Arizona’s move-in and move-out condition form, published by the Arizona Department of Housing as Attachment 14A, is the document you and your landlord use to record the state of a rental unit when you take possession and again when you leave.1Arizona Department of Housing. Attachment 14A: Arizona Residential Lease Agreement State law requires every landlord to furnish a move-in form so the tenant can note existing damage, and what gets written on that form becomes the primary evidence in any later security deposit dispute.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits Fill it out carefully and you protect yourself from paying for damage you did not cause.
Where to Get the Form
The Arizona Department of Housing hosts Attachment 14A on its website as a downloadable document.1Arizona Department of Housing. Attachment 14A: Arizona Residential Lease Agreement Many property management companies hand tenants their own version of a condition checklist, and that is permitted. A.R.S. § 33-1321(C) requires the landlord to furnish “a move-in form for specifying any existing damages to the dwelling unit” without mandating a specific template.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits If you receive something other than Attachment 14A, confirm it covers the same ground: a room-by-room inventory with space for both parties to add notes, sign, and date.
If the landlord does not offer any form at all, download Attachment 14A yourself and ask the landlord to walk through it with you. The statute puts the obligation on the landlord, but the practical consequence of a missing form falls on the tenant whose deposit disappears later.
Filling Out the Move-In Section
Start with the identification fields at the top of the form. Write the full legal names of every adult tenant on the lease, the complete street address of the unit including any apartment or suite number, and the date of the inspection. A misspelled name or wrong unit number weakens the document if you ever have to produce it in court.
The form then walks through the property one room at a time. For the living room, each bedroom, the kitchen, every bathroom, and the hallways, you record the condition of walls, floors, ceilings, doors, windows, and light fixtures. The word “good” is almost useless in a dispute. Write what a stranger could verify by looking: “two-inch gouge in hardwood floor near bedroom door,” “quarter-sized water stain on bathroom ceiling,” “left kitchen cabinet hinge does not close flush.” That level of detail is the difference between a form that works and a form that does not.
Kitchens and bathrooms deserve extra time because the items in them cost the most to repair or replace. Test every appliance. Turn on each stove burner, check the oven, open the refrigerator and inspect its shelves and door seals, run the dishwasher, flip on the garbage disposal, start the microwave. Run water in every sink and tub. Look under the cabinets for signs of past leaks. Open and close all drawers and cabinet doors. Flush every toilet. If a faucet drips, a drawer sticks, or a burner refuses to light, write it on the form now. Landlords sometimes try to deduct for repairs that were needed long before the tenant arrived, and these notes are your defense.
Take dated photos or video as you go. The form is a written record; the pictures let a judge see what the walls and floors actually looked like on that day. Email the photos to yourself or upload them to cloud storage so a lost phone does not erase your evidence.
The Walk-Through and Signatures
At move-in, Arizona law requires the landlord to furnish the condition form along with a signed copy of the lease and written notice that you have the right to be present at the move-out inspection.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits The best practice is a joint walk-through: you and the landlord inspect each room together and initial each line you agree on. Where you disagree, add your own note. The form is not the landlord’s document; you have the right to record your own observations on it.
Once the inspection is finished, both parties sign and date the completed form. Ask for a copy on the spot and keep it with your lease for the entire tenancy. This signed record is the baseline every move-out deduction will be measured against, and losing it puts you at a serious disadvantage.
Using the Form at Move-Out
When the lease ends, the process reverses. Because the landlord was required at move-in to notify you of your right to attend the move-out inspection, you can ask when it will happen, and the landlord must tell you.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits One narrow exception applies: if you are being evicted for a serious and irreparable lease violation and the landlord has reasonable cause to fear violence, no joint inspection is required.
Bring the original signed move-in form to the walk-through. Compare each room against the notes you made months or years earlier. Anything that looks the same is not your problem. Anything that has changed becomes a conversation about ordinary wear and tear versus actual damage. Faded paint from sunlight and minor scuffs on floors from regular foot traffic are wear. A hole punched in a wall or a broken window is damage. Arizona statute requires tenants to return the unit in the condition they received it, with ordinary wear and tear excepted.3Arizona Department of Housing. Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act
Being there matters. Pointing out that a stain was noted on the move-in form, or that a cabinet was already broken, makes the landlord far less likely to deduct for it. Skipping the inspection means trusting the landlord to be fair with no one in the room to push back.
What the Form Does If the Deposit Is Withheld
After you move out, deliver possession, and demand the return of your deposit, the landlord has fourteen days — excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays — to send an itemized list of deductions along with any remaining balance.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits The landlord mails it by first-class mail to your last known address unless you make other written arrangements, so leave a forwarding address before you go.
The itemized list has to show what was deducted and how much each item cost. Allowable deductions include unpaid rent, charges specified in the signed lease, and the cost of repairing damage beyond normal wear and tear that is traceable to the tenant’s failure to maintain the unit under A.R.S. § 33-1341.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits Charges for conditions you documented on the move-in form are not legitimate. This is the whole reason you filled the form out thoroughly at the start.
If the landlord misses the fourteen-day deadline or withholds money without justification, you can recover the full amount owed plus damages equal to twice the amount wrongfully withheld.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits That penalty is steep enough that most landlords move quickly once reminded it exists.
Disputing Deductions
If the itemized list arrives and you think the deductions are wrong, you have sixty days from the date it was mailed to dispute them. Let that window close and Arizona law treats the landlord’s accounting as final, waiving any further claim.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits Sixty days passes fast after a move. Set a reminder.
Start with a written objection to the landlord by certified mail with return receipt. Identify each deduction you dispute, explain why, and reference the signed move-in form and your photographs. Many disputes end here because the landlord sees the documentation does not support the charge.
If that does not work, Arizona’s justice courts handle small-dollar civil cases including security deposit disputes. Filing fees start at $86.4Arizona Judicial Branch. Justice Court Filing Fees Bring the signed move-in form, the itemized deduction list, your lease, your photos, and any written communication with the landlord. A judge comparing the move-in form against the landlord’s claimed damages can usually see at a glance what was pre-existing, which is why that single piece of paper is often the most persuasive evidence in the room.
If Your Unit Was Built Before 1978
Attachment 14A is not the only paperwork required at move-in for older housing. If the rental was built before 1978, federal law requires the landlord to give you a lead-based paint disclosure form, share any known records or reports of lead hazards in the property, and provide a copy of the EPA pamphlet “Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home.”5Environmental Protection Agency. Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home The age of the building alone triggers the requirement, whether or not anyone has actually tested for lead.6eCFR. 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A – Disclosure of Known Lead-Based Paint The lead disclosure is a separate document from the condition form, but both should be completed and signed before or at move-in.