Arkansas is the only state left in the United States where failing to live up to a lease agreement can lead to an arrest warrant.

For one out of every three households in Arkansas, home is where you pay rent. For a small but significant number, that means living through a steady argument with a landlord or property manager. When those arguments get too contentious, those arguments end up before a judge. And until recently in a large part of the state, that judge could often be in a criminal court.

In fact, Arkansas is the only state left in the United States where failing to live up to a lease agreement can lead to an arrest warrant.

“The law is known as a failure to vacate law,” said Dustin Duke, an attorney with Center for Arkansas Legal Services. “If you get behind in your rent and the landlord gives you 10-day notice and if you refuse or fail to move from your unit in 10 days, you can be criminally prosecuted for failure to pay rent and failure to vacate.”

That can become as big a lifelong burden as a tax evasion charge. Judges in Pulaski County have actually ruled the law unconstitutional, but in neighboring Saline County, where the sheriff’s website lists active warrants, about a dozen people could be subject to arrest because a landlord at one time filed failure to vacate charges.

“We were able to get the statute declared unconstitutional in Pulaski County as well as the first and second judicial districts which stopped a lot of prosecutions,” said Jason Auer with Legal Aid of Arkansas of his work to change the law. The legislature followed up by re-writing much of it in 2015, but the process lingers in places like Hot Springs and Texarkana/Miller County. About 50 people have active warrants in the latter, according to the sheriff’s website, but all but a couple have never had any other run-ins with the law there.

“I will tell you it's pretty popular among landlords,” said Duke to explain why “failure to vacate” is a potent tool. “If they have a tenant that's not paying rent they're only other option is to pay for a lawyer. It costs money to file a civil eviction. It costs money to hire a lawyer. It's a lengthy process, whereas if there's a law on the books that says the state picks up all that tab you know I save a lot of money if I'm a landlord.”

And unlike other states, withholding rent in a dispute only makes things worse for the tenant, on top of breeding animosity because the rent still needs to be paid.

“We get cases like that every week,” Auer said of the frustration he and his clients feel. “A lot of it could be solved with a little better education about what the laws are.”

“It is a public health issue and frankly I think it's kind of an economic issue as well,” said Professor Lynn Foster of Bowen Law School at U.A.- Little Rock. “If I were an employer looking to relocate here in Arkansas I would really think twice about it.”

Foster served on a task force that has worked with several, bipartisan groups trying to reform the rental laws. She say much of the heavy lifting has already taken place at the state capitol and elsewhere.

“Lots of states have simple quick fair eviction proceedings which give tenants due process but allow landlords to proceed fairly quickly,” she said. “This legislation was proposed last session and I expect it will be proposed again in the coming session.”

Along with wiping away “failure to vacate” once and for all, advocates agree reforms have to take a simple and basic step on behalf of renters.

“We really do need some sort of law on the books that has some minimum standards for habitability,” said Duke. “It has to be fair to both landlords and tenants. If you go to a store and you buy a toaster the expectation is it works. If it doesn't work, there's laws on the books and there's recourse. But you do something as big as renting a house. I mean, that's one of the biggest purchases anybody's going to have and there's no minimum standards at all.”

There is an organization that represents landlords that has been working with lawmakers and advocates to come up with those fair and timely eviction procedures.