In an effort to further educate tenants and lease owners (aka landlords) about their rights and obligations in conjunction with residential rental transactions, the Arizona Association of REALTORS^® (AAR) has developed two new consumer advisories. As of March 28, 2013, AAR will maintain on its website a Tenant Advisory and a Lease Owner’s Advisory.  Each advisory provides the consumer with a wealth of information relevant to residential rental transactions with citations to applicable portions of Arizona’s Residential Landlord & Tenant Act. Designed to be utilized online, the documents direct consumers, via hyperlink in the electronic version, to sources of additional information.

For organizational purposes, each advisory is divided into sections. The Tenant Advisory consists of four sections:

1. Common documents a tenant should review;
2. Tenants rights and obligations;
3. Additional information; and
4. Additional resources.

Because many real estate licensees will seek to have the tenant acknowledge receipt of the Tenant Advisory, the last page consists of an acknowledgment that contains a signature block and prompt for the tenant’s initials.

The Lease Owner’s Advisory similarly consists of four sections:

1. Owner’s responsibilities and statutory requirements;
2. Common documents and disclosures;
3. Lease owner’s rights and obligations; and
4. Additional resources.

The final page of the Lease Owner’s Advisory contains a list of ten questions a lease owner should ask when considering having their property professionally managed.

Use of these two advisories should result in more informed tenants and lease owners by providing each with valuable resources and guidance. AAR will routinely update these documents on its website as laws change and new issues arise.

AAR would like to thank the following individuals who served as members of the workgroup that drafted the advisories: Trudy Moore (Chair), Martha Appel, Sue Flucke, Kim Horn, Jacquie Kellogg and Frank Russo.