2022 Oklahoma Housing Conference

By: J. David Chapman/September 29, 2022

I was honored to speak at the Oklahoma Coalition for Affordable Housing’s 2022 Housing Conference. I presented the Oklahoma Landlord Tenant Act. The purpose of the session I presented was to give landlords and tenants an understanding of legislation affecting tenancy and to be able to deal with legal issues without a lawyer and improve the landlord/tenant relationship.

The Oklahoma Real Estate Commission requires any person, who for a fee, commission or other valuable consideration, lists, sells, offers to sell, buys/offers to buy, exchanges, rents/leases, solicits listings of places for rent or lease, or solicits for prospective tenants, purchasers or sellers have a real estate license. Exemptions to this are those performing the tasks for themselves, acting as attorney-in-fact, those acting as a trustee, a resident manager, or an employee of a corporation or government agency working on company or agency real estate. The Real Estate Commission sees a lot of violations where unlicensed individuals perform activities that require a real estate license.

I also covered document retention stating that brokers must maintain all records and files for a minimum of five years after consummation or termination of a transaction. We discussed security breaches where unauthorized access and acquisition of computerized data maintained by a licensee was covered.

Under Oklahoma law, landlords must disclose specific information to tenants such as prior flooding, identity of anyone authorized to act on the landlord’s behalf, lead-based-paint disclosure for structures built prior to 1978, and if you hold a real estate license you must disclose that you are a licensee. Proper procedures for security deposit limits and return policies were discussed as well as late fees, tenant rights to withhold rent, termination and eviction, and landlord access to properties.

Over the last two years we have seen a tangible uptick in the problems tenants encounter with affordable housing options. The reasons for increased problems seem to be the COVID-19 pandemic, historic inflation and rising prices that are passed onto consumers and tenants, and an increase in nonresident ownership of single-family/multifamily properties.

Some issues we are seeing are prompting discussion and action from lawmakers such as serial evictions (mostly in the Tulsa market), lack of action or repair to address habitability concerns like heat, air, water, mold etc., rising prices and less affordable inventory options, and landlord complaints regarding loss of income during eviction moratoriums.

J. David Chapman is professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).