Arizona: Tenant Abandoned Property Notice, Storage, and Disposal Requirements

Requirements one by one

Governing law, trigger, and routes

A.R.S. § 33-1370(A)-(J) defines abandonment rather than leaving it to a general
impression. Where belongings remain, the tenant must be absent without notice
for at least seven days, rent must be unpaid for 10 days, and there must be no
reasonable occupancy evidence other than the belongings. The alternative
five-day definition applies only when no tenant property remains in the unit.

After a writ, A.R.S. § 33-1368(E) starts the inventory-through-disposition rules
on the day after execution. A separate exception applies when the tenant
returns the keys while goods remain: unless a writing provides otherwise, the
landlord may remove and dispose of them immediately without liability.

Initial handling, inventory, and storage

Once the landlord retakes a unit containing property, § 33-1370(D) requires an
inventory. The landlord may store the goods in the abandoned unit, another
available unit, landlord-owned storage, or off-site if no unit or storage space
is available. The landlord must use reasonable care in moving and holding the
property. The statute does not separately require photographs, a witness,
sealed packaging, insurance, or a particular inventory form.

Notice recipients, method, and contents

The abandonment notice goes to the tenant by certified mail with return receipt
requested at the last known address and every known alternate address. It also
must be posted on the unit door or another conspicuous property location for
five days. After retaking, the landlord sends the inventory's storage location
and cost by the same mailed-and-posted method. Section 33-1370 states no
separate notice of the eventual sale or donation.

Claim and retrieval deadlines

The ordinary hold is 14 calendar days after the landlord retakes possession.
If the tenant gives written notice of intent to remove the property on or before
the sale or disposal date, the tenant receives five days to reclaim it. After a
written offer to pay, the landlord must surrender covered property within five
days when the tenant tenders the applicable amount. The key-return exception
removes those clocks unless the parties agreed otherwise in writing.

Retrieval conditions and storage charges

Full access ordinarily waits until actual removal and storage costs are paid.
During storage, however, the tenant may obtain clothing; trade or professional
tools, apparatus, and books; and identification or financial documents,
including immigration, employment, public-assistance, and medical documents.
After a written intent to reclaim, the tenant pays only removal and storage
costs—not rent—as the condition for return.

Low-value, perishable, and protected property

The landlord need not store perishables, plants, or animals. Perishables and
plants may be removed or discarded, and contaminated, biohazard, or health-and-
safety-risk property may be disposed of. The statute separately regulates
animal contact, one-day retrieval, shelter or boarding release, reasonable
care, enforcement-agent notice, location records, and good-faith protection.

There is no fixed low-value dollar amount. Destruction or other disposal is
allowed when the landlord reasonably determines that likely sale proceeds are
less than the combined moving, storage, and public-sale costs.

Sale or disposal method

After the 14-day hold and no reasonable recovery effort, the landlord may donate
the goods to a qualifying charitable organization or other recognized charity,
or sell them. The tenant receives any tax benefit from a donation. The statute
does not specify an auction or publication procedure, though its low-value test
expressly compares the likely proceeds with the cost of conducting a public
sale.

Proceeds, accounting, and unclaimed funds

The landlord applies sale proceeds to outstanding rent and other incurred costs
covered by the lease, the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, or title 12,
chapter 8. Excess is mailed to the tenant's last known address. For 12 months
after sale, the landlord keeps adequate unpaid-rent and sale records and holds
any excess returned as undeliverable for the tenant. Section 33-1370 does not
state where that balance goes after the 12-month hold.

Remedies, liability, and special limits

If the landlord disposes of property before the 14 days end or after the
tenant's offer to pay, the tenant may recover the possessions or court-
determined damages. A landlord that complies with § 33-1370 is not liable to the
tenant or a third party for loss resulting from moving, storing, or donating
the goods. Good-faith animal handling has its own protection, and the key-return
exception separately states no liability absent a contrary written agreement.

What trips people up

The initial five-day posting period is not the personal-property storage period.
It precedes retaking. Once the landlord retakes a unit containing belongings,
the inventory notice and 14-calendar-day hold govern.

Returning the keys changes the result dramatically. Section 33-1370(I) permits
immediate removal and disposal without liability unless the landlord and tenant
agreed in writing to different treatment. A casual oral arrangement does not
fit that exception's text.

Common questions

Can the landlord charge unpaid rent before returning stored property?

The retrieval provision says the tenant must pay only removal and storage costs.
Rent may instead be applied against later sale proceeds.

Can the tenant retrieve identification before paying storage costs?

Yes. Identification and financial documents are among the named items available
during storage without first paying all removal and storage costs.

Must the landlord always keep food, plants, or unsafe items for 14 days?

No. The statute excludes perishables, plants, and animals from the storage duty
and permits disposal of contaminated, biohazard, or health-and-safety-risk goods.

Is an auction required after the hold?

Section 33-1370 authorizes donation or sale but does not prescribe an auction
procedure. It also permits destruction when moving, storage, and public-sale
costs would exceed the likely proceeds.

Statutes and sources

• A.R.S. § 33-1370. Abandonment definition, notices, inventory, storage,
  protected access, animals, 14-day hold, retrieval, donation, sale, proceeds,
  remedies, immunity, and key-return exception. Official current
  ARS (accessed July 22, 2026).
• A.R.S. § 33-1368(E). Day-after-writ application of § 33-1370(D)-(I).
  Official current ARS (accessed July
  22, 2026).