Tenant repair requests: a playbook for Oklahoma landlords

Forms

• Repair request form (what, where, when it started, photos, best access times)
• Entry notice template (see section 5)
• Optional: separate written tenant-repair agreement (see section 4)

Practice

Why it matters: the tenant remedies in 41 O.S. §121 (Justia 2025 · OSCN) start with the tenant's written notice. A clean written log shows when you were told and what you did.

• Put 'repair requests must be in writing through the portal or email' in the lease
• Reply the same day with a timeline, even if the fix takes longer
• Turn phone calls and texts into a written ticket yourself

Emergency (now)

• Gas smell, fire or electrical hazard
• Active water leak or flooding
• No heat in freezing weather
• Anything that threatens health or safety

Urgent (fast)

• Loss of hot water, running water, electricity or gas
• AC out in summer heat
• Toilet out when it's the only one
• Broken exterior lock or door

Routine (scheduled)

• Dripping faucet, running toilet
• Appliance not working right but usable
• Cosmetic damage
• Minor pest sightings

Heat, water, electric, gas

• Oklahoma's Act treats heat, running water, hot water, electricity and gas as essential services. If one is willfully or negligently not supplied when the lease or §118 makes you responsible for that service, after written notice the tenant may end the lease immediately, buy the service and deduct the cost, recover damages for lost rental value, or get substitute housing and be excused from rent for that time. 41 O.S. §121 (Justia 2025 · OSCN), subsection (C)

Air conditioning

• If you supply AC, the Act requires you to keep it in safe working order, along with electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilation and appliances you supply. 41 O.S. §118 (Justia 2025 · OSCN)
• Practice: treat a summer AC outage as urgent.

Pests

• The Act requires repairs needed to keep the unit fit and habitable. 41 O.S. §118 (Justia 2025 · OSCN)
• The Act doesn't name pest control specifically. Address it in your lease and ask counsel how §118's habitability duty applies.

Your duties

• Make repairs and do what's needed to keep the unit fit and habitable. 41 O.S. §118 (Justia 2025 · OSCN)
• Keep supplied electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilation, AC and appliances in safe working order. 41 O.S. §118 (Justia 2025 · OSCN)
• Except for single-family homes or units with independently metered utilities: supply running water, reasonable hot water at all times, and reasonable heat. 41 O.S. §118 (Justia 2025 · OSCN), (A)(5)
• You and the tenant can agree that the tenant does specified repairs or maintenance, but only in a conspicuous writing separate from the lease. 41 O.S. §118 (Justia 2025 · OSCN), (B)

The 14-day clock

• For a material breach affecting health or safety, the tenant gives written notice. If it isn't fixed within 14 days, the lease can end on a date at least 30 days after you receive the notice. 41 O.S. §121 (Justia 2025 · OSCN), (A)
• If the problem is uninhabitable or an imminent threat and isn't fixed promptly, the tenant may end the lease immediately with written notice. 41 O.S. §121 (Justia 2025 · OSCN), (D)

Repair-and-deduct

• Allowed when the breach materially affects health and the repair costs no more than one month's rent. The tenant gives written notice; if you don't fix it within 14 days (or as promptly as an emergency requires), the tenant may do the work, give you an itemized statement, and deduct the cost from rent. Before November 1, 2022, the cap was under $100 (Laws 2022, c. 230). 41 O.S. §121 (Justia 2025 · OSCN), (B)

Rent withholding

• This page doesn't cover rent withholding; talk to counsel. If rent goes unpaid, see the 5-day late-rent notice and talk to counsel before acting.

Getting in to fix it

• The tenant can't unreasonably refuse entry for repairs. Outside emergencies, give at least 1 day's notice and enter at reasonable times. In an emergency you may enter without consent. 41 O.S. §128 (OSCN)
• Practice: never shut off utilities or lock a tenant out. A lockout is wrongful exclusion: the tenant can recover possession or end the lease and recover up to twice the monthly rent or twice actual damages, whichever is greater (41 O.S. §123 (Justia 2025 · OSCN)). Willfully or negligently cutting heat, water, electric or gas triggers the tenant remedies in 41 O.S. §121 (Justia 2025 · OSCN), subsection (C).

What the Act says

• None of the tenant remedies in §121 apply if the tenant, their family, pets or guests caused the problem. 41 O.S. §121 (Justia 2025 · OSCN), (E)
• Tenants must keep the unit clean and safe, use facilities reasonably, and not damage the unit. 41 O.S. §127 (OSCN)
• If the tenant's breach can be fixed by repair, replacement or cleaning, serve written notice (delivered as 41 O.S. §111(E) requires); if not fixed within 10 days (or promptly in an emergency), you may do the work and bill the cost as rent on the next due date (or for immediate payment if the lease has ended). If you do the fix, you can't also terminate for that breach. 41 O.S. §132 (OSCN), (A)

Practice

• Photograph the damage before the repair, with the date
• Keep the vendor invoice with the photos
• At move-out, deductions go on the itemized deposit statement: see security deposit rules

Practice

• Get a W-9 and certificate of insurance before the first job
• Set a written spend limit each vendor can approve without calling you
• Ask for before-and-after photos to close the ticket

Every ticket

• Date and time the written request arrived
• Your reply and promised timeline
• Entry notice, if you entered
• Vendor, invoice, before-and-after photos
• Date closed and tenant confirmation