Not all tenants at Village Creek Apartments know the City of Tulsa put water cutoff notices Monday on their doors. One resident says a maintenance worker removed them.
None seemed surprised the owner, Vesta Capital, hadn’t been paying bills. They spoke of pervasive mold, mounting trash, water gushing into downstairs apartments, broken doors, busted windows and trouble with appliances. They pointed out a top floor apartment had been burned out “for months.”
As of March 13, the City of Tulsa is owed about $785,500 in water bills from more than 200 accounts associated with owners of multi-family properties, according to data obtained by the Tulsa Flyer.
Village Creek is one of them, owing about $14,000 to the city. The landlord has a record, city officials say, of waiting until the very last minute to pay. And all tenants can do is wait.
The city is limited by state law in how it can penalize landlords and landlords have no incentive to pay promptly.
Vesta Capital’s nine properties are responsible for more than half — $421,534 — of the money owed to the city for unpaid multi-tenant water bills.
“We’re in contact with the relevant utility providers regarding the accounts and do not anticipate any interruption to resident services related to this matter,” Vesta’s chief operating officer Ben Didier said in a statement.
Apartment complexes can have their water cut off if their owners don’t pay their city water bill. After three days with no water, the Tulsa City-County Health Department requires residents to be moved.
The residents at Village Creek, which is located near 61st Street and Lewis Avenue, just received their first cutoff notice. It could take a week for the water to be physically cut off. Vesta owes the city $14,247 for water at the property, according to city records.
Two Vesta-owned properties hold the highest delinquent amounts per individual site: Shoreline Apartments, at 21st Street and Interstate 44 ($127,466) and Villas at Midtown Best Living on Skelly Drive west of Lewis Avenue ($71,092).
Other Vesta properties in arrears are:
- Woodland Oaks Apartments, 7142 S. 92nd East Ave. — $89,618
- Woodland Manor senior living community, 8641 E. 61st St. — $51,939
- Riverpark at Kensington, 7803 S. Wheeling Ave. — $25, 299
- Lakeside Place, 2186 S. 99th E. Ave. — $24,515
- Barcelona Apartments, 5160 S. Yale Ave. — $13,762
- One Eton Square, 8111 E. 60th St. — $3,596
City records of delinquent water show most owners in arrears owe less than $1,000 and many of those owners are paying toward the balance. All of those properties have less than nine units.
Most of the outstanding large water bills come down to just a handful of property owners. Other properties owing the city more than $20,000 in utilities are:
- Avery Park Apartments, 3377 E. Skelly Drive, owned by PM Avery Square LLC — $46,650
- Silverstone Apartments, 13195 E. 31st St., owned by Silverstone Investors LLC — $32,604
- Atria, 8601 S. Mingo Road, owned by Mingo Investors LLC — $28,600
- Avondale Apartments, 6760 S. Trenton Ave., owned by Avondale JA Avondale LLC — $25,118
- Savannah Landing, 1001 E. 60th St., owned by Millenia Housing — $23,489
- An apartment building at 3215 S. Winston Ave., Rouven Irom registered agent — $22,719
- Silver Apartments, 2505 S. 87th East Ave., owned by Red Oak Management — $10,907
Vesta’s record
Former resident Shell Dobbins has children and grandchildren living in different units at the property at 6630 S. Zunis Ave. She says the ceiling in one unit caved in wasn’t fixed. Eventually, a Section 8 inspector forced the management to move the tenant, but it took months of complaints.
“This is the worst place I’ve ever lived in,” Dobbins said. “We should have listened to the reviews. I wish none of us had moved here.”
Vesta was founded in 2017 by Marc Kulick and quickly ramped up a portfolio of multi-family properties over Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas. The company has nearly 3,000 units in Tulsa, spread among nine properties.
Vesta properties often pop up on code enforcement calls. And several civil lawsuits alleging nonpayment of millions in loans are pending in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties.
A lawsuit related to the Village Creek Apartments was filed Jan. 9 by CREO, a Delaware limited liability company with its business headquarters in Philadelphia. It alleges that a February 2022 loan of $12.8 million to buy Village Creek Apartments is in default.
Another lawsuit paints a picture of Kulick using a complex system of LLCs to “perpetuate an injustice by shielding Marc and his affiliated entities from liability while they knowingly benefit from unpaid work performed at the property.” That lawsuit was filed March 6 by Rojo Construction and accuses Vesta of not paying $45,000 for work at One Eton Square at 8111 E. 60th St.
‘Incentivized approach’
Tulsa City Councilor Lori Decter Wright helped relocate residents when the Vista Shadow Mountain apartments in south Tulsa were closed in July 2021 after a series of problems involving unpaid bills and unsafe environment.
“It started with a late water bill and ended with the fire marshal and code enforcement having to close it down,” Decter Wright said.
That experience led the city council’s Habitability Working Group to find ways the city can better protect tenants from problematic landlords. It quickly found the Oklahoma Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 2014 stood in their way. The law prohibits cities from programs that license landlords or to even keep a list of problem landlords.
The group developed a program for regular code enforcement inspections of multi-family properties, rather than rely on complaint-based responses.
“It forces us to act with an incentivized approach rather than punitive,” Decter Wright said.
The group is studying the possibility of escalating late fees on multi-family properties, tying code enforcement violations to delinquent utility bills to prompt intervention and considering some properties a community nuisance.
Oklahoma has among the fewest protections for tenants, who often do not report problems out of fear.
“Tenants who just attempt to terminate because that is their only power and feel like that might force the landlord to act find they cannot actually move,” said Eric Hallett of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. “Then, the landlord evicts them for causing problems or evicts them because the tenant didn’t move by the termination date.
“Tenants who call the health department, code enforcement or public housing authority for help before they move often end up in eviction court. There is no protection from retaliation.”
Several Vesta Capital-owned properties are in Decter Wright’s district and have received water cutoff notices in the past two years. Each time, the company waits until the last moment to pay.
“These are vulnerable people who get cutoff notices and can’t do anything about it. It causes them stress and trauma,” Decter Wright said. “And, taxpayers pay for printing of the notices and the staff who go out and put them on the doors.”
‘Live in fear’
Residents in apartments at risk of having water turned off are given notice as a last resort, said city spokesman Carson Colvin. Though tenants aren’t responsible for the payments, the notices are meant to make them aware of the situation.
When a multi-family property is late on a utility payment, a letter is sent to the account holder the day after the due date. If 10 business days pass with no payment, another cutoff letter is sent. If payment is still not received, the process of posting notices begins.
“If it ever gets to this point, we would work to coordinate closely with our outreach partners to assist residents with immediate needs and ensure they are connected to available resources should a cutoff occur,” Colvin said.
The Tulsa City-County Health Department, fire marshal and city code enforcement would be on site to determine safety. Without water service for three days, residents would need to move.
“In Oklahoma, the landlord may be responsible for the utilities, but there is no mechanism for the tenant to enforce the landlord’s duties,” Hallett said. “The tenant’s only option is to pay to obtain water service and deduct the reasonable cost from next month’s rent. They can terminate their lease and move. They can temporarily move out until the water is back on. The rent abates while they are out of the unit.”
Their other option: Suing the landlord for diminution in value. But the tenant cannot force the landlord to turn on the water, Hallett said.
“And until the water is turned off, the tenants’ limited remedies are not available,” he said. “They just live in fear.”
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