Water Heater Repair & Replacement in North Gateway, Phoenix, AZ

Arizona Revised Statutes section 12-552 says that an action “based in contract may not be instituted or maintained against a person who develops or develops and sells real property ... more than eight years after substantial completion.” The clock does not start at the closing table, at the move-in date, or at the day the heater was set. It starts when the house was substantially complete.

The same section leaves one narrow door. Where the injury occurred, or a latent defect was discovered in the eighth year, an action may be brought “within one year after the date on which the injury ... occurred or a latent defect was discovered,” and then the statute closes it: no action “more than nine years after the substantial completion.” Nine is the end of the road, and the figure does not roll forward.

It covers “any action based on implied warranty arising out of the contract or the construction, including implied warranties of habitability, fitness or workmanship,” which is the outer boundary the state puts around such a clause in a sales agreement.

Section 32-1162(A) governs when a complaint about the contractor who did the original work can reach the Registrar of Contractors. For new construction, it is “within two years after the earlier of the close of escrow or actual occupancy,” and for other projects, “within two years after the completion of the specific project.”

In ZIP code 85086, which covers part of the village, fewer than one in twenty housing units date from 1989 or earlier, on the Census Bureau's Year Structure Built table. Almost nothing here is old enough for the question to answer itself. Which side of the statutes' dates a given house falls on is therefore a matter of its own completion date, which is a document to be found rather than a thing to be guessed at.