Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Arizona
Hello. I have allowed a friend and her husband the use of a room in my house temporarily and am not charging them rent or for utilities. We have a verbal agreement that they have to leave the first week in January 2011. If they decide they are not going anywhere what can I do?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You should not have permitted them into your home without a written agreement stating the terms and conditions of your agreement to allow them to be your guests for a couple of months.
If they refuse to leave, and you want to evict them, you will have to prove what your agreement was or, to say it differently, you will have to prove that they were guests, and not tenants. In any event, this could be an expensive process, and it will surely make sharing the same space tense, if not intolerable. You should read carefully the AZ Landlord Tenant Act.
I suggest that you get a written agreement with them right now, and don't prepare an agreement without legal advice and expertise. It seems clear that you are already having problems with your guests, and that is why you are asking the question. Therefore, you want to get them out now, or have a written, enforceable agreement, that assures you they will be out in January.
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