Arizona · A.R.S. §§33-741–33-748Arizona contract for deed: how long before a seller can forfeit the buyer's interest

Arizona's forfeiture rules cover contracts for deed, agreements for sale and similar contracts that give the buyer equitable title, not ordinary purchase contracts or escrow instructions pending a closing (A.R.S. §33-741(2)). When the buyer misses payments, forfeiture can be enforced only after a waiting period counted from the due date: 30 days if less than 20% of the price was paid, 60 days for 20% to under 30%, 120 days for 30% to under 50%, and nine months for 50% or more (§33-742(D)); only down payments and principal payments count toward the percentage (§33-742(E)). After that period the seller – and the account servicing agent, if there is one – records a notice of election to forfeit and serves it at least 20 days before the forfeiture date on the buyer and on recorded junior interests (§33-743(A)). The buyer or anyone else stops the forfeiture by paying the amounts in the notice before it expires, and a notice of reinstatement is then recorded (§33-743(E)–(F)). Otherwise the seller completes the forfeiture by a court action to quiet title (§33-744) or, where an account servicing agent served the notice, by recording an affidavit of completion of forfeiture, which ends the buyer's interest without right of redemption (§33-745). A seller who accelerates the balance, or whose buyer defaults in some other way than missing payments, can only foreclose the contract as a mortgage (§§33-742(A), 33-748).