In a state where summer temperatures routinely shatter triple digits, the question of whether a landlord has to provide working air conditioning has long existed in a legal gray zone — at least outside of Phoenix and Tucson. A newly introduced bill is aiming to change that, statewide.
Senate Bill 1608, introduced by Scottsdale Democratic Senator Lauren Kuby in partnership with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, would write specific temperature thresholds directly into the state’s landlord-tenant law. Under the proposal, no rental unit could exceed 82 degrees indoors during warm months, and temperatures would be required to remain at or above 68 degrees when cold weather sets in. The measurements, according to the bill’s language, would be taken at mid-room height — a deliberate standard meant to prevent disputes over how conditions are assessed.
The legislation is more than a thermometer rule. It would also dramatically shorten the window renters have to act when their landlord fails to fix a broken HVAC system. Current state law gives tenants five days to terminate a lease under such circumstances — SB 1608 would cut that to just two. If a landlord still can’t resolve the issue, they’d be on the hook to provide alternative housing, such as a hotel stay, in the interim.
Perhaps most notably, the bill would prevent landlords from pursuing evictions during periods when outdoor temperatures hit 90 degrees or higher for two or more consecutive days. Critics of that provision have pointed out that Phoenix routinely sees that threshold for months at a stretch — effectively creating a lengthy seasonal eviction pause in the state’s largest metro.
The push for the legislation didn’t happen in a vacuum. Investigations over the past year and a half have surfaced repeated cases of tenants left sweltering in broken-down apartments while landlords delayed repairs. The attorney general’s office has already taken several property owners to court over heat-related habitability failures, and supporters of the bill say those cases underscore a need for clearer, enforceable statewide standards rather than a patchwork of local ordinances.
For now, the bill is in its early stages, with landlord groups already raising concerns about the cost burden of compliance for older properties. But for renters in Arizona’s smaller cities and rural communities — places where no local temperature ordinance currently exists — it represents a potential turning point in what has historically been an uneven legal landscape.
