Did you know that it is required by state law to register properties that you are renting with the county? My guess is no, because most of the clients we meet with have not registered their rentals. The county isn’t collecting this information for tax purposes, but rather it is ensuring certain protections for the property owner and for the tenant.
Arizona Revised Statute 33-1902 lays out the requirements for registering the rental property as well as the consequences for lack of registration. As a rental property owner aka landlord, if you do not register your property with the county your tenant could possibly legally break the lease and you would have to repay all prepaid rents and security deposits. Lack of proper registration gives the tenant a way to break the lease. Why would you want to give the tenant this much power?
Each county has their own process, which for the most part if very simple and straight forward. In Maricopa County is it a matter of filling out a form and mailing it in with a check for $10 (for each property) – that’s it. Pretty small hurdle to clear to receive the full landlord protections offered by the law.
