Arizona Revised Statute 44-101 is known as the Statute of Frauds. What this statute deals with is the requirement that legal agreements need to be done in writing for them to be enforceable. There are some exceptions to this statute, but even those exceptions should be done in writing, so there is an objective piece of paper a judge can look at rather than a case of one person saying one thing and the other saying something exactly opposite.
An example of this might be a tenant renting his or her parents’ friend’s rental property. In this situation, some people might be tempted to just have an oral or stated agreement that is not written because there is a fairly close connection. That may or may not work, but especially when it comes to friends and family, there should be a separation of personal relationships and business. One possible outcome for this rental agreement is that everything will go fine, and everyone will keep their word. Another outcome might be that the tenant finds a better deal and leaves before the agreed upon lease term. He or she then denies the existence of an agreement when confronted about it. Now the landlord is in a bad situation because his or her tenant is now gone, and he or she has no real recourse other than to have a case where one person says one thing and the other says the opposite. A third possible outcome is that the landlord does not uphold his or her agreement with the tenant, and the tenant is either left without a place to live or living in a place that doesn’t meet health and safety codes. It seems pretty obvious when looking at a situation like the second two why everything must be in writing.
Now take all of these situations with a written agreement and what do you have? You have something to back up your claim. If you are the tenant, this means that you can show the landlord is not doing what he or she is supposed to be doing. If you are the landlord, this means that you can show that the tenant has an obligation to keep. It is a matter of being smart when entering into a legal agreement. It is a matter of smart business.
Hey everyone, 
Besides us, this is going to be one of your best tools in taking on your landlord so know it! We’re going to start with a few of the basic things you should know about the AZ Landlord & Tenant Act so you protect your rights in this post. After that, we’ll go into a more in-depth discussion of the sections of the law that are interesting/important to you (we know this is boring so we’ll spice it up, but you have to know this stuff so deal with it). Before we go any further, take a quick look at the Arizona Landlord & Tenant Act which is linked below:
http://www.azsos.gov/public_services/publications/residential_landlord_tenant_act/Residential.pdf
How many people actually took a look at it…Bueller….Bueller? No one! That’s what we thought. You guys are lucky you have us to give you the Cliff Notes, anyway moving on.
Now on to the main event…the landlord and tenant act is a 27 page document that is always being updated (July 2010) with the new laws that the legislature passes pertaining to landlord and tenant issues. It was created to regulate the relationship between landlords and tenants in residential leases. What that means is that there are rules put together in one place to make tenants and landlords play nice. The Arizona Revised Statutes that are relevant to this discussion can be found online at:
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ArizonaRevisedStatutes.asp?Title=33
The landlord and tenant section is found under Chapter 3. Some of these rules that must be followed are:
1) The landlord must give the tenant 48 hours notice to enter the premises
2) Tenants are liable for the actions of their guests (Don’t be so surprised)
3) There can’t be more than 2 persons per bedroom (So the third, fourth and fifth person sleeping on the floor have got to go)
4) Tenant must know the rules when signing the rental agreement
5) Landlord can change property rules with 30 day notice to tenants (Make sure there is some written notice)
6) Month-to-month leases require a 30 day notice to cancel agreement (Don’t just pack up and move out)
Exemptions from the Act
1) Mobile Homes
2) Public Housing
3) Hotels
4) Fraternity, Sorority, Dormitory
These are just a few of the issues we will cover in our discussion, but they are a good start.
Hello World! This is Break Your Lease speaking and hopefully coming in loud and clear. We started this blog s
o people could get the information they need to help them with their tenant issues. Now I know this may sound boring, but for those of you sitting around without your deposit money because the landlord decided he or she wanted it more, this should be a pretty interesting place to be.
First, we want to set a few ground rules so everyone is on the same page. We are not attorneys and as such we cannot give legal advice, so you can ask but just be warned that you may not get the answer you want, but you probably will get an interesting answer nonetheless. Second, the original content that we post on this blog are our personal thoughts and opinions, so just in case you didn’t get it the first time – we are not attorneys and cannot analyze cases to give legal advice. But, we can give our personal thoughts and opinions on what we would do if we were in that situation. Plus, we know really good lawyers who will do real legal analysis for you at a reduced rate. If you need them…just ask. And Finally, we want to get some good information out there for everybody to enjoy, but for the overly serious: smile, life is good.
We know this is a really serious subject, so we are professionals when it comes to our website and our work, but this blog is going to be fun. We are going to give really good content for free which is something we’re not used to 
but if you are interested in buying one of our products, we will be putting up discounts throughout the blog but be sure to act fast on them because they are going to disappear quickly. We like to make money and can’t give away too much otherwise we’ll be looking to break our own lease and you’ll be stuck without us. We’re counting on you to make this a very interactive experience, so chime in whenever.
We’re looking forward to a lot of good content and fun on this blog so let’s have some fun and learn a trick or two on how to get the best of your landlord!
Keep stopping back for our completed website. In the meantime, give us a call for a free consultation on how to break your lease
