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Foreclosure in Arizona

In Arizona, a trustee can sell your home without a court case, but not before the 91st day after the notice of sale is recorded. Up to the last business day before the sale, you can still catch up.

Type: Judicial or non-judicial

Last checked October 26, 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom of this page.

Type
Judicial or non-judicial. A deed of trust gives the trustee the power to sell your home after a default, without going to court. The lender can choose to foreclose in court instead, the way a mortgage is foreclosed.
FHA time frame
HUD's time frame for FHA loans: 6 months from the first legal action to clear title and possession.
Catch-up window
Until 5:00 p.m. on the last day before the sale that isn't a Saturday or legal holiday.
After the sale
No right to redeem after a trustee's sale. After a court foreclosure sale, generally six months.

How an Arizona foreclosure works, step by step

  1. Generally, the legal foreclosure process can't start until you're at least 120 days behind.
  2. The trustee records a notice of sale with the county recorder where your home is. The sale can't happen before the 91st day after that recording.
  3. Within five business days of recording, the trustee must send a copy of the notice by certified or registered mail to the parties to the deed of trust, other than the trustee.
  4. At least 20 days before the sale, a copy is posted in a visible place on your property, and at a superior court building in your county. It's also published in a newspaper once a week for four weeks in a row, with the last notice at least ten days before the sale.
  5. To object to the sale, you must file a court case and get a court order halting it by 5:00 p.m. on the last business day before the sale, or you may lose your defenses. That's also the last day to catch up and reinstate.
  6. On the sale date, the trustee auctions the home to the highest bidder for cash.
  7. The trustee's deed passes the home to the buyer with no right of redemption.
  8. If you stay after getting a written demand to leave, the buyer at a trustee's sale can file a forcible detainer (eviction) case in superior court.

Catching up before the sale

You can reinstate the loan until 5:00 p.m. on the last day before the sale that isn't a Saturday or legal holiday. To do it, you pay what's past due (not the part of the loan that wouldn't be due without the default), fix any other defaults and pay the allowed costs.

Those costs can include the trustee's fee, capped at $600 or half of one percent of the unpaid principal, whichever is more. After the notice of sale is recorded, you can ask the trustee in writing for the exact amount needed to reinstate, with costs and fees listed separately.

Ask for that figure in writing early. Waiting until the last week leaves little room if the number is higher than you expect.

The trustee's sale

The sale is held at the time and place in the notice, on a day that isn't a Saturday or legal holiday, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. It can be on the property, at a superior court building or at the trustee's place of business, in the county where the home is.

The person running the sale can postpone it by announcing a new date, time and place at the time and place last set for the sale. A new sale date must be within 90 calendar days of that announcement.

How long it takes

Foreclosure generally can't legally start until you're at least 120 days behind. Once it starts, how long you have until the sale depends on your state.

For FHA loans, HUD's time frame runs from the first legal action until the lender has clear title to the home and possession of it. In Arizona, that's 6 months, and the first legal action is recording the notice of sale.

Without a court case, the sale can't happen before the 91st day after the notice of sale is recorded, and you can reinstate until the last business day before the sale.

These are official markers, not a forecast. Your case can move faster or slower, so don't count on extra time.

Deficiency, surplus and redemption

If the sale doesn't cover the loan

If the trustee sells a home on two and a half acres or less, used for a single one-family or two-family dwelling, the lender can't sue you for the difference between the sale price and what you owed. Where that protection doesn't apply, the lender has 90 days after a trustee's sale to sue for the shortfall, called a deficiency. If it doesn't sue in time, the sale price counts as full payment of the debt.

A similar rule covers court foreclosures of a purchase-money loan on the same kind of home: the judgment can't reach your other property.

If the sale brings in extra money

Once junior liens are paid in full, the rest of the sale money is paid to you. If there's extra money, the trustee must mail you a notice within 15 days of the sale. The trustee may instead deposit it with the county treasurer until a superior court orders it paid out. Money left with the treasurer for two years with no claim filed is presumed abandoned.

You can sign an agreement to pay someone to help you recover the money, but an agreement signed in the first 30 days after the sale is void. A fee over $2,500, not counting attorney fees and filing and notice costs, is presumed unreasonable and can't be enforced.

Redemption

After a trustee's sale, there's no right of redemption. If the lender forecloses in court instead, there is a time for redemption after the sale before the buyer can get possession. You can generally redeem within six months after that sale.

Protections when you sell, lease or get offers

  • Arizona's foreclosure consultant law covers anyone who offers, for pay, a service they say will prevent or postpone your sale. A consultant can't collect any pay until every promised service is fully done, and can't acquire any interest in your home. You can cancel a consultant contract until midnight of the third business day after you sign.
  • The same law treats as a foreclosure reconveyance any deal where you sign over the home during foreclosure and are promised an interest back that lets you stay after the foreclosure ends. That interest can be a contract for deed, a purchase agreement or an option to buy or lease.
  • A buyer who signs a contract to buy your home and then assigns that contract to someone else is a wholesale buyer, and must tell you so in writing before you sign. If they don't, you can cancel any time before escrow closes, with no penalty, and keep their earnest money.
  • In a contract for deed or agreement for sale, the seller gives the buyer equitable title and must hand over the rest of the title once everything due is paid. If the buyer misses payments, the seller can take back the buyer's interest only after a waiting period, from 30 days if the buyer has paid less than 20 percent of the price up to nine months if they've paid half or more.
  • The Attorney General has sued people accused of running a widespread equity-stripping scheme against Arizona homeowners facing foreclosure. According to the Attorney General, the operation found homeowners by tracking foreclosure notices on county recorder websites. Its advice: be extremely careful with unsolicited offers that claim they'll save your home.

Three of these touch how I buy: the agreement-for-sale rules if we use seller financing, the wholesale disclosure rule if a contract would be assigned, and the reconveyance rules for any deal that lets you stay in the home. And don't stop talking to your lender while you weigh any offer, including mine.

Free help in Arizona

Sources

Last checked October 26, 2026. Every fact on this page comes from one of these official sources.

  1. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-807: Sale of trust property; power of trustee (azleg.gov)
  2. HUD Handbook 4000.1, FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook (PDF) (hud.gov)
  3. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-813: Reinstatement (azleg.gov)
  4. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-811: Payment of bid; trustee's deed (azleg.gov)
  5. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-727: Sale under execution; writ of possession (azleg.gov)
  6. Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-1282: Time for redemption (azleg.gov)
  7. CFPB: How long will it take before I’ll face foreclosure if I can’t make my mortgage payments? What is the foreclosure timeline? (consumerfinance.gov)
  8. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-808: Notice of trustee's sale (azleg.gov)
  9. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-809: Mailing of notice of sale (azleg.gov)
  10. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-810: Sale by public auction; postponement (azleg.gov)
  11. Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-1173.01: Forcible detainer after a sale (azleg.gov)
  12. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-814: Deficiency after trustee's sale (azleg.gov)
  13. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-729: Purchase money mortgage; limitation on liability (azleg.gov)
  14. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-812: Disposition of proceeds of sale (azleg.gov)
  15. Arizona Revised Statutes § 44-1378: Foreclosure consultants: definitions (azleg.gov)
  16. Arizona Revised Statutes § 44-1378.02: Foreclosure consultants: prohibited acts (azleg.gov)
  17. Arizona Revised Statutes § 44-1378.04: Foreclosure consultants: right of cancellation (azleg.gov)
  18. Arizona Revised Statutes § 44-5101: Wholesale buyers and sellers: disclosure (azleg.gov)
  19. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-741: Agreements for sale: definitions (azleg.gov)
  20. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-742: Forfeiture of a purchaser's interest (azleg.gov)
  21. Arizona Attorney General: lawsuit over an equity-stripping scheme (March 2025) (azag.gov)

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