{"id":727956,"date":"2023-04-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/?p=727956"},"modified":"2023-04-27T11:33:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T16:33:21","slug":"for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/","title":{"rendered":"For Tenants Behind On Rent, Anti-Retaliation Proposal Wouldn\u2019t Help"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It didn\u2019t take long for problems to arise with Sabrina Elliott\u2019s two-bedroom rental home off South Pennsylvania Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The garage flooded the first week, while most of her belongings were stowed in boxes on the floor. Her sofa and bed retain a wavy brown streak from the water damage. Within a month, cockroaches made nests in the stove, kitchen cabinets and cracks throughout the house. Eventually, they began falling from curtain rods and crawling out of light sockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBesides spraying for the roaches once, he\u2019s never fixed anything I\u2019ve asked for,\u201d Elliott said of her landlord, as she scrolled through text messages showing complaints and repair requests she\u2019s made the last two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2021, the landlord raised her rent by $100 a month to $850. By October, she fell behind. With an outstanding balance and a $50 monthly late fee, any request Elliott made for repairs was met with threats of eviction from her landlord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, after receiving a letter demanding rent and threatening eviction via text, she decided to withhold rent and save for a new place. She was served by the sheriff last week and ended up on Wednesday’s eviction docket, along with 104 other Oklahoma County residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t

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Audio Stories: December 29, 2025<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n

A proposal aimed at helping people like Elliott faces a deadline this week in the Legislature. Two Lawton-based Republican lawmakers introduced HB2109, which would protect some tenants from retaliation if they file complaints or lawsuits against landlords. No more surprise rent hikes, neglected repairs, or threats of eviction just for submitting maintenance requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If passed it would apply only to landlords with 10 or more units and exempts situations like Elliott\u2019s, when a tenant is behind on rent. Thursday is the last day the bill, which has already passed the House, can be discussed on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most evictions are filed because a tenant is behind on rent, studies show. Oklahoma is one of only six states that offer no protection for people who fall behind or withhold rent to pressure for repairs.
With the end of the Covid-19 eviction moratorium in August 2021, exhausted federal rental assistance and expanded food stamp benefits, evictions in the state are returning to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 110,000 eviction orders have been filed in Oklahoma since 2019 \u2014 two-thirds of which were in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, according to the Legal Services Corporation eviction tracker. The figures do not include 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are still concerns from lawmakers as to how certain provisions will be enforced and the prospects of tying up renters and their landlords in expensive lawsuits, but the bill passed its second committee hearing on April 10 in a 6-5 vote and is being carried by Sen. John Michael Montgomery to the Senate floor for its last round of questioning and debate before potentially becoming law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some fair housing advocates call the bill a welcomed step toward protecting tenants, but worry that language meant to safeguard landlords with fewer rental units from costly litigation will allow certain large-scale real-estate investors to continue predatory renting practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landlords say the bill will cause them to raise their standards for whom their average renters are by increasing qualifying credit scores and refusing to rent people with criminal backgrounds, ultimately hurting those low-income families and individuals the bill is meant to help by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A Balanced Approach\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Daniel Pae said the goal of his legislation is to balance and modernize the Landlord-Tenant Act, bringing Oklahoma up to the standards of 44 other states in the U.S. with anti-retaliation provisions in their state laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neighboring states like Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico spell out their own versions of anti-retaliation provisions in their state laws and allow tenants to withhold rent when their landlords neglect or ignore requests for repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Daniel Pae\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Oklahoma is among those states that allow tenants to make their own repairs and deduct the costs from their monthly rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it comes to making a complaint about the safety or health-related conditions of a rental property, the bill explicitly protects the tenant from any sort of retaliation,\u201d Pae said, \u201cOn the other hand when it comes to a tenant who does not make that complaint in good faith, there are still ways for the landlord to use eviction and to increase rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a balanced approach that we\u2019re taking, incorporating both the landlord’s perspective and the tenant\u2019s perspective and making sure it\u2019s a fair process and a transparent process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill does at least one thing tenant advocates have long sought, said Eric Hallett, an attorney representing Tulsa tenants in eviction proceedings. It allows renters to claim damages and attorney\u2019s fees from their landlords in court if they can prove they were retaliated against.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Convincing judges to hear a retaliation case is difficult because many rule in the landlord\u2019s favor if there is any back rent owed, said Hallett, who coordinates housing advocacy at Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation\u2019s August 2022 study of eviction courts highlighted a \u201ctwo-question approach\u201d to rapid rulings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you have a lease?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you behind on rent?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the answer to both questions is yes, judges grant the eviction order without questioning the landlord or the landlord\u2019s lawyer, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHopefully, this bill will get judges to start considering that there may be a defense as to why the tenant hasn\u2019t paid rent,\u201d said Hallett<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Elliott, 42, it would\u2019ve meant an opportunity to explain her situation to a judge and perhaps be reimbursed for enduring substandard conditions while paying rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, she is worried about her credit score. In Oklahoma, evictions appear on a person\u2019s credit and rental history 30\u201360 days after a court judgment and remain for seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHopefully having an eviction doesn\u2019t stop me from getting a place,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bill\u2019s Limitations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pae said the language focusing on landlords with 10 or more rentals is meant to crack down on out-of-state apartment complex investors and protect others. But the provision raised some concerns during HB2109\u2019s last public discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Joe Newhouse, R-Tulsa, said he likes the spirit of the bill, adding that he doesn\u2019t think landlords should be able to retaliate against their tenants for making complaints. Still, a self-proclaimed property manager of 12 years, Newhouse questioned how that language would be enforced beyond apartment owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this is just one building with 10 units, then I can see a scenario where you would want to not have drastic price increases on one tenant who might have fear of retaliation. I get that,\u201d Newhouse said, \u201cMy question applies to a landlord who might have 10 or more units across an entire city in different areas. How would you enforce the price increase retaliation bit?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t

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Hallett pointed out another challenge to enforcing that provision. Most landlords with more than 10 rental houses in Tulsa don\u2019t own all of their investment properties under one name or limited liability company, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor someone who owns 20 or 30 homes in town, each home might have a different owner according to property records because each one is owned by a different LLC. That hides the true number of units owned by one person. This law wouldn\u2019t apply to them,\u201d Hallett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last summer, a nonprofit aimed at helping low-income Oklahomans studied evictions in eight counties \u2014 Canadian, Cleveland, Comanche, Garfield, Logan, Oklahoma, Payne, Rogers and Tulsa. Of the 510 eviction orders granted last June and July in those counties, 89% were filed by corporate landlords. Most filed multiple evictions in a single day, according to the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than half of landlords had lawyers. Only 4% of tenants had legal representation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A System For Keeping Tenants Behind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sabrina Elliott, 42, cleans out her art supply closet as she prepares to leave her southwest Oklahoma City rental home of two years on April 23, 2023. One of her three chihuahuas, Emmie, watches her from the top of a cockroach-infested sofa. (Lionel Ramos\/ Oklahoma Watch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Casey Robinson remodels and rents properties in North Tulsa. Under his LLC, Robinson Properties, he owns 150 rental homes, which he described as affordable to low-income renters. He said despite owning more than 10 rentals, local landlords like him are not the problem HB2109 is trying to address and putting pressure on them will only hurt the low-income renters it\u2019s meant to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe this bill will bottleneck the court system even further and make the cost of business go up,\u201d Robinson said, explaining that retaliation cases will keep renters and their landlords in court for longer \u2014 causing people to lose out on their investments and exacerbating the issue of an already packed eviction docket. Tulsa County, in the two days Access to Justice Observed its docket, saw 172 evictions filed, but the number can balloon to well over 200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hallett said the fact that an eviction or reduction of service won\u2019t be considered retaliatory if a tenant is behind on rent negates what the law is meant to accomplish in the first place, and the only real way to know if it works is to watch its provisions play out in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most low-income tenants start their rental journeys behind, Hallett said. A study by the Terry West Legal Clinic at the University of Tulsa law school showed 97% of evictions filed in January 2020 in Tulsa were because of past due rent for amounts as low as $39.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne way to be a slumlord in Oklahoma is to make sure your tenant is always behind,\u201d Hallett said, \u201cYou do that by requiring upfront pay of two months rent. Then what happens is the tenant says they can only pay one month and the landlord says they will let them catch up over time. In the ledger, it shows that the tenant is always behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen anytime they complain, the landlord just calls in that rent and files a rent-based eviction. That\u2019s always been the case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t

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Robinson said he\u2019s seen that system play out in another, but similar fashion, attributing the practice to hedge fund apartment owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same complexes that advertise an apartment for $600 and get people interested that way,\u201d He said, \u201cBut they only have $700 apartments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the trick is to allow someone to pay just a little less than the total amount they owe for one month to ensure they\u2019re behind, then charge them high late fees every month thereafter until they have a reason to evict them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson said that while he does see the need to address apartment complexes that target low-income tenants with evictions, he worries HB2109 will cause landlords like him to raise application standards for renters and avoid people with past evictions or criminal histories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are one of the landlords who try to provide affordable housing,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I could see a bill like this cause everyone to raise their standards. They would say \u2018We\u2019re not going to give this person a second shot because they are a little bit iffy on their background.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pae said the listed exceptions were included as amendments after the bill\u2019s initial introduction to placate the concerns of landlords and fellow Republicans who didn\u2019t want to support the bill otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the amendments we\u2019ve made, we\u2019ve addressed concerns about where the burden of proof is, and making sure landlords still have the options of eviction and increased rent,\u201d Pae said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lionel Ramos covers state government for KOSU. Reach him at lionel@kosu.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A bill intended to protect some tenants from being evicted for complaining about substandard living conditions faces a deadline in the Oklahoma Legislature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2625215,"featured_media":727957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gigafact_has_fact_brief":false,"gigafact_remote_fact_brief_post_id":0,"gigafact_remote_sync_timestamp":"","gigafact_remote_sync_status":"","gigafact_remote_sync_response":"","gigafact_has_been_published":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"everlit_article_id":"","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"","everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"","_everlit_metadata_hash":"","_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46,17274,33],"tags":[],"series":[],"coauthors":[10266],"class_list":["post-727956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-housing","category-poverty","entry"],"fact_brief":null,"yoast_head":"\nFor Tenants Behind On Rent, Anti-Retaliation Proposal Wouldn\u2019t Help - Oklahoma Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For Tenants Behind On Rent, Anti-Retaliation Proposal Wouldn\u2019t Help - Oklahoma Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A bill intended to protect some tenants from being evicted for complaining about substandard living conditions faces a deadline in the Oklahoma Legislature.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Oklahoma Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OklahomaWatch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-26T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-27T16:33:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/SabrinaElliott2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lionel Ramos\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@OklahomaWatch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@OklahomaWatch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lionel Ramos\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lionel Ramos\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/#\/schema\/person\/7208a4ca14860fcb1eca4f39950f9d6a\"},\"headline\":\"For Tenants Behind On Rent, Anti-Retaliation Proposal Wouldn\u2019t Help\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-26T11:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-27T16:33:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/\"},\"wordCount\":1914,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/SabrinaElliott2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1\",\"articleSection\":[\"Government\",\"Housing\",\"Poverty\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2023\/04\/26\/for-tenants-behind-on-rent-anti-retaliation-proposal-wouldnt-help\/\",\"name\":\"For Tenants Behind On Rent, Anti-Retaliation Proposal Wouldn\u2019t Help - 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