The sale date on an Arizona notice of trustee sale is the date as of the day the notice was recorded. Between then and the auction, the sale can be postponed, cancelled, or stopped, and some of those changes leave no recorded document behind. If you work from a list of trustee sales, this is the main reason your list is wrong. This guide covers each way a sale moves or ends, the statute behind it, and how to keep a list current.
Postponement by announcement
A.R.S. § 33-810(B) lets the person conducting the sale “postpone or continue the sale from time to time or change the place of the sale” to another location the chapter allows. They do it by public declaration of the new date, time and place, made at the time and place last set for the sale. Three rules follow:
- The new date must be fixed and close. It must be a fixed date within ninety calendar days of the declaration.
- No other notice is required. The trustee does not have to re-record, re-mail, re-post or re-publish. The only notice is the announcement.
- The trustee must tell you if you ask. After a postponement, the trustee, on request, must make available the date and time of the next scheduled sale, and the new location if it changed, until the sale is held or cancelled. The trustee is not liable for the accuracy of that information.
The statute does not require a reason for a postponement, and nothing in it limits how many times a sale can be postponed, as long as each new date is within ninety days of the announcement. In practice that means a single notice can produce a chain of sale dates months apart, none of them in the county records.
Other reasons a sale moves
The trustee has no bid figure
From 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the last business day before the sale, and from 9:00 a.m. on sale day until the sale, the trustee must make available the actual bid or a good-faith estimate of the beneficiary’s credit bid. If that figure is not available during that time, the trustee must postpone the sale until it can comply (A.R.S. § 33-809(F)).
Bankruptcy
A sale held in violation of a federal statute because of an unknown or undisclosed bankruptcy is not complete. It is treated as continued to a date, time and place the trustee announces at the sale, or, if none is announced, to the same place and time twenty-eight days later (the next business day if that day is a Saturday or legal holiday) (A.R.S. § 33-810(C)). The trustee must notify by registered or certified mail any bidder who gave their name, address and phone number in writing to the party conducting the sale.
A court order
A borrower or another person who was mailed notice can stop the sale with a court order under Rule 65 of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure entered before 5:00 p.m. on the last business day before the sale (A.R.S. § 33-811(C)). If a sale goes ahead in violation of an undisclosed order of that kind, the sale is not complete and is continued under the same 28-day rule as a bankruptcy (A.R.S. § 33-811(D)).
A foreclosure lawsuit
If the trustee or beneficiary files a lawsuit to foreclose the deed of trust as a mortgage, no trustee sale may be held unless the lawsuit is dismissed (A.R.S. § 33-807(B)). See trustee sale vs judicial foreclosure.
Force majeure
If an act of force majeure prevents access to the sale location, the sale is postponed by law to the next business day at the same time and place (A.R.S. § 33-810(D)). A.R.S. § 33-801 defines force majeure as an act of God or nature, or a superior force or event that cannot reasonably be anticipated or controlled and that prevents access to the sale location.
The winning bidder does not pay
If the high bidder fails to pay by 5:00 p.m. the next business day, the trustee may reopen bidding or offer the property to the second-highest bidder, and then to other prior bidders on successive business days. If no one pays, the sale is continued to a time and place the trustee designates or, if none, twenty-eight days later (A.R.S. § 33-811(A)).
Cancellations
A cancellation ends the notice. Unlike a postponement, it is recorded. The trustee must record a cancellation of the notice of sale when:
- the loan is reinstated by curing the default before 5:00 p.m. on the last business day before the sale (A.R.S. § 33-813(A), A.R.S. § 33-813(E));
- the deed of trust is paid in full (A.R.S. § 33-813(F));
- the sale is not held or not properly postponed (A.R.S. § 33-813(F)); or
- there is an error in the date, time or place of sale, or a legal description that cannot identify the property (A.R.S. § 33-808(E)).
A notice cannot be re-recorded, but the trustee may record a new notice for the same property (A.R.S. § 33-808(F)), which starts a new 91-day minimum. In Maricopa County, cancellations of notice of sale are indexed under document code CQ. For recordings dated September 1–30, 2026, the recorder’s public search returned 324 CQ documents and 501 notices of trustee sale (code NS) (queried October 1, 2026). The two sets are not the same properties, so this is not a cancellation rate. It does show that cancellations are a large, steady flow, not an edge case.
What happens at the sales that do go ahead
When a sale is completed, the trustee records a trustee’s deed (A.R.S. § 33-811(B)). Those deeds show who ended up with the property.
What this means for your list
A trustee sale list is a set of claims about the future, and each claim decays. Treat every entry as having a status and a date when that status was last checked:
- Scheduled per the recorded notice. You have the notice and nothing newer. The sale date may already have moved.
- Confirmed with the trustee. You asked the trustee and have a date and time of that confirmation.
- Postponed. The trustee gave you a new date. Re-confirm before it.
- Cancelled. A cancellation of notice of sale is recorded. Remove it, but watch for a new notice.
- Sold. A trustee’s deed is recorded. Remove it, and use the deed for your price research.
Two checks do most of the work: a weekly sweep of recorded cancellations and trustee’s deeds against your list, and a call to the trustee before any sale you intend to attend. Under A.R.S. § 33-809(F) the bid figure is only required from the business day before the sale, so that call does double duty.
How Foreclosure Brief handles it
We separate what a recorded notice says from what is confirmed now. A listing appears as a verified upcoming auction only when a retrieval from an official status source younger than 72 hours confirms the sale is upcoming and the sale date is in the future. Everything else is labeled as a recorded notice whose current status is unconfirmed. We also pull recorded cancellations and trustee’s deeds and move those records out of the live list. The rules are on our methodology page, and the live Maricopa list is on the Maricopa County page.
For the full process, start with how Arizona trustee sales work, or learn to read the source document in our notice of trustee sale guide.
Frequently asked questions
How is an Arizona trustee sale postponed?
Under A.R.S. § 33-810(B), the person conducting the sale announces the new date, time and place by public declaration at the time and place last set for the sale. No other notice is required, and the new date must be a fixed date within ninety calendar days of the declaration.
How do I find out the new date of a postponed sale?
Ask the trustee. After a postponement, A.R.S. § 33-810(B) requires the trustee, on request, to make the next scheduled date and time available, and the new location if it changed.
What does a cancellation of notice of sale mean?
The trustee records one when the loan is reinstated (A.R.S. § 33-813(E)), paid in full, or when the sale is not held or not properly postponed (§ 33-813(F)). In Maricopa County these are recorded under document code CQ.
Can a sale be postponed because the trustee lacks a bid figure?
Yes. A.R.S. § 33-809(F) requires the trustee to make the actual bid or a good-faith estimate of the credit bid available from 9:00 a.m. on the last business day before the sale; if it cannot, it must postpone.