Questions we have answered for thirty years.

Litigation, contract review, and landlord-tenant matters require a paid consultation. You will leave it with a real assessment of your case — not a sales pitch.

Mostly landlords, and tenants in select cases: wrongful evictions, deposit recovery, habitability disputes, and domestic-violence lease terminations. Litigating both sides for thirty years is exactly why we win on either one.

Yes. We appear in justice courts and superior courts across Arizona, from Flagstaff to Apache County to Yuma.

At the end of every rental period, with proper notice. Unless your lease says otherwise, that means once a year on an annual lease — but on a month-to-month tenancy, rent could be raised every month.

Trick question: residential tenants can never withhold rent. Rent strikes are illegal in Arizona. As long as you have a binding lease, rent is due at the beginning of each rental period — yes, even if the air conditioning is out, and even if there is a health concern with the unit. There are lawful remedies for those problems, but withholding rent is not one of them.

It depends. Arizona landlords must provide a safe and habitable living environment. If your rental is not safe or habitable, or there is another breach of the lease, you must give your landlord legal notice and wait the required period. If it still is not fixed, you are entitled to legal remedies.

Once you have moved out and returned all keys and clickers, the landlord has fourteen business days to return the deposit together with an itemised accounting. If they fail to do either, you may sue to recover anything wrongfully withheld — and A.R.S. § 33-1321(E) allows damages of twice that amount. See the full breakdown.

It depends. Where the landlord has already served the correct notice and waited out the notice period, an eviction can run from start to finish in days to weeks. Contested or complicated cases take longer. Our timeline calculator maps the earliest schedule a case can legally follow.

No. Self-help eviction — lockouts, utility shutoffs, removing doors — exposes a landlord to statutory damages. The court process is fast in Arizona; use it.

Yes. The eviction itself may not appear on your credit report, but unpaid rent or damages reduced to a court judgment can be reported to the credit bureaus and will hurt your score. Landlords also often refer unpaid debts to collection agencies, which shows up as well — making it harder to rent again or to be approved for credit.

In Arizona a judgment can stay on your record for ten years, and can be renewed for another ten if the creditor acts to extend it — so it can affect you for up to twenty years. Balances also keep growing with interest, so it is far better to address it early.

Several routes are available in Arizona:

1. Wage garnishment
2. Garnishing the tenant's bank account
3. Placing a lien on their property
4. Hiring a collection agency
5. Requesting a debtor's exam to identify assets

Recent ballot initiatives have changed Arizona collection practice substantially, so the process is worth doing correctly the first time.

Pay it — satisfy the debt in full and ask the creditor to file a Satisfaction of Judgment with the court. Settle it — you may be able to negotiate less than the full amount, possibly in exchange for removal from your credit report. Dispute errors — if the report is inaccurate, dispute it with the credit bureaus. Wait — judgments generally fall off a credit report after seven years, though paying or settling improves things sooner.

Both distribute your assets, but they work differently. A will takes effect only after you die and must go through probate, a court-supervised process. A revocable trust takes effect as soon as it is created, letting assets be managed and distributed both before and after death. That avoids probate — often saving time and money — and offers privacy and more control over how and when assets pass.

No. Estate planning ensures your wishes are carried out, your loved ones are provided for, and decisions about healthcare and guardianship are made deliberately. Even with modest assets, a well-designed plan prevents confusion, reduces legal costs, and heads off family disputes.

The legal process in which a court oversees distribution of a person's assets after death. The court validates the will if there is one, ensures debts and taxes are paid, and distributes what remains to the rightful heirs. It can be slow and costly, which is why many people use tools like trusts to avoid it.

No. Most estate planning documents are private. They become public only if they go through probate, which is required for wills. Trusts generally avoid probate and stay private. Keep the documents somewhere safe and make sure your executor or trustee knows where to find them.

Typically not — it is a common way to avoid probate and simplify inheritance. You keep full control while you are alive and can sell, refinance, or live in the property as usual, and because the trust is revocable you can change or cancel it at any time. It is still worth confirming with an attorney that it is done correctly and does not affect your mortgage or insurance.