New city program aims to make inspection of multi-family residential properties routine

But it’s opened up a whole new way of thinking for city officials charged with ensuring that residential rental properties in Tulsa are safe and properly maintained.

“In the past, we were reactive, so if we got a complaint, we would get (it) assigned to a case area inspector to be investigated,” said Kevin Cox, a field supervisor in Code Enforcement, a division of the city’s Department of City Experience. “This is going to be a proactive approach.”

Cox explained the new program as he accompanied two code inspectors through the grounds of Garden Courtyards Apartments on Tuesday morning. More than $250,000 was included in the city’s current fiscal year budget to hire the inspectors and an additional assistant fire marshal to conduct proactive inspections of the approximately 700 housing complexes in Tulsa with four units or more.

“Generally what we’re looking for is from ground to sky,” Cox said. “So we’re looking for general rot, decay. We’re looking at safety issues regarding stairwells, the railings. We’re looking at the roof and the condition; we’re looking at the heating and air system.

“So when we see problems like exposed wires or something that might be a health and safety hazard, we’re able to address those.”

And if a tenant has a problem inside their apartment and gives the inspector or assistant fire marshal permission to enter, they will do so.

“With the Fire Marshal’s Office working with us as well, it’s such a great benefit because we’re able to address smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, fire suppression systems and stuff like that,” Cox said. “So we’re really addressing all of the health and safety and life-safety issues all at one time.”

City Councilor Lori Decter Wright spent several days at Vista Shadow Mountain Apartments in July 2021 helping the 100 or so residents forced out of their apartments find new ones.

“I won’t say that Vista Shadow Mountain was the thing, but I think it was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Wright said in explaining what prompted city officials to think about the long-term implications of the crisis.

“When we had to evacuate Vista Shadow Mountain, the next question was: How do we make sure this doesn’t happen again in our city?” Wright said.

That process began with the creation of the Residential Rental Property Habitability Working Group, which includes city councilors, members of the mayor’s staff, Fire Department staff and city legal staff.

In consultation with the Tulsa Housing Authority, Housing Solutions, the Tulsa Apartment Association and other organizations, the working group has spent the last two years trying to come up with policies and procedures to ensure that residential rental properties in the city are safe and habitable.

That work included a request for funding to begin a proactive inspection program.

“I just think people need to know our goal is to make sure anyone renting a home, whether it is a single-family or a multi-family, that they have minimum safety conditions,” Wright said. “Not just on paper, but in action.”

Paper’s a part of this story, however. City councilors on Wednesday will discuss proposed amendments to the property maintenance code that, among other things, would spell out the city’s residential rental occupancy standards in clear, easy-to-understand language.

“A lot of these standards may have already existed, but they were peppered throughout the codes (in) industry language which the average, everyday citizen is not going to know,” Wright said. “So this Chapter 11 is like the Cliffs Notes: Here are the minimum standards that you should be able to expect as a Tulsan renting a place to live in our city, whether it is a single-family house all the way up to a really large apartment complex and everything in between.”

Another proposed amendment would require that an apartment complex going through the abatement process have a contact person in Tulsa, Tulsa County or an adjacent county.

The amendment would also require that the contact person respond within one hour when notified of an imminent danger to health, safety or continued habitability.

Keri Cooper, executive director of the Tulsa Apartment Association, said she’s generally pleased with the working group’s efforts thus far.

“For us, we are out here doing the good work and providing good quality rental homes, our members are, and we just didn’t want a program that would penalize everyone for the small percentage of bad actors out there,” Cooper said. “So we are definitely in favor of this approach of going out and finding those situations that really need to be addressed and dealing with those situations.”

The proactive inspection program began in July, the start of the 2023-24 fiscal year, and city officials said 18 inspections were in progress as of Tuesday morning.

No new penalties are envisioned as part of the proposed ordinance changes. The hope, Cox said, is that the proactive inspection process will give property owners a chance to address problems before they become serious.

“It’s going to help us get to a point to where we’re providing that educational piece to complex owners and to property managers to address them, to get out in front of them before we actually make those annual inspections,” he said.

That is the hope. Mayor G.T. Bynum’s budget — approved by the City Council — did not include enough funding to hire enough people to do 700 inspections annually, so apartment complexes will likely be inspected every two years.

Wright said she’ll be looking to increase funding for the program next fiscal year and that she’ll also be keeping an eye on state lawmakers to see whether they can muster the votes to provide another critical tool: anti-retaliation protection for tenants.

“Forty-six states in the nation have figured out how to protect tenants in a balanced way — their interests with the property owners’ interests,” Wright said. “Right now, in the state of Oklahoma, even if you complain about something that is legally required, … your landlord can legally evict you or not renew your lease or whatever.”

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