On good faith, a landlord entered into a contract with an individual to which he would rent his home. After moving in, the tenant began remodeling the home to include ripping out carpet, installing new ceiling fans and even a load bearing wall! Throughout the process the tenant continued to make his regular monthly rent payments and believed that once the landlord had discovered the home remodeling projects that he could not be evicted from the home. However, the landlord did in fact evict the tenant resulting in the matter being taken to trial court. The tenant argued that the landlord had no right to evict him because 1) he had paid his rent; and 2) the eviction was retaliatory in nature. Attorney Mary Hone of Provident Law representing the landlord in this matter, countered that the remodeling efforts were in fact grounds for the eviction.
Hearing testimony spanning three days time, the trial court eventually ruled in favor of the landlord resolving that the landlord had the right to evict the tenant. Not being satisfied with this, the tenant took the matter a step further to the Arizona Court of Appeals and after deliberating over the matter affirmed the lower court’s ruling that the landlord had the right to evict the tenant. The landlord did not waive the right to evict the tenant for non-authorized changes after the receipt of rent and the courts found that the eviction was not retaliatory.