Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 33 > Chapter 11 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• Action: includes recoupment, counterclaim, setoff, suit in equity and any other proceeding in which rights are determined, including an action for possession. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Anniversary date: means an annual date applying to all tenants stated in the rental agreement on which the landlord may adjust the amount of rent. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appurtenances: means awnings, sheds, porches and other attachments to the mobile home. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Change in use: means either of the following:

  (a) A change in the use of land from the rental of mobile home spaces in a mobile home park to some other use. See Arizona Laws 33-1409

• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Director: means the director of the Arizona department of housing. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Fund: means the mobile home relocation fund. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Good faith: means honesty in fact in the conduct or transaction concerned. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Guest: means a nonresident, over and above the occupancy limit set for the resident's space under the terms of the rental agreement or by park rules, of a mobile home park who stays at the home of a person with constructive possession of the home with the consent of the resident for one or more nights and not more than thirty days in any twelve-month period. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Landlord: means the owner, lessor, sublessor or operator, or any combination thereof, of a mobile home park and it also means a manager of the premises who fails to disclose as required by section 33-1432. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Mobile home park: means any parcel of land that contains four or more mobile home spaces. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Mobile home space: means a parcel of land for rent that has been designed to accommodate a mobile home and provide the required sewer and utility connections. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Organization: includes a corporation, limited liability company, government, governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, two or more persons having a joint or common interest and any other legal or commercial entity that is a landlord, owner, manager or designated agent pursuant to section 33-1432. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: includes a company, partnership or firm as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Premises: means the mobile home park and its existing facilities and appurtenances, including furniture and utilities where applicable, and grounds, areas and existing facilities held out for the use of tenants generally or whose use is promised to the tenant. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Prospective tenant: means a person who desires to become a tenant. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Redevelopment of the mobile home park: means that the spaces being redeveloped shall remain vacant for at least one hundred eighty days after the effective date of all change in use notices that are given to the tenants and either of the following applies:

  (a) A minimum of twenty-five percent of the spaces in the park, in groups of at least five contiguous spaces, are being changed into an upgraded mobile home park. See Arizona Laws 33-1409

• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Rent: means payments to be made to the landlord or designated agent in full consideration for the rented premises. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Rental agreement: means leases or agreements and valid rules adopted under section 33-1452 embodying the terms and conditions concerning the use and occupancy of a mobile home space and premises, and includes month-to-month tenancies that arise out of the expiration of a written rental agreement pursuant to section 33-1413. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Resident: means a person entitled under a rental agreement to occupy a mobile home space to the exclusion of others and does not include a person rendering necessary care or services under Section 33-1413. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• security deposit: means any refundable money or property given to assure payment or performance under a rental agreement. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tenant: means a person signing a rental agreement or otherwise agreeing with a landlord for the occupancy of a mobile home space. See Arizona Laws 33-1409
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215