questions & answers

Question: Can I be evicted or forced to move to another apartment for complaining to management about a roommate, who is on a separate lease, who daily raises the volume on her audio device in her bedroom to a level that I can hear it in my bedroom, with both bedroom doors closed, and where I cannot be on the telephone because the other party cannot hear me over her music?

Answer: No. Under the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (A.R.S. Title 33 Chapter 10), every tenant is required to “conduct himself and require other persons on the premises with his consent to conduct themselves in a manner that will not disturb his neighbors’ peaceful enjoyment of the premises” (A.R.S. 33-1341). If a tenant is acting in a way that is unduly disruptive to the qualify of life of the tenant’s neighbors, then the landlord has a responsibility to notify the tenant that the tenant’s conduct is in violation of A.R.S. 33-1341 and to inform the tenant that if the tenant does not stop disturbing the tenant’s neighbors, then the landlord may seek the tenant’s eviction (as per A.R.S. 33-1368). A neighboring tenant who asks the landlord to fulfill that responsibility may not lawfully suffer any consequences as a result. In fact, the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act specifically states that “a landlord may not retaliate by increasing rent or decreasing services or by bringing or threatening to bring an action for possession” after the tenant has complained to the landlord of a violation of the rental agreement (A.R.S. 33-1381). If a landlord does retaliate, the tenant may offer that retaliation as a defense to an eviction action and recover monetary damages as well (A.R.S. 33-1381).