| Tenant Protected Actions |
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| Landlord Retaliatory Actions |
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| Penalties for Retaliation |
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When Is It Illegal for Landlords to Retaliate in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma is one of the only states where landlord retaliation is legal. Landlords can generally retaliate against tenants. It’s legal to evict or change the rental terms in response to something the tenant does, as long as the response is legal in general.
What Can Tenants Do in Response in Oklahoma?
Tenants can’t respond to retaliation unless the landlord does something which prevents the use of the property for its intended purpose. If this happens, the tenant can claim constructive eviction and move out. This ends the lease. Evidence of the landlord’s retaliatory intentions makes it easier to prove constructive eviction.
Sources
- 1 Baptist General Convention v. Wright, 136 Okla. 150, 154 (Okla. 1929)
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“[A]ny disturbance of the tenant’s possession by the landlord or by some one under his authority, whereby the premises are rendered unfit for occupancy for the purpose for which they were demised, or the tenant is deprived of the beneficial enjoyment of the premises, amounts to a constructive eviction, if the tenant abandons the premises within a reasonable time… There can be no constructive eviction without a surrender of possession by the tenant; a tenant who continues to occupy the premises for an unreasonable length of time after the acts or omissions that constitute a constructive eviction waives the eviction and cannot thereafter abandon the premises and assert it.”
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