What is a lock-and-leave home in Scottsdale, and what should you check before you buy one?

If you're asking what a lock-and-leave home in Scottsdale is and what to check before you buy one, you're probably planning to travel, spend part of the year somewhere else or move to something smaller. A lock-and-leave home is one you can close up and leave for weeks with little upkeep, often a condo, a townhome or a house in an association that looks after the outside. The phrase on a listing doesn't tell you who maintains, insures or can get into the home while you're gone, so before you make an offer, get four answers in writing for that exact address.

I'm Jen Keene, a REALTOR® with eXp Luxury in Scottsdale, AZ, and I'm the agent people call at every stage of their life. I've written about what lock-and-leave really requires for a Scottsdale second home, and here I'll go through the Arizona rules behind those four answers and what to line up before you leave for the summer.

This is general information and not legal or insurance advice. I'm not an attorney, so for what a declaration means for you, ask an Arizona attorney, and for what a policy covers, ask your insurance agent.

For a condominium, Arizona law sets a starting point. Under A.R.S. 33-1247, the association is responsible for the maintenance, repair and replacement of the common elements, and each owner is responsible for the unit, except to the extent the declaration says otherwise. So the declaration can move that line, and it's the document that tells you whether the roof, the exterior walls and paint, the patio or the landscaping by your door are the association's job or yours.

That condo rule doesn't carry over to a house or townhome in a planned community. There, the declaration is the place to look, and the answer can be different from one association to the next and from one section of a community to another. Some homes also sit under two associations, and each one maintains different things. Here's how gates and HOAs work across Scottsdale, and here's what the DC Ranch associations cover for a second home.

Whichever kind of community it is, ask about the things that keep working while you're away: the air conditioning, the water heater, the pool and its equipment, and the irrigation. And if the street has no association at all, everything outside the walls is yours to arrange, which my Fountain Hills second-home page goes into.

Under A.R.S. 33-1253, a condominium association has to carry property insurance on the common elements, and on the units too if the condominium documents require it. The same statute says the association's policy doesn't stop you from buying insurance for your own benefit, and it requires the association to tell each owner in writing every year what the owner's responsibility is for the association's insurance deductibles and the amount of each deductible.

In a condo, that leaves two policies to line up, the association's and your own. What yours has to cover depends on what the association's policy leaves out and on your share of its deductibles, and that's a question for your insurance agent once you have the association's documents in hand.

Arizona's condominium resale law also changed this year. A.R.S. 33-1260 now requires the resale package for a condo to include a statement on whether any part of the unit is covered by insurance the association keeps, along with insurance certificates showing the coverage limits and deductibles. CHDB Law's summary of House Bill 2397 lists the same two items and gives the effective date as September 12, 2026. For a townhome or house in an HOA, ask the association for its certificate of insurance, and give it to your insurance agent before you choose a policy.

In a condominium, A.R.S. 33-1247 says that on reasonable notice, each owner has to give the association and the other owners, and their agents or employees, access through the unit when it's reasonably needed for maintenance and repair. The same statute says whoever is responsible for damage done while getting access, the owner or the association, is responsible for prompt repair. So someone nearby needs a key, and the association needs to know who that person is and how to reach them.

If you rent the condo out, A.R.S. 33-1260.01 lets you name a third party in writing as your agent for association matters about the rental, other than voting in association elections and serving on the board. You sign the designation and give the association a copy, and from then on a notice the association gives your agent counts as notice to you.

Gate codes, vendor lists and guest access are set by each community's own rules. Ask the management company how a pool service, a repair company or the person checking on the home gets added to the list while you're gone. For a house in a planned community, the declaration and rules are where any access rights would be, so read those before you offer.

1. Where the maintenance line is. Ask what the association maintains and what's yours, item by item: the roof, exterior paint, landscaping, irrigation, the pool, the gate and private streets. For a condo, compare the answer with the declaration, because A.R.S. 33-1247 starts from the declaration.
2. What the association has coming. Read the reserve study and the assessment statement in the resale package. Under A.R.S. 33-1806 for a planned community and A.R.S. 33-1260 for a condo, the statement lists any special assessment approved but not yet charged, or put to the members in the last four months. For a condo, it also lists known material defects in the common or limited common elements that you'd be charged to repair within six months of buying.
3. Who insures what. For a condo, read the insurance statement and certificates in the resale package and ask what your share of the deductible is. For any other home in an association, ask for the certificate of insurance. Then take both to your insurance agent.
4. Who gets in while you're gone. Find out how the association contacts an owner who isn't there, who it needs a key from, and how vendors and guests get through the gate.

Ask for these early and read them during your inspection period, while you can still act on what you find. Here's how HOA documents get reviewed inside the inspection period when you buy with me.

The City of Phoenix and the National Weather Service's Phoenix office both give Arizona's monsoon season as June 15 to September 30, so a home left empty for the summer is empty for the storms too. Before you leave, the City of Phoenix's monsoon page says to clean out roof drains or scuppers so rain doesn't collect on the roof, trim back trees and overgrown plants, and bring outdoor furniture inside. The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center's monsoon checklist also says to clean gutters, scuppers and downspouts, trim weak or dead limbs near the house, and secure or move patio furniture and umbrellas.

Salt River Project's summer guide says that before you leave on a trip, close the interior blinds and curtains to keep heat out, turn off all lights except the ones you need for security, and unplug appliances that aren't for security. Ask your heating and cooling company what setting is right for your system, and have someone confirm it's still running.

The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension says scorpions can't be managed with pesticides alone, and it recommends sealing and caulking the home and replacing door sweeps when they need it. That's work to have done before a long absence, since nobody will be there to notice a gap.

Give whoever checks on the house a written list: the air conditioning is running, there's no water on the floors or under the sinks, the roof drains are clear after a storm and nothing has blown loose in the yard. They should also know where the main water shut-off is. Here's what closing a Grayhawk home up for an Arizona summer involves.

Both are covered in my guide to buying a second home in Scottsdale, including what an insurer may limit when a home sits empty, what Arizona law and the City of Scottsdale say about renting, and the city's water service suspension. The short version is to tell your insurer how long the home will be empty, and to read the declaration's rental rules before you offer, even if you don't plan to rent today. For the two Arizona association laws side by side, here's which HOA law applies to you in Arizona.

The first is taking the word on the listing as the list of what's covered. It describes how the home is meant to be used, and the declaration is what says who takes care of the roof, the yard and the gate. The second is assuming a condo rule applies to a house. The maintenance default and the access rule in A.R.S. 33-1247 are part of Arizona's condominium law, and a house in a planned community follows its own declaration.

The third is choosing an insurance policy before you've seen what the association insures and what your share of its deductible is. And the last is leaving without a key holder, when a condo association can need access through your unit on reasonable notice.

If you're selling a home and buying something smaller you can close up for the summer, you're doing both at once, so it helps to know the four answers for the kinds of homes you're considering before your own home goes on the market. Once your listing is signed, I tour the next place with you, and lock-and-leave homes are one of the kinds we go see.

If you already own a home here and want to be away more of the year, the same questions apply. Read your declaration's maintenance section again, ask the association for its current certificate of insurance and give it to your insurance agent before your next trip.

If you'd like to look at lock-and-leave homes, or you're selling and want to know what comes next, call me at (480) 203-6605 or send me a message about the homes you're considering.