questions & answers

Question: I live in a home in which had not been occupied for about 4years. I have been here almost18months now i have done some work on the place like put locks on front door itjusthad a chain throughtthe hole, I’ve fixed resroom sink and painted, i put up a dividing fence in the back yard as well as cleaned up the entire property, I’ve finished the bedroom closet including insulation drywall and soon paint the owner of the home is telling me because i had an incident with his son locking me out of my home that now i have to move out and i have 8days. We have no wtitten agreement. What can i do?

Answer: As a general rule, when there is no written rental agreement between the landlord and the tenant, the rental agreement is presumed to be a month-to-month rental agreement, which means that the landlord must provide the tenant with at least 30 days’ advance written notice of the landlord’s intention to terminate the rental agreement at the end of the next rental period (A.R.S. 33-1375). As a separate issue, a tenant who believes that their landlord has been “unjustly enriched” by the tenant’s improvements to the property can always consider the possibility of suing the landlord for all or part of the value of any uncompensated work that the landlord received.