Nearly 8,000 eviction cases were filed in Maricopa County in July, putting tenants on watch
Aug 12, 2024, 4:35 AM
An apartment maintenance man changes the lock of an apartment after constables posted an eviction order on October 7, 2020 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
PHOENIX — This past July saw 7,903 new eviction cases in Maricopa County, the third-most filed for a single month in county history, according a recent report.
Maricopa County has filed a total of 50,100 eviction cases as of Aug. 7 to put tenants on notice, an ABC15 report said.
Judge Anna Huberman of the Maricopa County Justice Court told the Let ABC15 Know team, “Seems like every month we keep surpassing the number of filings.”
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And if the historic numbers continue to file in over the next five months, the county will set a yearly record as well.
In 2005, 83,687 filings were recorded in metro Phoenix. Last year gave the nearly 20-year-old record a scare, as 83,236 claims were counted.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a primary factor in the recent trend of residents losing their living spaces.
The average rent price in Phoenix increased by 25.6% over the period of March 2020 to October 2023. This pricing hike contributed to a 21% increase in eviction filings since 2019, according ABC15.
Huberman said that residents need to speak with their landlord before payment is due, in order to put a compromise in writing and avoid the binding nature of an eviction filing.
“Once a case has been filed in court, if the landlord accepts any type of payment from the tenant then they cannot continue with the court case. So landlords will not talk to the tenants once a case has been started,” Huberman said. “The law in Arizona makes the eviction process very fast and there’s very little time to intervene and to be able to change the outcome.”
Huberman said that renters sometimes withhold payments until repairs are made on air conditioning units for instance. She advised residents to follow the rules of their respective landlords and handle their payment as an essential outside of dealing with repairs.
Tenants are provided with a five-day non-payment notice prior to when an eviction can be filed. This hold-off period allows tenants to make a payment, work out a plan with their landlord or leave the residence on their own terms.
“I think that everybody should be educated before the (eviction) process starts. No one has an incentive to look into this until once you’re in the process, and sometimes it’s too late,” Huberman said.
To learn more about your rights as a tenant, view the Arizona Tenants’ Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.
