A legislative study triggered in part by the poor treatment earlier this year of the residents at the Vista at Shadow Mountain apartments offered few solutions for such debacles but did provide an outlet for complaints, criticism and suggestions about the often fraught relationship between landlords and tenants.
Requested by Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, and Rep. Forrest Bennett, D-Oklahoma City, the hearing included testimony from housing and tenant advocates, a landlord or two, a couple of trade associations and one former resident of the aforementioned apartment complex near 61st Street and Memorial Drive.
“Vista at Shadow Mountain did not come and offer us (anything),” said Regina Edwards, a five-year resident of the complex that fire marshals ultimately closed because it was so unsafe. “They didn’t ask if they could do anything or say they we’re sorry or we appreciate you living here. ... They didn’t care about none of the tenants. ... But they were getting their money every month on time.”
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Edwards’ story fit into one of Tuesday’s two general narratives — landlords, and particularly absentee landlords, who neglect their properties and take advantage of their tenants.
Several witnesses said tenants have little recourse to unfair treatment. A state statute from 1978 allows them to pay for repairs and deduct up to $100 from their rent, but even landlord advocates conceded that didn’t allow for much improvement.
“We have a system that really lets our tenants be badly mistreated by some less than savory landlords,” said Katie Dilks, executive director of the Oklahoma Access to Justice.
Dilks and Eric Hallett of Legal Aid Services said tenants subjected to retaliation and harassment for reporting problems with their apartments or personnel have no legal recourse.
The other line of inquiry dealt with eviction, which has been an issue in Tulsa for several years but was intensified, locally and across the country, by the pandemic.
Becky Gligo, executive director of the Tulsa non-profit organization Housing Solutions, said there have been more than 7,000 evictions in Oklahoma since the pandemic began, despite moratoriums and large infusions of rental assistance.
“We know there are wonderful landlords in Oklahoma,” Gligo said. “What we see everyday ... are local landlords who are really bending over backwards to work with tenants, sometimes at their own expense, sometimes at the danger of their own business.
“What we are talking about here today are not our fellow Oklahomans who are providing housing for their neighbors. What we have in Oklahoma is a crisis, where out-of-state businesses are preying on our neighbors.”
Keri Cooper of the Tulsa Apartment Association objected to the characterization of out-of-state owners as “bad actors.”
“We shouldn’t be making policy off of media headlines,” Cooper said.
“Classifying out-of-state landlords as a bad landlord is a misrepresentation,” she said. There are bad landlords, but that can happen even in our backyard. I am aware of some in our backyard that are not good landlords.”
Cooper and former lawmaker Josh Cockroft, now with the Oklahoma Association of Realtors, cautioned against major changes to the 40-year-old Oklahoma Residential Landlord-Tenant Act but agreed some modifications are probably warranted.
One, they said, is the $100 limit on rent deductions for repairs made by tenants because of a nonresponsive landlord.
Cooper also suggested a process for “expunging” evictions from renters’ credit records.
Cockroft said his organization is interested in allowing timely rent payments to count toward bettering tenants’ credit scores.
“Property owners assume most of the risk in a rental agreement,” Cockroft said. “Recovery of costs from a tenant beyond their security deposit is often difficult. It is time-consuming and it is costly. ... Evictions are a last resort.”
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