Elena Rodriguez’ new landlord evicted her from the apartment she’d rented for a decade, presumably so he could renovate the unit’s dated interior.

Rodriguez wasn’t late on rent; she’d paid a month in advance. But she had no lease; without a contractual agreement, no-cause evictions and so-called renovictions are not prohibited in Oklahoma. Renoviction is a term used to describe a landlord evicting a tenant in order to renovate the rental and increase the rent.

However, Rodriguez, who is disabled, said she thinks the eviction was discriminatory. She said her landlord, J. Patrick Finley, informally evicted her just days after he grilled her about her finances and disability status but ignored her request for permission to install a wheelchair-accessible ramp.

At the Feb.10 hearing, Oklahoma County District Judge Trent Pipes ruled against Rodriguez, ordering immediate possession to her landlord.

Rodriguez decided to buy herself more time to move by appealing her eviction, a risky plan that involved paying a $1,200 bond that will be held by the court, pending the appeal’s outcome.

In Oklahoma, one of the most landlord-friendly states in the country, eviction appeals are rare. Usually, judge’s orders go unchallenged, and tenants are given as little as 72 hours to vacate unless they negotiate more time.

When tenants do appeal, affordable legal assistance can be hard to find.

--- A Tough Break

Rodriguez receives treatment for several serious medical conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, which causes chronic fatigue and attacks her musculature, making the simplest of movements stiff and painful.

Last summer, Rodriguez was visiting with some neighbors in the apartment parking lot when she passed out.

“I went into like a seizure when I fell,” Rodriguez said. “My foot actually didn’t move, and it broke my ankle in three different places.”

Coincidentally, that morning, she’d attended a hearing for disability benefits. She initially became disabled after a workplace accident.

Rodriquez’ broken ankle required surgery and two weeks of hospital recovery. During her hospitalization, her neighbors sponsored a fundraiser to help keep her current on rent.

Rodriguez’ doctor arranged for an electric wheelchair, but the wheelchair has been useless because Rodriguez can’t get it over the wooden steps that lead into her apartment.

--- A Deal on a Fourplex

The fourplex at 613 NW Sixth St. is in an up-andcoming neighborhood. The area bustles with Midtown energy and property values are skyrocketing.

The two-story Craftsman was built in 1910 and later sectioned off into four units. Finley closed on the building in December for $487,500, or about $164 per square foot.

Three of the units have been renovated with fresh paint, new floors and modern appliances, allowing Finley to continue charging market-rate rents of about $1,200 for the one-bedroom units.

Rodriguez’ apartment was never updated. She said she thinks Finley wants her out so he can remodel the unit and rent it for market rate as well.

Renoviction, the practice of evicting tenants in order to renovate their units, is a type of no-fault eviction that presents a loophole to Oklahoma’s landlord-tenant laws that some landlords use to evict legally.

“I would have gladly let him in to remodel,” Rodriguez said. “I would have even agreed to higher rent.”

--- A Bad Time to Be Evicted

At 53, Rodriguez is too young to draw Social Security, but Medicaid covers a visiting nurse, meal service from Mom’s Meals and modifications to her home, such as the ramp for which she’d asked permission.

Rodriguez’ ongoing health problems combined with her new housing instability have left her feeling hopeless. She’s looked into assisted living options because Medicaid covers some, but going from being a relatively young, independent person to assisted living feels extreme to Rodriguez; talking about it brought her to tears.

Still, she needs to have back surgery soon and her money is tied up in her appeal bond, so she can’t afford to pay movers even if she had a place to move to.

“It’s overwhelming, because I’ve got to work on, you know, trying to figure out the attorneys, trying to figure out my rights, trying to figure out, you know, what am I going to do,” Rodriguez said.

It’s going to be hard, she said, to find an apartment that meets her needs for accessibility that also will approve her application with a fresh eviction on her record.

Previous evictions are a top reason landlords reject rental applications, ranked just behind an applicant with a history of violent crimes.

--- Bills Would Update Landlord-Tenant Laws In states with strong tenant protections, it can be difficult to evict a tenant for no cause or to renovate. California and Colorado recently enacted laws prohibiting no-cause evictions and other states have similar just-cause eviction laws, including Oregon and Washington.

Oklahoma law, however, allows most no-cause evictions when the tenant has a month-to-month rental agreement.

Some Oklahoma legislators want to update eviction laws by strengthening tenant protections, as evidenced by three bills banning landlords from retaliatory evictions, another type of no-cause eviction.

Rep. Daniel Pae, D-Lawton, filed HB 2015, which prohibits landlord retaliation and allows tenants to file lawsuits under certain circumstances. As one of only six states without anti-retaliation laws, Oklahoma tenants have little recourse against bad-actor landlords.

Pae also authored HB 2014 , which would allow funds from the Attorney General’s Legal Services Revolving Fund to be used for eviction prevention services such as Legal Aid Services Oklahoma or the HELP Clinic at the Oklahoma City University School of Law.

“I do generally believe that there’s broad agreement that we need to modify and update our statutes when it comes to the Landlord-Tenant Act and housing issues in general,” Pae said.

SB 815, by Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, requires court records to be sealed in eviction cases when the tenant wins or the case is settled before it goes before a judge. In Oklahoma, records of no-fault evictions, renovictions and even cases that end in favor of the tenant remain open to the public.

“People are struggling to pay bills and keep up,” Kirt said. “One mistake should not be on your record forever.”

Kirt’s SB 128 allows more time for tenants to prepare for an eviction hearing after being served a summons. When tenants have time to arrange for childcare and time off work, they are more likely to attend their hearings and avoid losing by default Oklahoma has one of the shortest timelines in the country, Kirt said, and it skews heavily toward speed and encourages eviction.

--- A Rare Pro Se Appeal

If Rodriguez files her appeal by March 9, another hearing date will be set, prolonging the eviction process and allowing her more time to move.

Rodriguez said she likely would represent herself because neither of central Oklahoma’s nonprofits offering free legal assistance for evictions would take her appeal.

Appeals are rare in eviction court. Jenna Pilcher, director of the HELP Clinic at Oklahoma City University School of Law, represented Rodriguez in her initial eviction proceedings.

The HELP Clinic doesn’t take eviction appeals cases, Pilcher told Oklahoma Watch in an email. She has never felt the need to recommend an appeal to a client, she said, because the three Oklahoma County district judges that handle evictions are competent and know the law well.

Since eviction cases usually don’t have court reporters or any other record other than documents, it would be difficult for an attorney who didn’t work the case from the beginning to step in for an appeal, said Ashlee Barker, a staff attorney at Legal Aid Services Oklahoma.

A record can be created via a new trial, assuming there are grounds for such, Barker said. However, a motion requesting a new trial must be filed within three days of the initial judgment.

Rodriguez saved all her text and email communications with Finley. When Oklahoma Watch called the phone number shown on Finley’s texts, the person who answered identified himself as Jim Finch.

Like many landlords, Finley does business under limited-liability company names. Finbaer, LLC evicted Rodriguez. Finley is also associated online with a realty company called Finch Realty, LLC, and is listed as the company’s registered agent with Oklahoma’s secretary of state.

Subsequent calls and emails to Finley and his attorney went unanswered. “The whole situation is messed up,” Rodriguez said.

She said she’s only seeking more time to move. She’s fighting the eviction because she doesn’t want to regret giving in.

“I feel that I have a case as to why I shouldn’t be evicted,” Rodriguez said. “Just by doing the research, I have a gut feeling I can win.”