What is the recourse for landlord when the tenant breaks the lease in Arizona?

Question

I have a tenant who signed a lease to rent my property for one (1) year. They now want to break the lease to move back to their home state. They said they would pay for another month, and let the security deposit cover one other month. The lease is finished in February. Further, they said they check and found my house is going into foreclosure. Their attorney told them to stop paying, they don't to pay the rent. That is untrue, I am behind, but not in Prue What is my remedy since I was depending on their monies to pay the mortgage on the home. What is my remedy?

Answer 1

You are a businessperson--know your rights! YOU are in charge of this--not them. They have to offer you something that you will agree to. Maybe money. Maybe another tenant. Your situation is governed by Arizona and local law. Google Arizona + "landlord rights".

What can you do? You can agree to terminate the lease and let them go. Or, you can have them offer you a certain amount to end the lease early--perhaps a month's rent EXTRA plus deposit. Or, you could start eviction process now and they'll still be there in 2 months, giving you grief. You can pursue them to the ends of the earth to collect a few months rent and legal fees, perhaps.

You have a lease and you have a notice that the tenants will surrender occupancy in 2 months. You might as well issue the pay or quit notice, then take the next step in eviction.

You are entitled to collect rent from them until you find another tenant. I know people who use craigslist to find leases that others want to break, and they move in under those terms to use up the remaining lease.

Why not inform them that rent is still due, and that you might consider a monetary offer from them to terminate the lease early AND they must give you some names of people who want to rent the place. Otherwise, you will pursue what you are entitled to.

Answer 2

They are paying you 60 days (essentially) rent when they won't be there, as a landlord thats actually very good.  Also, since they are moving out of the state (assuming that's true) it would be nearly impossible to serve them to take them to court for other money owed.  If I were you I'd just say ok, and let them go.  Then get the place in good shape and rent it out to someone else and heck, maybe you'll be able to get someone in there before the 60 days are up.

Honestly, the remedy is to take them to court for the unpaid rent, but you've got to be able to find them and have them served within the current county to do this. Then even if you did this and took them to court and won the judgement, how are you going to enforce it.  If they just flat out refused to pay it you could really hurt their credit, but without them having many hard assets (and being in another state) it will be very hard to force them to pay.

Again, its not perfect but I'd say take the 60 days rent and let it go - its the best you can probably do.  

One other caveat though, do a through inspection of the place before agreeing to this and make sure there are no damages.  Also try to get them to sign something stating they are responsible for the utilities up until the time they leave (again maybe hard to enforce this, but it gets it in their minds to pay these).

Answer 3

Not that I'm trying to be an *** but is everyone having tenant/landlord problems in Arizona?  Someone else just asked a question from AZ about a landlord problem.

Anyway, depending on what your lease says, do not let them use the security deposit to cover one month b/c you don't know if they did any damage to the house etc.

Make sure you send a notice to them (return receipt) that notifies them that they have been delinquent.  You need to recoup NOW what they have not paid you.  

So did they sign in February 2008 I'm assuming?  Do you have an early termination clause in your lease?

Everything depends on what your lease says more or less.

I was looking at another question about landlord deficiency and BigOrlando gave a very good answer to a pertinent question.  See below:

This is a very interesting question. It appears from the question that no actual foreclosure proceeding has been started. Up until that time my answer is that you must continue to pay your landlord. Once foreclosure proceedings are started, you will likely be named as a defendant in the foreclosure proceedings and once that happens it introduces the bank into the equation. The bank likely has the right to collect the rent, but they never do this in residential foreclosure actions. Therefore, if I was a tenant, and if the mortgage company/bank held an assignment of rents, I might, after consultation with an attorney, withhold rental payments. Again, I am not giving you advice, I am merely sharing my thoughts on this interesting situation. (Sorry but I do have to CYA this. I am not your attorney, You should consult with an attorney in your area to address this matter.)

1 hour ago

Source(s):

I am an attorney in Florida, if you are in Florida, this is not the provision of legal advice, I am not your attorney, and this is worth every penny that I am charging you! Please, Please hire your own attorney!

Answer 4

In a practical matter, you have few options when dealing with a tenant who moves out. If you have a lease with them, then technically they owe the rent for the full lease period. However, if they move out and especially if they leave the state, the legal fees for you to try to collect the amount due will be more than the lost rent. Your best option is to try and rent the house as soon as you can.