questions & answers

Question: I have just finished a 1 year lease at my current apartment community on November 25th. It's now December 16th and I must break my lease due to family emergency and no financial resources available. Is there anyway I can retrack my lease since the new lease has been in effect for less than 30 days?

Answer: The Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act does not provide for any such do-over, so, as a general rule, whatever early termination (or lease-break) provision appears in the lease will apply. If the lease does not contain a lease-break provision, then the landlord has a duty to “mitigate” (A.R.S. 33-1305(A)) – that is, a duty to do their best to reduce – any monetary damages that will result from the tenant leaving early. This means that the landlord must make a good faith effort to find a new tenant as soon as possible and may only charge the former tenant for rent lost when the unit was empty and for the costs involved in re-renting it.