No heat? Then no rent, Oklahoma judge rules as cold tenants protest slow repairs

Tenants in an Oklahoma City apartment complex won’t have to pay their rent until management gets the heat back on.

On Jan. 14, State District Judge Anthony L. Bonner decided to maintain a Jan. 4 order that prohibited the managers of Foxcroft Apartments from evicting residents for not paying rent, asserting that the order will only be lifted once heat is restored to the complex, The Oklahoman reported.

The order is in place as lawyers are preparing a broader injunction, according to The Oklahoman. That injunction, if approved, would not only require the complex’s owners to repair the heat, but would allow residents to leave the complex without causing a breach of a lease agreement, the outlet reported.

In a class action lawsuit filed earlier this month, Foxcroft residents accused managers and others associated with the apartment of knowing the complex had a problem generating heat for at least the last six months, and of being on notice that the entire complex was without heat for at least the last three months.

The defendants, including several property management companies, an Arizona woman, a Dallas bank, limited liability companies and four unnamed business entities identified only as John or Jane Doe, provided tenants a written notice about the lack of heat sometime in September, the petition said.

An attorney representing Regional Management Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

It’s unclear who actually owns the apartment complex, The Oklahoman reported.

Residents provided written notice to one of the management companies urging them to get the heat turned back on, but continued to struggle with the lack of heat for several months afterward, the complaint said.

In order to compensate for the lack of heat, residents resorted to other measures, such as keeping their ovens on with the doors open and incurring excessive electricity costs for doing so, the petition said.

Many of the Foxcroft’s residents, if not most of them, receive Section 8 federal housing vouchers, which are paid directly to the complex’s owners, the residents’ attorneys told The Oklahoman.

The apartment complex had previously attributed the lack of a heat to a gas leak somewhere in the building. An attorney representing the complex’s management company argued in court that the previous owner of the complex never mapped gas lines out, complicating repair efforts, Ryan Owens, one of the attorneys representing Foxcroft residents in the lawsuit, told KFOR.

“The attorney for the property management company kept using, ‘well, we’re being diligent. We’re doing everything we can.’ Well, no you’re not,” Owens told the outlet.

In addition to getting the heat restored, residents also sued the complex’s owner and property management for damages “in an amount to be determined,” according to the petition.

The complex has 188 units and was built in 1971, according to Foxcroft Apartments’ website.

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