Landlord and Tenant Rights and Responsibilities

questions & answers

Question: Someone broke my window with a baseball from the outside. The landlord is charging me the cost incurred to fix the window. Is this my responsibility?

Answer: Under the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (A.R.S. Title 33 Chapter 10), a tenant must “maintain” the dwelling unit and “not deliberately or negligently destroy, deface, damage, impair or remove any part of the premises or knowingly permit any person to do so” (A.R.S. 33-1341(6)). As a general rule, if a tenant or someone on the premises with the permission of the tenant causes damage to the property either deliberately or negligently, then the landlord may ask the tenant to repair it, but if someone unknown to the tenant causes damage to the property, or if damage is caused accidentally, then the landlord and/or the landlord’s property insurance may be expected to cover the cost of repairs. Depending on exactly what happened, it may not be a landlord/tenant matter, and the landlord may want to sue the responsible party in small claims court.