Problems multiply for Cleveland Co. tenant with no heat

NOBLE, Okla. (KFOR) - A Cleveland County woman is saying her landlord is letting her home fall apart.

First, it was no central heating in the midst of the state's deep freeze, and now she said she's having water and sewage problems.

"Oh, boy, it's been hectic," said Tamara Roberts.

She said her experience with her rented mobile home on 152nd St. in Noble started on a terrible foot. 

Roberts said her landlord took the central heating out of the trailer home before she moved in in early October. She said she was told the heating wasn’t working anymore and that she’d have to provide her own.

An attorney told KFOR it’s illegal for an Oklahoma landlord not to provide heat for a tenant. They can make the tenant pay for the heat, but heat must be provided.

KFOR reached out to Roberts' landlord about the matter on Dec. 19 but she did not respond to us.

Well, Roberts said the sub-zero windchills that came through brought more than just frigid nights for her, her boyfriend, and their two kids.

"I've had no water at all," she said Monday morning. "When the storm came in, it froze our pipes."

They endured eleven days with no running water due to busted pipes. 

Roberts showed KFOR a screenshot of the landlord requesting help with the pipe repair, saying, "Do you have any money you can give the maintenance guy for parts? We don't have any maintenance money with it being the end of the month."

This frustrated Roberts greatly.

"I've never in my life had a landlord ask me to buy anything for a house ever," she said. "That's pretty crazy, you know? I just don't understand it. It's unbelievable."

Then, Roberts walked us to her front yard to show us a flowing stream of sewage, where she said she's even spotted toilet tissue.

"I had septic that's running in my yard I found out, which is pretty disgusting," she said, referring to septic tank problems that have arisen. "And you can smell it just standing out here. It's pretty bad."

With no money to move, she's afraid of how much worse matters will get.

"I think they're slum lords," she said. "I think that they just don't care about their tenants."

Roberts' water did finally get fixed Monday, but when we messaged the landlord about the ongoing heating situation, she told us the owner is handling it.

When we asked for the owner's contact info, we got no further response.