Landlord and Tenant Rights and Responsibilities

questions & answers

Question: must a landlord provide a notice to vacate to a tenant in "writing", or can it be verbal?

Answer: Landlords and tenants are encouraged to provide one another with notice in the form of signed and dated writings, which not only reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings but also ensure that the party providing the notice has evidence of that party’s attempt to give notice. However, the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (A.R.S. Title 33 Chapter 10) merely describes “notice” as follows: A. A person has notice of a fact if he has actual knowledge of it, has received a notice or notification of it or from all the facts and circumstances known to him at the time in question he has reason to know that it exists. A person “knows” or “has knowledge” of a fact if he has actual knowledge of it. B. A person “notifies” or “gives” a notice or notification 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. A person “receives” a notice or notification when it comes to his attention […] or, in the case of the tenant, it is delivered in hand to the tenant or mailed by registered or certified mail to him at the place held out by him as the place for receipt of the communication or, in the absence of such designation, to his last known place of residence […]” (A.R.S. 33-1313).