Arizona bed bug law for landlords: educate tenants, never lease a known infestation
A.R.S. 33-1319 makes an Arizona landlord give bed bug educational materials to existing and new tenants and bars the landlord from signing a lease for a unit the landlord knows has a current infestation. A tenant must not knowingly bring in infested materials and must give written or electronic notice when bed bugs are present. The section excludes single family residences and sets no inspection or treatment deadline.
What does Arizona require of a landlord?
Two things. First, the landlord shall provide bed bug educational materials to existing and new tenants. The statute lists what the materials may include: ways to prevent and control bed bugs, a description of what they look like, risk behaviors such as buying renovated mattresses, using discarded mattresses and furniture, using used or leased furniture, buying pre-owned clothing and traveling without precautions, and information from the CDC and other federal, state or local health agencies, housing agencies, nonprofit housing groups or the landlord.
Second, the landlord shall not enter into a lease for a dwelling unit that the landlord knows has a current bed bug infestation. The statute says "may include" for the materials, so the content is flexible, but the duty to provide them is not.
What does Arizona require of a tenant?
- Do not knowingly move materials infested with bed bugs into the unit.
- A tenant who knows bed bugs are present must give the landlord written or electronic notification.
Notice is the tenant's duty, so keep your own record of when it arrived and how. Oral reports are easy to dispute later.
What does infestation mean, and who is excluded?
The statute defines "bedbugs" as any insect in the genus cimex and its eggs. "Infestation" means the presence of bed bugs is sufficient to materially affect the health and safety of tenants and their guests. A landlord and tenant of a single family residence are excluded from the section.
What does the section not say?
It sets no deadline to inspect, no deadline to treat and no rule on who pays for treatment. It says it does not limit other rights, remedies and obligations under the same chapter, so the landlord's general duties to maintain the unit still apply. It also says that, except as the section provides, it does not create a cause of action against a landlord or the landlord's employees, officers, agents and directors by a tenant or guests for damages caused by bed bugs, or against a tenant by a landlord for damages caused by bed bugs.
Example a made-up owner of a 6 unit building in Tucson hands every new tenant a one page bed bug sheet at signing and emails it to the 5 existing tenants. That is 6 sheets for 6 households, and each handoff is dated in the file.
How should an Arizona owner set this up?
- Pick the educational material once (the CDC or a local health agency page is one source the statute names) and attach it to the lease packet.
- Send it to current tenants too, and record the date.
- Ask tenants in your lease to report bed bugs in writing or by email, and name the address to use.
- Before listing a vacated unit, note whether you know of an infestation. A known one means no lease until it is dealt with.
How DoorKeeping fits in Arizona
DoorKeeping keeps a Arizona bed bug report as a dated work order, so the tenant's notice, your inspection, the pest company's visit and the follow-up are on one record, and the owner sees each one. A tenant's emailed report becomes the written notice on file. This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current statute, your local rules and your lease before you act.
Sources
Questions
- Must an Arizona landlord give tenants bed bug information?
- Yes. The landlord shall provide bedbug educational materials to existing and new tenants under A.R.S. 33-1319.
- Can an Arizona landlord lease a unit that has bed bugs?
- Not a unit the landlord knows has a current bed bug infestation. The landlord shall not enter into a lease for it.
- How must an Arizona tenant report bed bugs?
- A tenant who knows of bed bugs must give the landlord written or electronic notification.