RV Park Tenant Rights in Arizona: Rent, Deposits & Eviction

If you rent the same space in an Arizona RV park for more than 180 consecutive days, you are covered by the state’s Recreational Vehicle Long-Term Rental Space Act, and your rights as an RV park tenant in Arizona look different from those of an ordinary apartment renter. The Act governs rent increases, late fees, deposits, landlord entry, evictions, and your right to sell your RV where it sits. Some protections are stronger than you would expect. A few are weaker. The details below are what matters.

When the Act Protects You

Three conditions have to line up. You must have rented the same space in the same park for more than 180 consecutive days, the park must have three or more rental spaces, and you must be providing your own RV and renting only the space beneath it.¹ A two-space property is outside the Act. A short stay is outside the Act.

One further distinction runs through the whole statute: whether your RV is a “park trailer” (a larger unit built for permanent or semi-permanent installation) or a standard recreational vehicle.² Park trailer tenants get stronger eviction protection, as explained further down. For everything else, the Act applies the same way.

Your Rental Agreement

Either you or the landlord can request a written rental agreement, and once requested, the landlord must provide one. Before you sign, the landlord must give you a current copy of the Act itself.¹

The written agreement must state:

The lease start and end dates
The base monthly rent
The dollar amount of any security deposit
The services and utilities included with the space

Every blank has to be filled in before you sign, and the landlord has ten days to give you an executed copy.¹ If you never received your copy, ask in writing and keep a record. A landlord’s failure to hand you a copy of the Act at signing can work in your favor later in a dispute.

Rent Increases and Late Fees

A landlord cannot raise your rent or change lease terms without at least 60 days’ written notice before the agreement expires or renews. Notice must arrive by first-class mail, certified mail, or personal delivery.¹ There is no cap on the amount of an increase. The protection is the advance notice.

Late fees are capped. A landlord can charge no more than five dollars a day, and the fee cannot begin until the sixth day after rent is due.³ The late fee must be spelled out in the rental agreement to be enforceable. Any fee not written into the lease is not collectible. If the landlord tries to add a new charge mid-tenancy, you are not obligated to pay it.

Security Deposits

The exact dollar amount of your deposit has to appear in the rental agreement.¹ If the landlord terminates the lease or you leave because of the landlord’s breach, deposits must be returned minus only reasonable damages.⁴ Request the return in writing and keep a copy. Under Arizona’s general residential landlord-tenant law, a landlord must provide an itemized list of any deductions and return the balance within 14 business days of your demand.⁵

When the Landlord Can Enter Your Space

This is where the RV Act diverges most from ordinary landlord-tenant expectations. The landlord has no automatic right to enter your RV or your rented space. Unless your written rental agreement specifically grants access, the landlord needs your permission each time.¹ There is no statutory 24-hour notice rule like the one in a standard apartment lease. If the agreement is silent, the landlord simply cannot enter without asking.

The exception is a genuine emergency or a health-and-safety problem the tenant has not fixed after proper written notice. Read the access clause in your rental agreement before you sign. A broad access clause is a term you can try to negotiate.

The Landlord’s Duty to Maintain

The landlord must keep the premises fit and habitable, make necessary repairs to common areas, maintain the utilities promised in the lease, and comply with health and safety codes.¹ Utility service can be interrupted for maintenance, but the landlord must give reasonable advance notice unless there is an emergency.

What You Can Do If the Landlord Breaks the Agreement

When the landlord materially violates the rental agreement or the park rules, you can deliver written notice identifying the problem and stating that the lease will terminate if it is not fixed within 14 days. The termination date in your notice must be at least 30 days from when the landlord receives it.⁴

If the problem affects health and safety, the timeline compresses. The landlord gets 10 days to fix it, and if the fix does not happen, the lease terminates no sooner than 20 days after the landlord received your notice. Either way, if the landlord cures the breach within the window, the lease continues.⁴

You can also recover damages and ask a court for injunctive relief. Those remedies stack on top of termination, so you don’t have to pick one.⁴ One limit: you cannot terminate for a condition caused by you, your family, or your guests.

Park Rules

Landlords can set rules covering noise, parking, and lot upkeep. For any rule to be enforceable, it must apply fairly to all tenants and it must have been given to you in writing before you signed the rental agreement.¹ A rule handed to you after move-in that was not in your paperwork has no teeth. Rules also cannot single out a specific tenant or shift the landlord’s own legal maintenance duties onto the tenant.

Vehicle Age Rules

Many parks enforce a “ten-year rule” or similar policy limiting how old an RV can be. These are private park rules, not state law, and enforcement varies. Some parks refuse older rigs outright; others make exceptions after a photo review. Whatever the rule, it must have been disclosed in writing before you signed the agreement to be enforceable against you.

Selling Your RV on the Space

Arizona law lets long-term RV park tenants sell the recreational vehicle in place, at a price of your choosing, and the landlord cannot block the sale.¹ The landlord can require approval of the buyer as a new tenant, but approval cannot be unreasonably withheld. If a buyer is rejected, the landlord must explain the reasons in writing within 10 days of a written request from you or the buyer.

You can advertise freely. The landlord cannot prohibit a “for sale” sign on the RV or in its window, and the park must provide a central posting board reasonably accessible to the public seven days a week during daylight hours. The landlord cannot force you to use a particular agent or broker.¹

The one limit: if the landlord determines the RV is incompatible with the park, rundown, or in disrepair, the landlord can require its removal within 60 days. That judgment call is often where disputes start.

Eviction

A landlord cannot just tell you to leave. Removing a long-term RV tenant requires good cause and a formal court process, with one important carve-out based on whether your vehicle is a park trailer or a standard RV.⁶

Good Cause and Notice Periods

“Good cause” includes non-payment of rent, a material lease violation, and a change in land use.² The notice you get depends on what happened:

Unpaid rent: written notice that the lease will terminate if rent is not paid within five days. Pay the full amount plus any lawful late fees inside those five days and the lease continues.¹
Health-and-safety violations: written notice identifying the problem, 10 days to fix it, and if unresolved, termination no earlier than 20 days after you received the notice.²
Repeat violations: if you commit a similar breach within six months of curing an earlier one, the landlord can terminate with no chance to fix it.¹

The landlord must go to court and win a judgment before you can be physically removed. No landlord can change your locks, shut off your utilities, or tow your RV as a self-help eviction.

No-Cause Non-Renewal for Standard RVs

If your vehicle is a standard recreational vehicle, not a park trailer, the landlord can refuse to renew your lease without giving any reason. Written notice must be served at least 90 days before the lease ends, and you have to vacate by the expiration date.⁶ Park trailer tenants do not face this risk; they can only be removed for one of the good-cause reasons above.

A change in the park’s land use is its own good-cause category with separate notice requirements and compensation for tenant moving expenses. If your park announces a conversion, read the notice you receive carefully and consider talking to a local attorney.

If You Leave the RV Behind

After an eviction judgment, the landlord can direct the sheriff or constable to remove the occupants and their belongings from the RV and the space without towing the RV itself. At that point the RV is treated as abandoned, and the landlord can cut off utility service to the space.¹

The landlord has 15 days to notify the registered owner and any lienholder and can claim up to 60 days’ worth of rent before sending that notice. After the notice, the legal owner or lienholder becomes responsible for ongoing costs. No one can move the RV off the space without a signed clearance from the landlord or park manager confirming that everything owed has been paid or an alternative arrangement has been reached.¹ The clearance requirement gives the landlord real leverage, so settling any balance quickly is in the owner’s interest.

Retaliation Is Illegal

A landlord cannot raise your rent, cut services, or threaten eviction because you did any of the following:

Complained to a government agency about a building or housing code violation affecting health and safety
Complained to the landlord about a violation of the Act
Joined or organized a tenants’ union
Filed a lawsuit or legal action against the landlord

If the landlord retaliates, you can recover two months’ rent plus double your actual damages, and retaliation is a defense to an eviction.⁷ The landlord can defeat the claim by proving good cause. Retaliation protection does not apply if you are behind on rent or if you caused the code violation yourself.

Fair Housing

Long-term RV parks are covered by the federal Fair Housing Act. A park owner cannot refuse to rent, impose different terms, or selectively enforce rules based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. Tenants with disabilities can request reasonable accommodations to park rules or policies, and the landlord must grant them unless doing so would impose an undue burden.⁸ Discrimination complaints can be filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Arizona Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division.

1
Arizona Department of Housing. Arizona Recreational Vehicle Long-Term Rental Space Act
2
Arizona Judicial Branch. Arizona Recreational Vehicle (RV) Long-Term Rental Space Act Evictions
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33 Section 33-2105
4
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-2141 – Noncompliance by the Landlord
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1321 – Security Deposits
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-2143 – Termination or Nonrenewal of Rental Agreement by Landlord
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-2148 – Retaliatory Conduct Prohibited; Eviction
8
Department of Justice: Civil Rights Division. The Fair Housing Act