questions & answers

Question: I rented a room in my house. We signed a lease for the month because she only planned to stay a month. We signed lease and she moved in. 4 days later she changed her mind and wants her rent money back. Am i obligated to give it back. The reason she left was unknown. She made up some bogus story that her car got broken into but my neighbors has security cameras and no such thing happend.

Answer: Under the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (A.R.S. Title 33 Chapter 10), especially where a rental agreement is silent regarding a particular issue, both parties have a legal duty to act in “good faith” in performing or enforcing rights or remedies (A.R.S. 33-1310) and to attempt to “mitigate” (lessen) any damages that they may be owed (A.R.S. 33-1305). What this means is that if your former tenant were to take you to court, you ideally would want to be in a position to convince the judge that you kept the entirety of her rent payment – rather than just some part of it – for legitimate reasons (for example, because it was too late to re-rent the room). (If your rental agreement specified a certain amount of advance notice or penalties for terminating early, etc., then those terms or conditions would determine your specific responsibility (A.R.S. 33-1314).)