Tenants- Know your rights! You have them- a lot of them! Arizona Landlord Tenant Act
I recently received a call from a friend who has been renting a condo for the past two years. She just renewed her lease at the beginning of February.
The other day she woke up to- you guessed it- a foreclosure sale notice taped to the door. She had no idea the condo was in foreclosure and contacted the landlord - who she now knows- is not the owner. This person, the acting landlord, told her that the owner is trying to sell it and that the new buyer will "most likely" honor her lease.
(By the way, if you do the math- you will see another "ethics" point in the renting of the property in February and the notice of sale coming out in March. That is a whole other blog topic!)
Within a few days, she starts getting calls from Realtors wanting to show the property. One calls and says- "I would like to show the condo in 15 minutes". Mind you, this is a Sunday morning around 8:30 am. The tenant had just stepped out of the shower and politely asked the Realtor to give her 30 minutes and that would be fine. The Realtor was not happy about this and told her never mind as her clients were leaving town within the hour. Within a few minutes the tenant gets a call from the "acting landlord" - yelling at her and telling her that she can not refuse to let people in, that they need to sell the condo and she has to comply with the showings.
On another occasion, she had a Realtor just walk in, without even knocking! On yet another occasion, a potential buyer (no Realtor with her) knocked on the door saying that she was told she could just come over and look at the property. It is still unclear if she was told by the landlord or the Realtor but either way, so so wrong!
My friend called me, very upset. I informed her that she has rights. By law, she is to be given a 48 hour notice before anyone enters her condo. She had never heard of this. Not by her landlord, not by the listing agent.
I immediately sent her a copy of the Arizona Landlord/Tenant Act so that she knows her rights. I also referred her to an awesome attorney, Mark Winsor at Winsor Law Group, to get some advice on the situation.
I went into ARMLS to check the listing and this is what the listing agent had in the Realtor remarks "Tenant occupied- call owner then show". Nothing about a 48 hour notice, nothing about making sure that contact is made prior to entering. Call, then show- that's it.
I know we all hate to see "48 hour notice to show- tenants rights" when we are showing homes to buyers but keep in mind, everyone has rights. Rights that should be respected. It is our job as Real Estate Professionals to make all parties aware of these laws. They are in place for a reason.
If you have listings with tenants in place, make sure YOU know their rights and put measures in place so that those rights are protected. Talk to the tenants about showings and their rights.
It you are a landlord or tenant - click on the link above- and know what the laws are.
Ethics. Do the right thing!
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