Arizona Tenant - Not paying Rent, Not Communicating

[Ravi Kiran]

I have this tenant who has been staying on the property for last 8 years. Sometimes she was late for rent and they were keeping me in loop about the same and then paid the rent a week later etc.

Now for Sept they didn’t pay the rent and when I reached out asking for rent after 5th Sept, they said that they vacated the place due to hazardous mold issue (she says she verified with over the counter mold kit) and also said this is a 5 day notice to fix the place. When I replied back to their email asking when I could pickup keys to assess the situation, she doesn’t respond to email, nor she pick the phone, nor responds to text. Yesterday I went to the home to see the condition, there was no car on the driveway… I opened the main door to peep inside…looks like they still have lot of their stuff inside and I can smell bad odor; I just closed the door and returned back. Any suggestions how to approach this situation ?

Few more points:

Their lease is valid till May 2025.

This is the first time she even told me about mold.

In the email she did ask me to settle the lease.

I have a little less than a month of rent as security deposit, which I am ready to settle without any additional penalties for abandoning the property.

At this point I am okay with her leaving the place, just I want to get the control of the property back to fix the mold issue.

History:

1) Recently the AC has been replaced and after that there was some intermittent issue with the installation (temp doesn’t reach target intermittently) and I had to call the tech back 5 times to finally get it resolved.

2) Also last month I replaced electric range with Brand new Electric range.

3) Two months back she said the refrigerator was leaking, I asked her to send picture of the make and mode of the refrigerator, but I never got a reply back.

4) Also for last 4-5 months she has been asking me to send her 5-day notice so that she can claim reimbursement, I was sharing a document and she was paying the rent a little late. But now I am wondering if those options have dried up and she is looking at the Mold issue as an excuse to not paying rent and dragging her foot.

5) I verified their lease, I do see mold clause in there asking the tenant to inform immediately about any mold.

Could you please advise ? As it has been more than 48 hrs since I have been informed about mold, could I enter the property and take it over as an emergency issue ? What to do with their belongings ?