Harold Morris was tired of living with rats.He complained to Oklahoma City Code Enforcement and the Department of Health about the overwhelming infestation and seriously dilapidated conditions in the home he rents from Virginia Oldham. The city inspected on September 13 and handed Oldham a stack of code violations. Days earlier, Oldham had served Morris a 30-day notice to vacate. Morris, a disabled veteran, was still living in his rental home on Oct. 7, the last day of his 30-day period.Oldham engaged contractors to address the many issues she was cited for, but Morris said the home is so run down he thinks it could be condemned.Some repairs Oldham contracted were hastily done, such as the plank being nailed up on the porch overhang to stabilize it. The wood blocks the front door from opening fully. The city twice rejected for unsafe conditions a new water heater the landlord’s contractors installed. Such subpar fixes were evident throughout the house when Oklahoma Watch visited; unsightly thick yellow spray foam is an apparent favorite of the workers who used it to fix holes in interior and exterior walls, under sinks, inside cabinets, and seal windows and doors inside and out. But nothing was done to seal up the dozens of holes in the walls and ceiling through which rats entered the house, Morris said. Morris said he plans to fight to stay in his rental despite the home’s extreme disrepair. “I was a good tenant,” Morris said. “I overlooked a lot of things. I’m not overlooking anything now.”Oklahoma Landlords Can Legally Retaliate According to U.S. Census Bureau data, Oklahoma has more than 4 million people; 34.9%, or 1.23 million, live in rentals.  In 2023, about 92,200 Oklahomans, or 41,000 households, lived in housing subsidized by Section 8 vouchers. That means more than 92% of tenants pay 100% of their rent.While most rental units conform to health and building codes, many of Oklahoma’s most vulnerable renters, like Morris, risk retaliatory measures, including eviction, if they report extreme disrepair to city officials. Morris can’t afford to move. His disability check covers his bills, and he doesn’t receive any assistance, such as a Section 8 subsidy. Like many Oklahomans in similar situations, Morris would likely have trouble finding another affordable apartment with Oklahoma’s lack of low-income housing options. He wants Oldham to fix the house and allow him to stay. Harold Morris discusses the conditions of his falling-apart rental home owned by landlord Virginia Oldham. Oldham evicted Morris after he reported the home’s problems to Oklahoma City Code Enforcement. (Heather Warlick/ Oklahoma Watch)Oldham, who owns at least eight Oklahoma City homes, declined to speak to Oklahoma Watch aside from saying she doesn’t know why Morris is making “a big case out of this.” Oklahoma is one of only six states in the nation where it is legal for landlords like Oldham to retaliate against tenants who complain about uninhabitable conditions. “Anti-retaliation protections would ensure that tenants can request repairs for issues that affect their health and safety and hold bad actor landlords accountable without risking eviction, harassment, or fees,” said Sabine Brown, a senior policy analyst at the Oklahoma Policy Institute.Brown said that adding anti-retaliation protections would bring Oklahoma in line with the rest of the country and wouldn’t affect the majority of responsible landlords.People who receive Section 8 housing vouchers are protected under federal law against retaliation. But those who pay for their rentals without federal subsidies have no such protection without state anti-retaliation laws in place. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also requires scheduled inspections of federally subsidized homes. Those inspections are required every three years — more often if properties fail. These inspections are geared to protect the public’s investment of tax dollars in low-income housing. Private landlords are not required to perform inspections under Oklahoma or federal law. Some Landlords Let Fixes GoShanon Van Gordon felt trapped in the substandard townhome she rented from Oklahoma City landlord Michael Raff. She had lived there for 21 years and though the unit was in disrepair, Van Gordon loved living near her sisters and liked that she was near her doctors, pharmacy and shopping. Van Gordon and her two sisters, also in their 70s,  have endured difficult rental conditions for nearly as long as they lived there. Though they did not have a lease, the ORLTA protects their rights insofar as it requires landlords to perform upkeep of the most basic housing necessities such as heat in the winter, running hot water, electricity, and plumbing. At Raff’s townhome buildings, rainwater and snow poured into leaky, rotting windows and doors. Holes in walls and ceilings went unfixed, pipes are corroded, rodents and even birds have infested fireplaces and roaches have taken up residence alongside the Van Gordon sisters.For years, the back door of Shanon Van Gordon’s townhouse was held in place by duct tape and propped up by a heavy tool chest on the outside to keep it from falling through the rotted frame. Even if the door had been functional, it was still obstructed by an oversized refrigerator, blocking Van Gordon in. In response to a code violation from months earlier, Raff fixed all the units’ doors just days before the hearing. Van Gordon’s refrigerator still blocked her backdoor.According to the Oklahoma County Assessor records, Raff operates Panic Properties LLC and owns about 40 Oklahoma City residential properties and commercial rentals. The sisters meticulously documented their years-long journey dealing with Raff, saving every text and email message and taking copious photos. Raff often portrayed himself as a victim in his correspondence and made increasingly hostile comments. When Raff raised the rent for Van Gordon and one of her sisters but not the other (with whom he expressed sympathy) in November 2023, he said in an email that he thought raising the rent from $575 and $600  to $800 per month was “more courteous than a 30-day notice to vacate, but once again it will never be seen through my glasses, like missing an opportunity to lease the apartments for MUCH more monthly, but I am the evil, greedy guy that won’t fix anything.”At one point, Van Gordon said, Raff told her by phone that he had a gun. Van Gordon said that the statement was out of context and felt like a threat.In another email sent in September, Raff wrote that he thought that in return for his keeping their rent low, the sisters should have taken care of the “small items,” such as spraying for bugs. “I have figured out that it is impossible to run the place correctly and keep everyone happy charging low rents,” Raff wrote. “Either way, I am the bad guy so that is going to have to change to get things done.”After repeated attempts and calls to Mayor David Holt and City Councilman James Cooper, Van Gordon said she finally got Code Enforcement’s full attention in the spring. Raff was slapped with a stack of violations. In the fall, Van Gordon finally lost patience with Raff’s stream of excuses for dragging his feet on fixing the violations, so she contacted Legal Aid Services Oklahoma. With the counsel of Legal Aid attorney Andrew Case, Van Gordon filed a lawsuit against Raff. Days later, Raff served Van Gordon a 30-day notice to vacate. “I think Ms. Van Gordon had faith that maybe there was a moral compass there for her landlord and that she could get the repairs needed to stay,” Case said. Raff did not settle the case before a scheduled hearing on Oct. 2, forcing Van Gordon to move to a new apartment. She moved to southwest Oklahoma City, where she found an affordable unit, but she said she regrets being so far from her sisters, doctors, pharmacy, and all the other services within walking distance for the 21 years she lived in the townhouse. Panic Properties’ code violations case for the townhome buildings was closed just days before Van Gordon’s court date, officials at the department confirmed. At the Oct. 2 hearing, Judge Trent Pipes required Van Gordon and Raff, along with their attorneys, to participate in mediation, and Raff agreed to pay Van Gordon $1,000 for diminution of value. Raff declined to comment.Van Gordon said it felt like a win just seeing Raff in court, but her two sisters still live in the townhome complex with uninhabitable conditions and are bracing themselves for similar retaliation. Oklahoma Legislators Ignore Proposed Anti-Retaliation LawsThe Oklahoma Residential Landlord and Tenant Act specifies that tenants can break a lease by submitting a 30-day written notice of their intention to vacate to landlords who fail to make fixes imperative to the livability of the unit.The ORLTA was adopted in 1978 and derived from the Uniform Landlord Tenant Act. That model legislation offers protection from landlord retaliation, but those protections were dropped in Oklahoma’s version.  Rep. Daniel Pae, R-Lawton, and Sen. John Michael Montgomery, R-Lawton, authored HB 2019, which would outlaw landlord retaliation, but for two sessions in a row, the bill failed to advance. “The Legislature has declined to include an anti-retaliation provision in Oklahoma’s Landlord and Tenant Act,” Legal Aid Services Oklahoma Attorney Eric Hallett said. “Such a provision would support habitability by allowing tenants to hold landlords accountable for willfully failing to provide essential services.”Hallett said landlords can ignore the law without an anti-retaliation statute, risking tenant families’ health and safety.From left: Saundra, Shanon and Stephanie Van Gordon pose in front of the townhouse building they rent units in. The buildings have been cited for numerous city code violations. (Heather Warlick/Oklahoma Watch)The typical language used in anti-retaliatory statutes states that a landlord may not retaliate against a tenant by increasing rent or decreasing services or by bringing or threatening actions against the tenant for complaining to a landlord or government agency about a violation of law. Anti-retaliation laws also protect tenants against landlords who would retaliate when maintenance failures convince the tenant to legally vacate their rental.Buyout Charges a Tool For Landlords  Sometimes, landlords assess seemingly retaliatory fees after tenants move out, threatening their credit scores and future ability to rent a home. Angela Martinez was hit with $2,000 in lease-buyout fees after she ended her lease early and vacated her pest-ridden unit at Urban Oaks at 51st Apartments in Tulsa. Represented by Hallett, Martinez filed a lawsuit against LynCo Properties, the company that manages Urban Oaks at 51st Street. Martinez and her husband, Jordan Martinez, lived in a one-bedroom unit at Urban Oaks for seven years without problems, but when Martinez’s mother became sick, the couple moved into a two-bedroom so Martinez could care for her mother during her last months. That apartment turned out to be a roach-infested nightmare for the Martinez family. “I’ve never seen something so disgusting,” Martinez said. “They were in my fridge. They were in my Tupperware. They were getting inside of things that they shouldn’t have been able to get inside of. I was taking them to work with me. Gosh, it was awful. It was awful.”At night, she would cry herself to sleep, she said.“It was hard to go to sleep when you could feel things crawling on you,” Martinez said.“I felt a little crazy, because the roaches are nocturnal, so if I had to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, or if I got up in the morning and it was still dark, and flip on my kitchen lights, and they would scatter like a cartoon. It was scary.”After eight months of living with American roaches more than an inch long – Martinez said she became a reluctant roach expert –  and with insufficient service from her complex, she decided to exercise her rights under the Oklahoma Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and give the complex 30 days’ notice that she planned to vacate due to the infestation. Martinez, a librarian, extensively researched her rights under the ORLTA and handled her lease termination and move-out with precision. She was upset about losing her deposit but furious when she saw the buyout charges. The Martinezes vacated their apartment on August 31, 2023. Shortly after, Angela Martinez noticed $2,000 in buyout fees assessed to her Urban Oaks LynCo Properties account. Manager Shirly Gomez told Oklahoma Watch that buyout fees are noted in a clause of the complex’s lease and are automatically assessed when a tenant ends a lease early. She said tenants may be able to have the fees removed upon approval. Lease buyout options can benefit tenants who need to move before a lease terms out. But in this case, the fees seem retaliatory since Martinez moved out under the ORLTA. Like Van Gordon, Martinez kept meticulous records of her dealings with management and photos of her encounters with roaches. She shared a text message in which Gomez informed Martinez: “We have processed the move out as a normal move out. There will be no fees waived at this time.” “I was living in this absolutely terrible environment, and then on top of that, they tried to charge me a termination fee,” Martinez said.Hallett sent a refund demand letter to Urban Oaks that got no response. Fighting the ‘Powers That Be’At first, Martinez just wanted the buyout fees removed from her account and she wanted her deposit back. She became increasingly angry about the complex’s treatment and decided to sue for her total rent for the eight months she lived in the roach-infested two-bedroom. A hearing for Martinez’s case is set for October 16. LynCo has filed a counterclaim, asking the court for $1,293, the amount Urban Oaks demanded for the lease buyout fee minus Martinez’s deposit, Hallet said. Inequitable Laws Cause Imbalance of Power“Oklahomans shouldn’t have to risk housing instability or homelessness simply for asking for habitable conditions in their home,” Brown said.Though Van Gordon’s $1,000 settlement didn’t even cover her moving costs, Van Gordon said she hopes to shed light on the need for updated laws in Oklahoma and stop landlords from having carte blanche to treat tenants unfairly.Morris doesn’t want to move; he would prefer his landlord repair his rental and allow him to stay.Angela and Jordan Martinez lost Angela’s mother just weeks after moving out of Urban Oaks. The couple had been saving for a downpayment on a mortgage and recently closed on their own home. Martinez said she grew up living in subsidized housing with her mother, who was often ill. The two felt helpless, she said, to fight the people in positions of power.“Well, now I have a little bit of power,” Martinez said. “Now I have the time.”“I don’t have a lot of money, but I’ve got a little bit of money, so I’m going to pay these court costs. I’m going to fight this,” she said. “I’m going to see what I can do to protect myself. Because they shouldn’t be allowed to do this.” Heather Warlick is a reporter covering evictions, housing and homelessness. Contact her at (405) 226-1915 or [email protected]. More from Heather Warlick Low-income Renters Have Little Recourse Against Bad LandlordsWhile most landlords maintain their rental units to conform to health and building codes, many of Oklahoma’s most vulnerable renters risk fines and retaliation such as being kicked out of their homes when they report extreme disrepair to city officials. For landlords, retaliating against tenants who complain is legal. State Education Department Seeks Bids for 55,000 Classroom BiblesThe Oklahoma State Department of Education is seeking bids for 55,000 Bibles for classrooms with specific requirements. But bid documents indicate they can only be met by versions endorsed by former President Donald Trump or his son, raising concerns about competition and legality. Collaborative Financing to Fuel Tenant Right-to-CounselA loan from Oklahoma Impact Investing Collaborative will bring financing to Legal Aid Services Oklahoma’s right-to-counsel program, guaranteeing legal representation for Oklahomans facing evictions. The post Low-income Renters Have Little Recourse Against Bad Landlords appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.