Key Points:

• A new law should stop squatters faster and allow property owners to get them out in about five days

• Exact statistics don’t exist for the number of squatter cases per year in Arizona, but law enforcement and real estate agents say it is a problem

• The new law does not affect rights and remedies under the state’s landlord and tenant act

Goldilocks won’t be squatting for long in any Arizona homes after a new law takes effect. 

Sen. Wendy Rogers made the fairy tale comparison herself at a press conference on June 1 after her Senate Bill 1426 was signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs. The new regulations intend to make it easier for property owners to evict squatters faster. 

“It’s like Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” she said. “This is when Goldilocks goes into a home, enters the bears’ home without permission when they’re out. She eats their porridge, sits in and breaks their chairs, sleeps in their beds, making her the classic intruder squatter.”

It’s what happened to D’Andrea Turner and her then-husband Keith. D’Andrea had been traveling back and forth to Michigan to take care of her elderly mother and also recovering from surgery after an aneurysm. Keith was a long-haul trucker on the road and when he came back, he discovered squatters in their home. 

They tried to remove the squatters, but they kept coming back and eventually, the Turners found out their identities were stolen from documents in their home and their home had been fraudulently sold. Affidavits and forms had been notarized and submitted through Maricopa County and the sale wasn’t stopped until the squatters tried to cash the check in the Turner’s names multiple times but were unsuccessful, according to previous media reports. 

Turner said the hardest thing was the identity theft and the property being defrauded, plus losing irreplaceable items in their home, such as photos of her children, a teddy bear and computers. They raised their children and lived in their home for over 12 years, she said. 

“I had many tearful nights, many terrible nights because of this,” she said. “As working class people that’s putting our money into mortgages and things that we think is going to sustain us for when we’re done. We buy properties so that we can leave it for generations.”

Turner said she’s grateful to Rogers for getting the bill passed. In the Turners’ case, two people were eventually charged with identity theft, forgery and fraudulent schemes. Despite that progress, the Turners are still sorting out the mess with their insurance company. 

“I feel very fortunate that someone heard me. It’s like you’re screaming at the top of a mountain and someone can hear you,” she said. “I feel very confident that the senator heard me and she understands that we, as Arizonans, will not accept this.”

A squatter is different from a trespasser. Whereas trespassers usually leave after they’re told, squatters can use tactics to make it look like they live at the property or create a false lease to try to prove they have a rental agreement. 

The law requires the court to issue a writ of restitution immediately after the court signs any judgement against an unauthorized person, according to the bill language. It outlines conditions that constitute an eviction lawsuit, such as an unauthorized person unlawfully occupying the property and the property owner has directed the person to leave. Another condition is the person did not have a prior verbal or written agreement to cohabitate with the property owner at a residential property.

The new law would not apply or modify the rights and remedies available to landlords and tenants as prescribed by the Arizona Residential Landlord Tenant Act. The law will not affect current or former tenants, immediate family members or people who had a verbal or written agreement to live on the property with the owner.

The law will take effect 90 days after it was signed. This was Rogers’ third attempt to get the bill passed. The bill originally came to Rogers from a constituent who is a real estate attorney and told her it’s a prevalent problem. 

“Arizona is sending a clear message. Unlawful occupation of someone else’s property will not be tolerated,” Rogers said. “Our border is secure, but we still have nefarious actors inside our country who would perpetuate this on property owners.”

The game changer this year was an early start in collaboration and most notably, the constables’ support, along with realtors, she said, and added she was pleasantly surprised by the amount of bipartisan support the bill received. 

“That’s the way we should get stuff done,” she said. 

Tim Beaubian, senior director of government affairs at Arizona REALTORS Association, said the bipartisan support of this bill this year shows what an impact this is going to be for the state of Arizona and that private property rights are a bedrock. 

The bill passed with wide bipartisan support in both chambers. Sen. Catherine Miranda cast the lone no vote. She said she understood the need to protect homeowners, but she cited homelessness and a lack of support from the state and the city of Phoenix.

“The state isn’t doing enough to help homelessness,” she said. “I’m not willing to attack any efforts that homeless people are trying to make to survive.”

In October 2025, Hobbs announced $13.5 million in grant funding in the Arizona Promise budget to support eviction prevention, homelessness response and referral efforts across Arizona, according to a news release. At that time, it put the Hobbs Administration’s total investment in services to over $150 million.

Constable Scott Blake, who works in the Hassayampa district in northwest Maricopa County, said the new law should help people remove squatters faster. 

Currently, the law says people have to go through an eviction process, starting with a five-day notice, Blake said. A court summons and complaint is required, in addition to showing the judge the “lease” and showing it’s illegitimate. After another few days of waiting, the judge can order a writ and then a constable can come and do the eviction. That whole process takes over two weeks. 

“The new law shortcuts all of that, you’re going to be able to get into court and say, ok, this person’s going to have to leave and you’re going to get a writ and somebody’s going to come out there and take care of that,” he said. “I think in less than five days you’d be able to remove somebody who is a squatter and unauthorized occupant.”

It will help a small handful of people right now with the possibility of more in the future as things tighten up, he added. 

Blake said another trend he has started to see more often is people squatting on vacant, rural land, which is usually owned by the state or a private property owner. Systemic issues like the increased cost of living will likely keep contributing to people looking for places to live, he added. 

“I’m not sure that we’ve seen the end of financial difficult times,” he said. 

The new law would require a five-day notice to vacate before going to court. If the criteria listed in the law is met, a judge may order the immediate eviction of that tenant, and it gives the property owner a legal hammer too, the spokesperson said.

There’s technically two different types of squatters: ones with an agreement to live at the property for a limited time and those who do not have an agreement with the property owner, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Justice Courts said. Both types of cases come to justices of the peace. 

The second type is what the new law speaks to and is rare. If there is no written, verbal or implied tenancy agreement, the case can come to court, but a judge may dismiss it and say the court has no jurisdiction because there’s no agreement. Then it would be a trespassing issue for the police to write a citation, which is a different court process, they said.

The data on how many squatter cases happen per year in Arizona does not exist because landlords have to deliver a notice to vacate before they go to the courts. The courts don’t track what type of criminal activity or other breach might have triggered an immediate eviction and essentially, it doesn’t matter once the case reaches court, the spokesperson said.

There is a category of evictions called “immediate,” which usually involves a breach of the lease that is not fixable, such as if criminal activity took place. The landlord has to give notice of the breach and may file the court case the same day. If the tenant is found guilty in court a few days later, the judge can order the immediate eviction, which means they have to be out the day following the court appearance. 

As for statistics on that type of case, landlords brought 84,805 cases to court and 406 of those were immediate evictions in 2025, but it’s likely few to none of those involved squatters, the spokesperson said.