The Oklahoma legislature considered a handful of bills this session written to address landlord-tenant laws.Only one of those bills is still alive. Senate Bill 128 by Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, extends the eviction timeline, a change that could reduce evictions in the state by adding time fo r tenants to prepare before an eviction hearing. The bill would implement a period of 10 days between filing an eviction and a scheduled hearing, adding time for tenants to settle their debt or make arrangements to appear in court. That would add an extra five days to existing law, a change state and national advocacy groups said can also result in fewer default judgments against tenants who don’t show up for court. While eviction reform isn’t a strictly bi-partisan issue in the Oklahoma Legislature – the bill’s House author, Lawton Republican Daniel Pae, also filed an anti-retaliation bill this year as did Rep. Mark Tedford, R-Tulsa – Kirt said many legislators are also landlords themselves and concerns center on preserving property rights and contractual agreements.  “It is in the interest of landlords to have paying customers occupy their private property,” Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, told Oklahoma Watch by email. “If a landlord must enter into eviction proceedings, the agreed upon terms have already been broken. Delaying further those eviction proceedings serves only to drive up the cost of the private property holder and incentivizes delinquent tenants to further delay.”Sen. ​​Jonathan Wingard, R-Ada, told Oklahoma Watch by email that he was concerned the bill would hurt small businesses. A Matter of Interpretation Those concerns aren’t lost on Kirt.“I try to start from that place of knowing that this is not an easy issue, and I don’t think there’s a perfect line there between property rights and societal need, but that we are skewed too heavily towards eviction,” Kirt said. Even adding five days could make a big difference on reducing evictions, which is better for families that might be evicted, but also better for landlords, because they don’t have to turn that unit over and lose that money.”Sen. Brian Guthrie, R-Bixby, said OS 41-6 and OS 41-7 already require 10 days between an eviction filing and hearing.  “If the lease has been less than three months, then a five-day notice is required,” Guthrie told Oklahoma Watch by email. Because of the ambiguous use of commas, the laws are somewhat vague, leaving questions about whether the three-month period mentioned refers to the length of tenancy or the amount of time in arrears.OS 41-6 states “If a tenant, for a period of three (3) months or longer, neglect or refuse to pay rent when due, ten (10) days’ notice in writing to quit, shall determine the lease, unless such rent be paid before the expiration of said ten (10) days.”OS 41-7 states “If a tenant, for a period of less than three (3) months, shall neglect or refuse to pay rent when due, five (5) days’ notice, in writing, to quit, shall determine the lease, unless such rent be paid before the expiration of said five (5) days.”Kirt said she wouldl look into whether SB 128 is redundant with the statutes Guthrie cited.SB 128 passed in the state Senate 26 to 19. The bill is headed to the House of Representatives. Oklahoma Policy Institute said a slower moving and more expensive eviction process could result in fewer tenants facing serial eviction filings. At $58, Oklahoma has one of the lowest eviction filing costs in the nation. A defeated bill by Rep. Ellen Pogemiller, D-Oklahoma City,  HB 1129, proposed raising the fee to $100. “The ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of unnecessary filings in our courts,” she said.Some lawmakers, she said, had trouble understanding how raising the cost to file an eviction could result in fewer evictions.Alabama’s $247 eviction filing fee illustrates how high filing fees can thwart property managers and landlords who might otherwise use the court system and eviction filings as rent-collection tools. According to Eviction Lab data, Alabama’s 2018 eviction rate was just 3.8%, less than half the 7.8% national average. “That higher price changes landlords’ economic calculus and encourages them to work with their tenants rather than turning immediately to the courts,” Eviction Lab said on its website. Oklahoma Watch recently investigated property managers who filed repeated evictions in 2024 on tenants who were behind on rent. The state’s low filing fee makes eviction court an affordable rent-collection tool for landlords who file serial evictions, more than one eviction in a year against the same tenants.  Several bills banning landlords from retaliating against tenants, including those by Pae and Tedford, failed to garner the attention of lawmakers, leaving Oklahoma one of only six states where landlords are free to retaliate against tenants without consequences. Without laws preventing retaliation, tenants have little recourse against bad-actor landlords. Another Kirt bill, Senate Bill 815, which would have removed or sealed court records of dismissed eviction cases, wasn’t heard in committee. Kirt said she plans to run a version of that bill again next year. Pogemiller said that as a freshman legislator, she’s learning quickly about the effects of eviction on her constituents and how certain actions, such as raising the cost of evictions and installing anti-retaliation laws, are necessary to combat the rise of evictions in the state, yet difficult for some Oklahoma lawmakers to grasp.“It was harder than I thought to get that message across to the members at large,” she said. Kirt said lawmakers need to hear more from constituents who want eviction laws changed. Lobbyists abound who represent the interests of landlords in Oklahoma, she said, but tenant-rights advocates are far less common. “One of the most shocking things I found was the difference in how we treat owners versus tenants if they’re behind financially,” Kirt said.The fastest a foreclosure can happen, she said, is five months. A tenant can be evicted in five days. “We give the benefit of the doubt to homeowners,” Kirt said. “We assume they should get a chance to catch up, and that they should have a due process. “And meanwhile, we don’t give any of that grace to renters.” Heather Warlick is a reporter covering evictions, housing and homelessness. Contact her at (405) 226-1915 or hwarlick@oklahomawatch.org. More from Heather Warlick Oklahoma Lawmakers Hear Few Eviction Bills, Advance OneThe Oklahoma legislature considered a handful of bills this session written to address landlord-tenant laws. The Serial EvictorsOklahoma’s top evictors are serial filers, using repeated eviction filings to extract rent and extra fees some experts say are exorbitant and potentially illegal. Disabled and Evicted, Oklahoma Tenant Buys Time with AppealWhen a disabled Oklahoma City woman was evicted for no cause, she bought herself time with an appeal while she investigated whether she had a federal discrimination claim. 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