Landlord and Tenant Rights and Responsibilities

questions & answers

Question: My landlord intends to sell the home I currently rent. We had agreed via text message that we would enter into a years lease but a formal lease was never signed. Are text messages considered a legal binding agreement?

Answer: It is difficult to say how much weight a court of law would assign to text messages in this situation, but what would matter the most if the dispute ever did come before a judge would be (1) your oral (in-court) testimony about the existence of an agreed-upon year-long rental agreement and (2) the extent to which the content of the text messages supports that oral testimony. The Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (A.R.S. Title 33 Chapter 10) does not require landlords and tenants to sign formal written leases. In fact, according to that Act, which is Arizona law, a “rental agreement” is any agreement “written, oral or implied by law ... embodying the terms and conditions concerning the use and occupancy of a dwelling unit and premises” (A.R.S. 33-1310).