questions & answers

Question: I was offered a job and need to terminate my lease with short notice. I've provided notice in writing to my landlord (both via email and certified letter), as well as called several times, but I haven't gotten any sort of response from them. Do I have any further responsibilities or recourse?

Answer: Under Arizona law, whatever is specifically stated in the rental agreement generally determines what the tenant’s and the landlord’s rights and responsibilities are (A.R.S. 33-1314). However, regardless of what the rental agreement says (or does not say), both the landlord and the tenant are required to discharge their rights and responsibilities in “good faith” (A.R.S. 33-1310) and to attempt to “mitigate” (lessen) any damages that they may be owed (A.R.S. 33-1305). In this situation this means that the tenant should make every genuine effort to notify the landlord – and to help the landlord resolve any problems arising from the termination of the rental agreement to whatever extent may be possible (for example, by finding a new tenant to take the old tenant’s place) – and that the landlord (1) should not hide from or purposely ignore the tenant and (2) must genuinely try to find another tenant and re-rent the dwelling. If the landlord were to sue the tenant for unpaid rent, both parties would want to be able to show the judge that they did their best to cause as little hardship to the other as possible. As for your attempts to notify the landlord, the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act states that a person “gives” notice to another “by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform the other in ordinary course whether or not the other actually comes to know of it” and that a person “receives” notice “when it comes to his attention, or in the case of the landlord, it is delivered in hand or mailed by registered or certified mail to the place of business of the landlord through which the rental agreement was made or at any place held out by him as the place for receipt of the communication […]” (A.R.S. 33-1313).