I live in Phx and have from 1993 - present with the exception of a few years in WI. I also am a courier currently so I drive all over the metro phx area daily. Since the economy recovered there has been mostly apts constructed and not many homes, mostly luxury apts, and alot of other older, more affordable apts have been bought and remodeled into luxury apts. In the last few years rents have skyrocketed, especially for apts. Its become a huge issue here. It isnt quite SF or NYC mind you, but it certainly has put a strain on lower and middle class families. My guess is that due to the ever-increasing rents it's becoming more and more profitable to buy up older and even smaller apartment complexes that are probably more likely to be housing Section 8 recipients and others that get help through charities and other aid. I imagine many owners would like to get them out so that they can either sell it or get someone non Section 8 in so they can charge more to or someone that's just non Section 8 cuz I imagine the belief could be a non Section 8 renter will be better paying the rent because hey fuck poor people amirite? 😡 I may be incorrect but I think Section 8 renters have a little more protection than non section 8 renters.
What really is shitty about this is the laws here in Arizona are already really tilted in the landlord's favor over renters. I have a paralegal degree and worked at a small Law Firm for 3 years so I am familiar with some areas of law and had a situation myself where I lived in a house and the landlord was awful. As a renter you have to do so much more as far as documenting things and being on top of every little thing in order to win a court case against a landlord and unfortunately most renters of course are unlikely to know that. I lived in this house for 2 years and right after I first moved in we had a bad rain storm and the roof leaked, nothing severe at first, just little tiny spots. Sadly the owner, who was an attorney, had bought the home for next to nothing during the bust and he failed to adequately fix it. His workers would just cover the little holes that would develop in the drywall, instead of cutting out the drywall that had gotten wet and completely replacing it and refinishing it. It got to the point where it looked like drywall ceiling was going to collapse. So 23 months into two years of living there, a month from my lease ending I went through the whole process of providing notice and vacating the property. I kept going back and forth and fighting with them and luckily because I had kept every email, every maintenance request, etc etc (and the property mgmt co screwing up) I went from them trying to keep my thousand-dollar deposit and requesting 2000 more in repairs to them actually giving me back $750 of my $1,000 deposit. But it took me actually drafting up a civil complaint against them and emailing it to the property management company (who the owner in my opinion hid behind) before they finally relented and made a deal with me. I can't say much about them because of the agreement with the landlord and the property management company not allowing me to publicly name either.
For example in Arizona once you vacate the premises return your keys you have to give an actual notice in writing that you want to be there when they do the walk-through. If you don't they can do it w/i the renter present which denies the opportunity to contest anything they say and then fix it on your own accord or they can do it whenever and could charge you for anything. Due to a change in the law recently thanks to Governor Ducey, renters can now only win up to 2x damages inatead of 3x damages. When it comes to your deposit you must provide written notice when you vacate with a request for your deposit and address to send it to in order for a clock to start running that gives the landlord 10 business days to do that. If you don't they can take however long they like. So sadly this is not surprising and coupled with the rents rising and considering the makeup of our state legislature, senate and Ducey, II'd be astonished if it don't pass.
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