Does state law of 30-day notice to vacate override a 60-day notice in apt contract in AZ?

[gillivray5]

In August 2012, my fiance and I relocated to Chandler, Arizona. We moved into an apartment complex before looking to buy a home. During the spring months, the apartment complex made repairs throughout the complex which included both pools. Soon after, many residents began to move out at a high rate due to the increase in rent to cover the expense.

In April 2012, my fiance and I decided to go over to the main office and find out how much our new rent amount would be for the next year. The rental agent, told us that it wasn't in the system yet. We left the office and decided that we would come back and check in a week. One week later, during the month of May we went back into the office with the same question specifying that it was pertinent to our 60 day notice. The office rep. told us that we didn't have to worry about the 60 days approaching because we had plenty of time. She then again said that no info about the increase was in the system.

We waited a few weeks and went back into the office again on May 24th to request the new rent amount, same answer. In the meantime, we began looking at potential apartment communities as a backup plan. On June 7th, 2012 we spoke to the rep. once again and she said that there was nothing in and its possible that there may not be an increase on our unit. At that point, we decided that we would stay at the complex for another term of the lease. Our 60-day lease day came and went on June 22nd.

On Thursday June 28th, my fiance and I went to the office to address another unrelated issue when the general manager handed my fiance a sheet with a rent increase for our particular unit. The increase was for $100 for the next term. We walked out of the office now assuming that we were under the state law of 30-day notice since we were now within the 60-day term. It is believed that they purposely did this to trap us.

We began looking at other more reasonable apartments once again. We realized that we could no longer afford to live at this complex. We found two locations that were cheaper and had two bed rooms.

Our lease ends on August 20, 2012, so on July 20, 2012, 32 days before the end of our lease, we filled out and submitted a notice to vacate form. On Monday, July 23rd, we received a notice from the office with a penalty of $697.23 on top of our last month pro-rated rent amount of $552.16 for the month of August. We were actually being penalized for having to move because we cant afford the rent. We then went into the general managers office to discuss the matter and she said "you guys signed the lease with knowledge of a 60-day notification." We were unfairly taken advantage of and wish to fight back because we are both unemployed living on savings looking for employment and they are now taking $700 of our money that we really need to move. The state law states that you only have to provide a 30-day notice to vacate, but our contract says 60-days. Can this be challenged under these circumstances? Is this common practice?