Maintenance & the Arizona Landlord Tenant Act

At RPM West Valley Phoenix, we annually get hundreds of tenant maintenance requests for the properties we service for our Phoenix Rental Property Owners.  These requests can normally be grouped into the following three categories:

1. Items that the property owner must fix
2. Optional items that the property owner may decide to fix to increase tenant retention
3. Items that  property owner really shouldn't fix

The first items category relates to items that are addressed in section 33-1324 of the AZ Tenant Landlord Act.  These items are essential for the owner to provide for the tenant and need to be fixed when broken.  Some examples include:

1. Operational A/C - Heater units
2. Running water
3. Sewage clean-out/repair when pipes to the city main sewer are obstructed

There is much detail within section 33-1324 that is not addressed as far as timing and details of these repairs however all reasonable efforts to repair quickly need to be utilized.

Category 2 are items that most property owners do repair as they are optional items that can help to keep a tenant in place long after the initial lease expiration.  Some examples include: 

1. A large gap under/on the side of an exterior door that is allowing large amounts of cold air to escape in the summer
2. Garage door that is making a really loud noise when opening.  In this situation the door opener is working however the noise can lead to problems down the road and can be very irritating to good tenants

Category 3 are either tenant responsibility items or items that we do not recommend fixing as it can lead to tenants requesting unnecessary and excessive maintenance which can be costly to the property owner.  Some examples include:

1. Dishwasher is leaving a film on the dishes - this is extremely common in Phoenix due to the very hard water.  Often times adding a special cleaning agent to the dishwasher can greatly improve the cleaning
2. Drawer in the kitchen is wobbly
3. Old window screens that do not function properly

Many property owners who self manage do not know what is and isn't required with regards to maintenance and this can ultimately lead to greatly increased maintenance expense.  At RPM West Valley Phoenix, we are trained on the AZ Tenant Landlord Act and know how to correctly and efficiently respond to all maintenance requests for our Phoenix Rental Property Owners.