I've run every eviction this company has filed — from the first delinquency notice through standing at the door with the constable while the locks get changed. Not because I enjoy it. Because it's the single most exposed thing a small operator does, and the cost of doing it badly is enormous relative to the cost of doing it right.
Almost nobody publishes what it costs. So here it is.
The hard costs
| Item | Maricopa County |
|---|---|
| Complaint and summons | $69 |
| Writ of restitution | $125 |
| Other filings | $33 |
| Notice of appeal, if it goes that way | $99 |
| Service of process | varies |
| Attorney, if used | not published — get flat-fee quotes in advance |
Call it $200–$300 in court and service costs on a clean file. That's the number people quote when they tell you eviction is cheap.
The filing fee is never the cost. The cost is the sixty days of lost rent and the condition the unit comes back in.
The real costs
Between the first missed payment and a paying resident back in that unit, you are looking at:
- Lost rent through the process. Notice period, filing, service, hearing, judgment, writ, lockout. Six to eight weeks is normal when nothing goes wrong.
- The condition it comes back in. A unit surrendered voluntarily and a unit taken by writ are not the same unit. Budget a full turn, not a light one.
- Fourteen days of personal property storage. Statutory. You don't get the unit back the day the constable leaves.
- Your time, or someone's. Ledger review, drafting, documenting service, the hearing, the lockout, the trash-out. Somebody is doing all of that.
The step that loses cases
Documenting service. Method, date, proof.
Almost every eviction that goes sideways in justice court goes sideways because the notice was fine and the record of how it was delivered wasn't. Photograph the posting. Log the time. Keep the certified mail receipt. Do it the same way every single time, whether or not you think this one will be contested — because you don't know which one will be.
Where it gets expensive
Notices, filings and lockouts are where an unlicensed or careless operator generates real liability — for the owner, for the management entity, and for anyone whose license is standing behind it. A wrongful lockout is not a $69 problem.
Two things worth settling before your first filing, not during it:
- Who can appear for the entity. Maricopa justice courts publish that a party may not send anyone other than an attorney. Rule 31.3(c)(3) of the Arizona Supreme Court rules permits a full-time officer, member or manager of a legal entity, specifically authorized in writing, to represent that entity in justice court. Those two things need reconciling for your situation, in writing, before it matters — and the written authorization from the owning entity should already exist.
- A flat-fee eviction attorney on retainer. Get two quotes now. The week you need one is a bad week to be shopping.
The unglamorous conclusion
The way to make evictions cheap is to have fewer of them, and the way to have fewer of them is screening and early contact — a real conversation at day four, not a notice at day thirty. Most of the ones we've avoided were avoided by picking up the phone.
But when you do need one, run it fast and run it clean. The building doesn't get better while you wait.
Court fees retrieved 2026 and subject to change — confirm current amounts with the court. Nothing here is legal advice; consult an Arizona attorney for your situation. · ← All field notes