The Arizona Rental Application is a tool used by those that own/manage rental properties for creating an organized report on an applicant’s rental, credit, and criminal history in an effort to determine if they should be allowed to sign a lease. The form, which was created by the Arizona Multihousing Association (AMA), should be used when anyone shows interest in a rental. Because many of the people that show interest will be a bad fit, pre-screening the prospects save landlords both time and energy, as well as potentially costly repairs down the road.
Maximum Application Fee: No limit. However, if the landlord will be collecting a non-refundable fee, this has to be clearly stated in writing to the tenant. If not, the property manager will be required to reimburse the applicant for the cost of the application.
Security Deposits (§ 33-1321): Security deposits cannot exceed one and a half (1.5) months’ rent.
The form is approved by the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which is an organization responsible for enforcing all Federal laws pertaining to housing; such as that discrimination doesn’t occur during the application process. To conform to Federal laws, landlords cannot alter the form to ask questions that can be interpreted as discrimination, such as those that question the applicant’s sex, disabilities, race, family, birth country, and similar topics that aren’t relevant to them being a trustworthy tenant.