questions & answers

Question: My landlord keeps showing up at my apartment unannounced, knocking extremely hard. my 23 yr daughter answered the door, he was extremely rude and demanded to speak with me. I am a paraplegic and was sick in bed each time he came over. daughter suggested he call and set a day to talk with me. he still demanded that i get out of bed to talk to him. my daughter went to close the door as she has never met this man, and he stuck his foot in the door and pushed it open, my daughter told him she was gonna call police. this happened on 4 different days, 3rd time refused to talk son who is on lease

Answer: Except in the case of an emergency or if the tenant has made a specific service or maintenance request, a residential landlord should not be knocking on a tenant’s door unannounced. Under the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, a landlord is required to provide at least two days’ notice before entering a tenant’s apartment (A.R.S. 33-1343(D)). The Act states that any landlord who unlawfully enters a tenant’s apartment “or makes repeated demands for entry . . . which have the effect of unreasonably harassing the tenant” is in violation of the rental agreement (A.R.S. 33-1376(B)). A tenant whose landlord violates the rental agreement in this way may go to court (1) to obtain an injunction to stop the landlord from continuing to harass the tenant and (2) to recover monetary damages from the landlord in an amount equal to at least one month’s rent (A.R.S. 33-1376(B)).