HB 2015 Oklahoma House · 2025 Regular Session

Landlord and tenant; landlord's breach of rental agreement; providing tenant may bring action; liability for damages; withholding payment of rent in certain circumstances; procedure; effective date.

HB 2015 strengthens tenant rights in Oklahoma by allowing tenants to address landlord failures to maintain health and safety standards. If a landlord doesn’t fix serious issues (like lack of heat or plumbing) within 14 days of written notice, tenants may deduct repair costs (up to one month’s rent) from rent or withhold rent for larger repairs, placing funds in a separate account. Landlords cannot pursue eviction for nonpayment while tenants legally exercise these remedies. The bill also clarifies that tenants can immediately terminate leases for uninhabitable conditions or seek damages up to two months’ rent if landlords fail to act. It takes effect November 1, 2025.

Issues: ✓ Housing

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 3, 2025 Last action Feb 24, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Proposed Committee Substitute (full committee) 1 → Proposed Policy Committee Substitute 1 · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was renamed from 'Proposed Oversight Committee Substitute' to 'Proposed Policy Committee Substitute', indicating a shift in committee oversight. The most significant substantive change is the addition of a new provision prohibiting landlords from filing eviction actions for nonpayment of rent when tenants are properly exercising remedies for landlord noncompliance. This strengthens tenant protections by preventing retaliatory evictions while tenants seek repairs or other remedies.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded to include explicit protection against eviction actions for nonpayment of rent when tenants are exercising their rights to withhold rent or terminate leases due to landlord noncompliance.

ENFORCEMENT

New provision prohibiting landlord eviction actions for nonpayment of rent when tenants are properly exercising remedies under the bill

TECHNICAL

Changed committee designation from 'Oversight' to 'Policy' in document headers and titles

Updated request numbers from 13042 to 12698 in page footers

Changed date stamp from February 28, 2025 to February 19, 2025

Removed blank lines and formatting inconsistencies from original document

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 24, 2025

Lower · Passed

Policy recommendation to the Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight committee; Do Pass, amended by committee substitute Civil Judiciary

lower

Feb 4, 2025

Committee

Referred to Civil Judiciary

lower

Feb 3, 2025

Introduced

First Reading

lower

2 primary · 0 co-sponsors