. Before judgment the tenant can end the case by paying, and the landlord has no discretion to refuse.
- The full statutory period. A notice that shortens five days to four, or that omits the statement of intention to terminate, is a defence rather than a technicality.
- A complete service packet. Serving the summons and complaint without the Residential Eviction Information Sheet is an incomplete packet.
- Small claims for the deposit. Under § 22-503 a deposit claim fits comfortably in small claims — but an eviction never can, because § 22-503(B) expressly excludes forcible entry, forcible detainer and unlawful detainer from that division.
Self-help offers no shortcut. Changing the locks, removing a door or cutting utilities is not an Arizona remedy and converts a straightforward possession case into a damages claim against the landlord. Our Arizona eviction notice guide covers the court route.
What Happens If the Form Is Wrong
Not every error is fatal, and knowing which are saves money. A defect that shortens a tenant’s statutory period, or omits an element the statute requires — the statement of intention to terminate under § 33-1368(B) is the classic example — goes to your right to bring the action, and is the kind of problem that gets a case dismissed and restarted from day zero. A defect that lengthens a period, or gives the tenant more information than required, generally works in the tenant’s favour and creates no problem for you.
Errors of identity sit between. A misspelled name or transposed unit number can usually be amended where it is obvious who and what was meant, but it hands the tenant an argument, and in a contested case an argument costs a hearing. The working rule: an over-generous notice is safe, an under-generous notice is not, and an ambiguous notice is expensive. If you spot a defect before filing, serve a fresh notice and restart the clock rather than filing on a doubtful one.
Court Costs: Arizona Fees Are Not Statewide
Arizona sets a statutory base fee and then each county adds its own charges, so the total genuinely varies. Any page quoting one Arizona figure is guessing.
| Court | Eviction | Small claims | Writ of restitution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statutory base | forty-one dollars | thirty dollars | thirty-three dollars |
| Pima County | seventy-one dollars | sixty dollars | thirty-eight dollars |
| Maricopa County | sixty-nine dollars | fifty-eight dollars | one hundred twenty-five dollars |
| Mohave County | fifty-one dollars | forty dollars | not published |
Maricopa’s own fee page states the position plainly: the justice courts do not set these costs, the state sets the base and the county adds to it. Confirm the current figure with your justice court before filing.
A number most of the internet still gets wrong. Arizona’s small claims limit rose from three thousand five hundred dollars to five thousand dollars in 2025. Several county court pages and effectively every commercial guide still publish the old figure. Justice court general civil and eviction jurisdiction remains ten thousand dollars.
What This Page Does Not Have
We would rather scope this honestly than promise documents we do not host. There is no Arizona-specific abandoned-property notice here, and the roommate, sublease, rent receipt and rental application forms linked above are general-purpose rather than Arizona-drafted — useful, but check them against your own lease before relying on them.
Arizona also imposes a couple of notice obligations that many states do not, including a bed bug information requirement and, for a property with a pool, a pool safety notice. We do not currently publish fillable versions of either, and we have deliberately not linked a placeholder in their place.
Free Fillable Forms Versus the Paid Arizona Form Sites
It is worth being direct about the alternatives, because the Arizona results are dominated by pages that never hand you a document. The largest landlord-association site ranks near the top with roughly a dozen Arizona form titles behind a membership wall. The large commercial publishers sell an Arizona landlord-tenant package. Several property-management platforms rank with single-form funnels whose real purpose is a software signup. The one genuinely well-shaped Arizona competitor is a law-firm page of about twelve hundred words — good structure, very little depth.
Every form linked from this page is free, fills in the browser, and downloads as a completed PDF, with no account and no upsell attached to the documents. What we ask in return is simple: if you are about to hand over keys, screen first, because nearly every dispute described on this page is cheaper to prevent than to litigate.
The Immediate Track: Material and Irreparable Breach
Arizona has one of the fastest emergency eviction routes in the country, and landlords elsewhere are often surprised by how compressed it is. Where a breach is both material and irreparable and occurs on the premises, § 33-1368(A) allows a written notice for immediate termination — no cure period, no waiting.
The statute names illegal discharge of a weapon, homicide, prostitution, criminal street gang activity, the unlawful manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, use or storage of a controlled substance, threatening or intimidating conduct, assault, acts found to constitute a nuisance, a breach otherwise jeopardising the health, safety and welfare of the landlord, the landlord’s agent or another tenant, and imminent or actual serious property damage. Importantly, the statute says that list is not exhaustive — other conduct can qualify if it is genuinely material and genuinely irreparable.
The court timetable then matches the urgency. Under § 33-1377(E) the trial is set no later than the third day following the filing of the complaint, and where the landlord succeeds, restitution of the premises is ordered not less than twelve nor more than twenty-four hours afterwards. From service of the notice to a writ can therefore be a matter of days rather than weeks.
Two cautions. The speed cuts both ways: because there is no cure period, the entire case rests on the breach genuinely being irreparable, and a judge who disagrees leaves you having terminated a tenancy you had no right to terminate. And “occurs on the premises” is doing real work in that sentence — conduct elsewhere generally will not support the immediate track. Where the facts are arguable, the ordinary ten-day route is slower but far harder to attack.
When the Application Was Falsified: Arizona’s Split Rule
Arizona treats a lie on the rental application as a lease breach, and it is one of the few states that says explicitly which lies can be cured and which cannot. The distinction is worth understanding before you draft a notice, because getting it wrong sends you down the wrong track entirely.
Curable as a ten-day material breach: falsified information about the number of occupants, about pets, about income, about a Social Security number, and about current employment. These are the ordinary application misstatements, and Arizona gives the tenant the chance to put them right — by removing the unauthorised occupant or pet, for instance.
Not curable at all: falsified information about criminal records, about a prior eviction record, and about current criminal activity. The statute states in terms that material falsification of information in that category is not curable. A tenant who concealed an eviction history does not get ten days to un-conceal it.
The practical consequence is that your screening file is your evidence. If you never verified employment or never pulled an eviction history, you may know the tenant lied but be unable to prove what they represented in the first place. This is the point at which a thorough application and a documented screening report stop being administrative overhead and start being the difference between a straightforward case and an unwinnable one. Our Arizona tenant screening guide covers the adverse-action steps that keep the file defensible.
Counting an Arizona Notice Period Correctly
Miscounting is the commonest reason an Arizona notice fails, and Arizona makes it easier than most states provided you keep two rules apart.
Rule one: the notice periods are calendar days. Section 33-1368(G) says so expressly, so weekends and public holidays are counted like any other day. A five-day notice received on a Wednesday expires the following Monday. There is no shifting for a weekend and no exclusion of holidays.
Rule two: the deposit deadline is business days. The fourteen days in § 33-1321(D) exclude Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. The two counting methods sit in the same Act and apply to different obligations, which is precisely why landlords mix them up.
Then there is the delivery question. If you hand the notice to the tenant, the clock starts on receipt and you have a witness. If you send it by registered or certified mail, § 33-1313 deems it received on the date of actual receipt or five days after mailing, whichever comes first — so posting a notice does not buy the tenant extra time, and it does not buy you any either. Work the arithmetic from the earlier of those two dates and you will not be caught out.
One more wrinkle to keep straight: the ordinary cure notices run from receipt, while the repeat-breach notice under the same section runs from delivery. If you are serving a repeat-breach notice, the date you delivered it is the date that matters, not the date the tenant collected it.
Suing Over a Deposit: the Small Claims Route
Most Arizona deposit disputes belong in the small claims division of the justice court, and the forms are numbered separately from the eviction set.
| Step | Form |
|---|---|
| Start the claim | LJSC00001F — Complaint |
| Summons | LJSC00002F |
| Prove service | LJSC00003F — Proof of Service by Registered or Certified Mail |
| Defendant answers | LJSC00004F |
| No response | LJSC00007F Application for Entry of Default, then LJSC00008F |
Note the asymmetry: small claims does have a proof-of-service form, while the eviction track does not. The limit is five thousand dollars, and because the deposit penalty is twice the amount wrongfully withheld, a fairly ordinary deposit dispute can approach that ceiling faster than people expect. A claim above the limit moves to the general civil docket of the justice court, which runs to ten thousand dollars, and beyond that to superior court. Whatever the amount, an eviction can never be heard in small claims.
Choosing the Right Arizona Lease
The lease is the document every later form depends on, and most Arizona disputes are decided by what it does or does not say. A few practical points specific to this state.
A fixed-term lease ends on its own date, so no thirty-day notice is needed to stop it — but if you want the tenant out at the end, a non-renewal notice removes the argument that a holdover was tacitly accepted. A month-to-month arrangement is the flexible option and is what a fixed term usually becomes when it lapses without a new agreement; either side ends it with thirty days before the periodic rental date. A week-to-week tenancy is unusual in Arizona residential letting but the Act contemplates it, with a ten-day notice.
Whichever you use, three clauses carry disproportionate weight here. The late fee clause, because without it there is no enforceable late fee at all and no figure to put in a five-day notice. The nonrefundable fee clause, because § 33-1321(B) requires the purpose of any nonrefundable fee to be stated in writing and treats anything not so designated as refundable. And the clause identifying who may occupy the unit, because occupancy and pet misstatements are curable breaches, which means they are only enforceable if the lease established the position in the first place. Our Arizona breaking-lease guide covers what happens when a tenant leaves early.
Common Arizona Landlord Form Mistakes
- Omitting the statement of intention to terminate from a five-day notice. Section 33-1368(B) requires it; a bare rent demand is not a statutory notice.
- Posting the pre-suit notice on the door. Section 33-1313 does not authorise it. Post-and-mail applies to the court summons, not your notice.
- Treating the mailing rule as extra time. It is a five-day ceiling on constructive receipt, not an extension.
- Counting the deposit deadline in calendar days. It is fourteen business days — while the pay-or-quit notice is calendar days, in the same Act.
- Starting the deposit clock at move-out. It also needs delivery of possession and the tenant’s demand.
- Forgetting prepaid rent counts toward the deposit cap.
- Refusing a pre-judgment payment. Reinstatement is mandatory before judgment, not optional.
- Serving without the Residential Eviction Information Sheet.
- Quoting a single statewide filing fee. Arizona’s fees are county-specific.
Arizona Landlord Forms: FAQ
What forms are required to start an eviction in Arizona?
A written notice under A.R.S. § 33-1368 — five days for unpaid rent, five or ten days for a curable breach, or immediate for a material and irreparable breach — and then, if it is not cured, the complaint AOCLJEA2F with summons AOCLJEA1F and the mandatory Residential Eviction Information Sheet AOCLJEA3F, filed in justice court.
Can an Arizona landlord use a generic template or must forms be state-approved?
A correctly drafted template is acceptable. Arizona publishes official notice templates in the AOCEAGN series, but they are convenience forms rather than mandatory ones. Once you are in court the official AOC forms must be used.
How should a notice be delivered to a tenant in Arizona?
By hand delivery, or by registered or certified mail to the address the tenant has held out for communications, under A.R.S. § 33-1313. Posting on the door is not authorised for the pre-suit notice. A mailed notice is deemed received on actual receipt or five days after mailing, whichever comes first.
Are Arizona notice periods counted in calendar days or business days?
The § 33-1368 notice periods are calendar days, defined expressly at § 33-1368(G). The security deposit deadline in § 33-1321(D) is fourteen business days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. The two are counted differently within the same Act.
What is the Arizona security deposit cap?
One and one half months’ rent under § 33-1321(A), and prepaid rent counts toward it. A tenant may voluntarily choose to pay more in advance, but a landlord may not demand it.
How long does an Arizona landlord have to return a deposit?
Fourteen business days, but the clock runs only once three things have happened: the tenancy has terminated, possession has been delivered, and the tenant has demanded the deposit. Missing the deadline exposes the landlord to twice the amount wrongfully withheld under § 33-1321(E).
Is there a grace period or a late fee cap in Arizona?
Neither. The Act sets no grace period and no numeric cap; a late fee must simply be reasonable and set out in a written rental agreement. Returned payment fees are capped separately at twenty-five dollars plus actual bank charges by A.R.S. § 44-6852.
How much notice ends a month-to-month tenancy in Arizona?
Thirty days before the periodic rental date under § 33-1375, from either side. A week-to-week tenancy takes ten days.
How much notice must an Arizona landlord give before entering?
At least two days, at a reasonable time, under § 33-1343(D), with exceptions for emergencies. A tenant’s own maintenance request counts as permission to enter for that purpose and waives the separate notice.
What is the Arizona small claims limit for a deposit dispute?
Five thousand dollars, raised from three thousand five hundred in 2025. A deposit claim qualifies, but small claims can never hear an eviction — forcible entry, forcible detainer and unlawful detainer are excluded from that division.
Can an Arizona tenant stop an eviction by paying?
Yes, and before judgment the landlord has no discretion. Paying all past-due rent plus a reasonable written-lease late fee reinstates the agreement before filing; after filing, the same applies once attorney fees and court costs are added. Only after judgment does reinstatement become the landlord’s choice.
Is an oral lease enforceable in Arizona?
Generally yes for a month-to-month arrangement, but it is a poor idea. A late fee must be set out in a written rental agreement, so an oral lease usually leaves the landlord with no enforceable late fee and no written record of the deposit terms.
Related Arizona Guides
- Arizona landlord-tenant laws — the full statutory overview.
- Arizona eviction notice laws — notice periods and the special detainer timeline.
- Arizona security deposit laws — deductions, itemisation and double damages.
- Arizona lease termination laws — ending a tenancy without fault.
- Arizona rent increase laws — why Arizona has no statewide rent control.
- Arizona late fee laws — enforceability and returned payments.
- Arizona landlord entry laws — the two-day rule and the maintenance-request waiver.
- Arizona habitability laws — the repair duty and tenant remedies.
- Arizona breaking lease laws — early termination and what it costs.
- Arizona tenant screening laws — background checks and adverse action.
Published by Tenant Screening Background Check · Editorial Team
Established 2004. Our editorial team has spent two decades helping landlords and property managers run lawful tenant screening and follow state landlord-tenant codes across all fifty states. For this page we worked from the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act itself and from the Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts forms library, rather than from secondary summaries — several of which, including some county court pages, still publish Arizona’s superseded small claims limit.
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Last reviewed 2026. This page is general information about Arizona landlord-tenant law and Arizona court forms, not legal advice. Statutory periods, court form codes and filing fees change, and Arizona filing fees are set county by county. Confirm the current requirements with your justice court or an Arizona attorney before serving a notice or filing a case.
