Arizona’s 5-day eviction notice is the written warning a landlord must give a tenant before filing an eviction for unpaid rent. Under state law, the notice tells you rent is overdue and that your lease will end if you don’t pay the full amount within five calendar days.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1368 – Noncompliance With Rental Agreement by Tenant; Failure to Pay Rent; Utility Discontinuation; Liability for Guests; Definition Pay everything owed inside that window and the lease continues as if nothing happened. Miss the deadline, and the landlord can file an eviction case in court.
When a 5-Day Notice Applies
This notice is only for unpaid rent. Property damage, lease-rule violations, and health or safety issues run on different timelines under different statutes. If the notice you received is a 5-day notice, the landlord is telling you the dispute is about money.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1368 – Noncompliance With Rental Agreement by Tenant; Failure to Pay Rent; Utility Discontinuation; Liability for Guests; Definition
The amount demanded can include past-due rent and any late fees your written lease actually allows. Arizona caps those fees tightly. A landlord cannot charge a late penalty unless the lease gives you at least a five-day grace period after rent is due, and even then the maximum is five dollars per day counted from the original due date. Any lease clause that goes beyond that cap is unenforceable. If the total on your notice looks inflated, pull out your lease and check the math before you pay.
What the Notice Must Say and How It’s Delivered
The statute requires written notice stating that rent is unpaid and that the lease will end if the balance isn’t paid within five days.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1368 – Noncompliance With Rental Agreement by Tenant; Failure to Pay Rent; Utility Discontinuation; Liability for Guests; Definition In practice a properly drafted notice also carries the date, the names of every adult tenant on the lease, the property address, an itemized breakdown of what’s owed, and a clear termination warning. Maricopa County’s Justice Courts publish a standardized form covering these fields.2Maricopa County Justice Courts. Notice of Intent to Terminate Lease for Non-payment of Rent Statewide forms are also available through the Arizona Judicial Branch.3Arizona Judicial Branch. Eviction Forms and Notices A wrong dollar figure or a missing termination statement can give you grounds to challenge the eviction later.
Delivery has to happen one of two ways: hand delivery to the tenant, or certified or registered mail to the tenant’s address.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1313 – Notice Anything else, including a text message or a note taped to the door, does not meet the statute.
The method affects when the clock starts. Hand delivery starts the count that day. With mail, you’re considered to have received the notice on the day it actually arrives or five days after mailing, whichever comes first.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1313 – Notice A mailed notice can effectively give you up to ten days from the date it was sent before the landlord can move to the next step.
Counting the Five Days
Days here means calendar days, weekends and holidays included.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1368 – Noncompliance With Rental Agreement by Tenant; Failure to Pay Rent; Utility Discontinuation; Liability for Guests; Definition Standard practice excludes the day you receive the notice and begins counting the next day. A notice hand-delivered on a Tuesday runs Wednesday through Sunday, and the landlord cannot file until the next business day after the period expires.5Arizona Judicial Branch. Eviction Actions A landlord who files early risks having the case tossed out.
How to Stop the Eviction
You have three chances to keep your home, and each one costs more than the one before it. Knowing where each window closes is where most tenants lose the most money.
Within the Five Days
Pay all past-due rent plus any lawful late fees during the five-day period, and the lease is reinstated. No court costs. No attorney fees. This is the cheapest exit and the reason the notice exists.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1368 – Noncompliance With Rental Agreement by Tenant; Failure to Pay Rent; Utility Discontinuation; Liability for Guests; Definition Pay by a method you can prove: certified funds, a traceable electronic payment, or cash with a signed receipt.
After the Landlord Files, Before Judgment
Once the eviction case is filed in court, you can still reinstate, but you now owe the past-due rent, the late fees, the landlord’s attorney fees, and the court costs.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1368 – Noncompliance With Rental Agreement by Tenant; Failure to Pay Rent; Utility Discontinuation; Liability for Guests; Definition Depending on how quickly the landlord hired counsel, that can add hundreds or thousands of dollars.6Arizona Judicial Branch. Non-Payment of Rent
After the Judge Rules
Once a judgment enters, reinstatement is entirely up to the landlord.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1368 – Noncompliance With Rental Agreement by Tenant; Failure to Pay Rent; Utility Discontinuation; Liability for Guests; Definition The landlord can refuse your payment and go forward with removal. At that point your options narrow to negotiating a written agreement or filing an appeal and posting a supersedeas bond.7Arizona Judicial Branch. After an Eviction Judgment A motion to set aside the judgment does not pause the writ of restitution.
The Partial Payment Trap
If you can only pay part of what’s owed, the way that money changes hands matters. Arizona law says a landlord who accepts a partial payment without a written agreement waives the right to evict for that missed rent.8Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1371 – Acceptance of Partial Payments; Waiver of Right to Terminate; Exception The landlord would have to start the notice process over.
There is an exception. If you and the landlord sign a written agreement at the time of the partial payment spelling out the terms and a specific date for the balance, the landlord keeps the ability to evict if you miss the new deadline. When a 5-day notice was already served before the agreement, the landlord doesn’t have to serve a new one.8Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1371 – Acceptance of Partial Payments; Waiver of Right to Terminate; Exception Read anything you’re asked to sign carefully. One more point: a housing assistance payment from a government program isn’t treated as a partial payment and doesn’t waive eviction rights.
If You Don’t Pay: What Comes Next
After the five-day window closes, the landlord can file a special detainer complaint. The court issues a summons the same day it’s filed, and the hearing is set no fewer than three and no more than six days out. The summons must be served on you at least two days before the hearing. If a process server can’t hand it to you personally, Arizona law allows posting a copy on the main entrance of your home and mailing another copy by certified mail the same day, after which you are deemed served three days after mailing.9Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1377 – Special Detainer Actions; Service; Trial Postponement Avoiding the server does not stop the case.
At the hearing, the landlord has to show that rent was owed, that a proper 5-day notice was served, that the cure period ran out without payment, and that the case was filed and served correctly. You can challenge the amount, argue the notice was defective, or raise a defense. Not showing up generally means a default judgment against you.
Winning the case does not let the landlord change the locks. The landlord must wait five calendar days after judgment before requesting a writ of restitution, and only a constable or sheriff can execute it.7Arizona Judicial Branch. After an Eviction Judgment Once the writ is executed, going back onto the property without the landlord’s permission can lead to a criminal trespass charge.
Your Belongings After the Writ
The landlord must hold your personal property for 14 calendar days after retaking the unit.10Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-1370 – Abandonment; Notice; Remedies; Personal Property To get your things back you pay reasonable moving and storage costs, not the full judgment. Pets are on a shorter clock: if no authorized person picks them up within one calendar day after the landlord retakes possession, the landlord can turn them over to a shelter or boarding facility.
Public and Subsidized Housing
If you live in public housing run by a housing authority, the 5-day timeline doesn’t apply to nonpayment. Federal rules require the housing authority to give at least 30 days’ written notice before filing an eviction, and paying the amount owed within that 30 days stops the case.11eCFR. 24 CFR 966.4 – Lease Requirements The notice must itemize what’s owed, explain how to cure, and provide information about income recertification or a hardship exemption.
Rules for other federally subsidized programs, including Section 8 project-based rental assistance and Section 202 supportive housing, have shifted in recent federal rulemaking. Contact your housing authority to confirm which notice requirements currently apply to your unit. Housing Choice Vouchers used in private-market rentals are different again: the voucher pays part of the rent, but the tenancy runs on your private lease and Arizona’s standard rules, including the 5-day notice for nonpayment.