Are you an Arizona property owner victimized by violent crime, property damage, and hazardous living conditions due to your local government’s refusal to enforce basic public health and safety laws? You may be entitled to relief.
In 2024, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 312 to provide relief for property owners hurt by government’s failure to address the state’s rampant homelessness crisis. This new law compensates Arizonans whose livelihoods are being destroyed as municipalities refuse to enforce the law.
Why was Prop 312 needed?
Rampant homelessness is overtaking Arizona’s cities, as municipalities refuse to enforce laws against public camping, loitering, intoxication, and other nuisances. The result has been a rise in violent crime, biohazardous pollution, property destruction, and even death. Residents and business owners have had to take matters into their own hands, installing fences, hiring security, and cleaning up garbage, human waste, and other hazardous materials themselves—services the city is supposed to provide with the tax money these residents pay every year.
What does Prop 312 do?
Prop 312 allows property owners who have been forced to shoulder mitigation expenses due to a municipality’s purposeful failure to enforce existing laws regarding illegal camping, loitering, pollution, or other nuisances to receive a refund for damages up to the amount of their property tax liability.
Do I qualify for relief under Prop 312?
You may qualify for relief under Prop 312 if:
- You own property and pay a primary property tax to a city, town, or county in Arizona, and
- The city, town, or county where your property is located:
- Follows a policy, pattern, or practice of declining to enforce existing nuisance laws prohibiting illegal camping, obstructing public thoroughfares, loitering, panhandling, public urination or defecation, public consumption of alcoholic beverages, or possession or use of illegal substances, or
- Maintains a public nuisance, and
- You incurred documented expenses to mitigate the effects of the policy, pattern, or practice or the public nuisance on your property
What relief am I entitled to?
You are entitled to recover what you spent mitigating the municipality’s failure to enforce the law, capped at the amount of primary property taxes you paid the prior tax year. If your expenditures exceed what you paid in property taxes the prior tax year, you can reapply for the remaining portion next year.
How do I apply for relief under Prop 312?
Property owners can apply for relief on the Arizona Department of Revenue’s Prop 312 website. The Department has provided a checklist of items you should have handy when you apply. If you need help or have questions about submitting an application, please contact us at prop312claims@goldwaterinstitute.org! We may be able to help you.
What happens after I apply?
The Department will share your claim with the city, town, or county (if your property is located in an unincorporated area) where your property is located and notify you by email as to whether your claim has been approved or denied. If your claim has been approved, the Department will send you a check with your refund.
What happens if the city, town, or county denies my claim?
If a municipality denies your claim, you have a right to file a lawsuit challenging the rejection. If you believe your claim was improperly denied and you would like legal assistance, please contact us! Our lawyers may be able to help you.
