We consider autoregressive sequences $X_n=aX_{n-1}+ξ_n$ and $M_n=\max\{aM_{n-1},ξ_n\}$ with a constant $a\in(0,1)$ and with positive, independent and identically distributed innovations $\{ξ_k\}$. It is known that if $\mathbf P(ξ_1>x)\sim\frac{d}{\log x}$ with some $d\in(0,-\log a)$ then the chains $\{X_n\}$ and $\{M_n\}$ are null recurrent. We investigate the tail behaviour of recurrence times in this case of logarithmically decaying tails. More precisely, we show that the tails of recurrence times are regularly varying of index $-1-d/\log a$. We also prove limit theorems for $\{X_n\}$ and $\{M_n\}$ conditioned to stay over a fixed level $x_0$. Furthermore, we study tail asymptotics for recurrence times of $\{X_n\}$ and $\{M_n\}$ in the case when these chains are positive recurrent and the tail of $\logξ_1$ is subexponential.