questions & answers

Question: My boyfriend and I are leasing a new house. We had paid a pro-rated amount of rent for the end of June. The swamp cooler in the house had a broken pump and a handyman repaired the cooler on July 2nd. Seeing as how the house was uninhabitable during that time, we would like to get our pro-rated rent money back. What are our rights in this situation and what is the responsibility of the landlord?

Answer: If the house was so hot that you actually had to stay elsewhere (and did) then in principle you may have grounds for requesting some rental relief from the landlord. Your particular rights will depend (among other things) on whether or not you provided the landlord with notice of the seriousness of the problem and of your inability to reside in the house while the cooler was not working as well as the degree (if any) to which the problem was a result of the landlord’s deliberate or negligent breach of the landlord’s obligations (for example, if the landlord could have had the problem fixed much earlier but did not). Under Arizona law, both landlords and tenants are required to act in “good faith” whenever they perform or seek to enforce their rights and responsibilities under a rental agreement (A.R.S. 33-1311. They are also required to try to “mitigate” (lessen) any damages that they may be owed (A.R.S. 33-1305). In situations in which none of the parties’ specific rights and responsibilities are perfectly clear, they are encouraged to try to reach a middle ground. A tenant in such situations always has the option of writing a letter to the landlord describing what happened and requesting a reasonable and proportionate deduction.