Property manager manipulating the facts and not responding!

[Mary Funiga]

Hello everyone in the BIGGER POCKETS community!!

I need some guidance on how to deal with an ongoing issue I am having with a property manager of a home I presently own in Buckeye AZ!

The case is that a new couple of tenants signed in May 2025 trough property  management company a two (2) years lease on my property. 

Now, after a month of the second year lease , I received a notification from the property management office telling me: 

"Hello Mary
The tenants here turned in keys to our office just now with no notice & stated it was due to domestic violence but did not provide documenation of such.
We will get an inspection done asap & will keep you posted
Please let me know if you have any questions
Thank you"

After a brief research and checking the documents submitted subsecuently and the corresponding police report,  I found the domestic violence case occurred 56 days before (early May/2026) , which indicates the tenants missed the statutory 30 days window I.A.W State of Arizona law for an early termination of their lease.  After  some questions asked to the property management office, they sent me some additional information which so far hints that they had actually  received an early termination of lease notification in the last week of May/2026, but they did not inform us of any ongoing issues at the property.  I have been asking additional question and explanations for PM, but they are not responding now...

Do I have any legal recourse to act against the property management company for their deception and neglect of their responsabilities with me as a property owner?

Since the perpetrator of the domestic violence is not exempted from the early lease termination, and its protection is strictly designed to protect the victim and not the abuser, Is there anything I could do to collect from the abuser tenant - who is a cosigner of the lease - partial or total early termination fees?

Thanks in advance for any input in this matter

Mary F.

[Stuart Udis]

I don't know anything about Arizona landlord-tenant law, but based solely on what you've described, the property manager's actions don't immediately strike me as actionable. The first question I'd ask is: what are your actual damages? The second is: what will it cost you to pursue those damages?

Even if the property manager failed to communicate information as quickly as they should have, you'll still need to show that their actions caused you a measurable financial loss. In situations like this, it's often worth taking a step back and comparing the potential recovery against the time, legal expense, and effort required to pursue it. Sometimes the practical answer is more important than the legal one.

There was a post a few months ago from an owner involved in a dispute over a withheld security deposit because of the condition a tenant left the yard in. Landlord not only wanted to justify the withholdings but wanted to place some blame on the PM as well.  Right or wrong, I suspect the amount of time spent documenting, researching, arguing, and justifying the withholding, if calculated on an hourly basis, would have amounted to less than minimum wage. Landlords often have a tendency to react emotionally before they react practically, and I suspect this situation may fall into that category.