When Cassandra Rhodes arrived home to her Drexel Flats apartment, a notice from Oklahoma City greeted her, stating her water would soon be shut off.
On June 30, white sheets of paper marked with the city seal stuck to every door throughout the complex, which is owned by Tulsa-based Vesta Realty.
Rhodes paid her bills, but the landlord didn’t. In Tulsa, Vesta-owned properties across the city are missing dumpsters, signs the trash bill went unpaid. Trash piled up outside, and tenants were left without answers.
As trash mounts in Tulsa complexes, and tenants’ water access is threatened in Oklahoma City, tenant attorneys said these examples show why Oklahoma’s tenant protection laws must be addressed.
The language of Oklahoma’s Residential Landlord-Tenant Act is vague, which leaves the law open to interpretation that often favors the landlord, said Victoria Wilson, the co-director of Oklahoma City University’s Tenant Rights Clinic. This leaves tenants with little recourse against problem property managers in situations where essential services are not provided.
Frustrated tenants
Rhodes was angry about the apartment conditions, but not surprised by the water shutoff notice. It’s so common that she had saved water shutoff notices from months prior. She had one from December, one from February and one from April.
“It’s every month, and he didn’t pay the bill again,” Rhodes said. “Why can’t he pay his part?”
Rhodes was referring to Vesta Realty Chief Executive Officer Marc Kulick.
Kulick is being sued by his business partner, who claims that Kulick used the business for personal enrichment while hiding its true financial conditions from investors. Kulick is a high-stakes gambler who owns a 9,060-square-foot home on 2.53 acres of land that the Tulsa County Assessor valued at $1.7 million in 2025.
Two communities took drastic action to address a lack of utilities at Vesta properties. In February, Stillwater declared the Remington Ranch apartment complex a public nuisance after months without heat and water.
On July 9, Jenks followed suit, declaring two Vesta properties, the 727 Lofts and THRIVE Apartments, a nuisance for trash piled up at the properties.
While Stillwater and Jenks have taken action, tenants in the Tulsa area are awaiting remedies.
Tyler Brittain, a longtime tenant of the Barcelona Apartments in Tulsa, said that he called the offices to find out about the missing dumpsters, but all he got was a voicemail box.
Brittain has lived in Barcelona for four years and recalled several problems, including a lack of air conditioning, that arose from the management of the complex. He said that he first noticed the dumpsters were missing last Monday, and that throughout the week, the trash has been piling up.
That was when he tried contacting the complex, but he didn’t get a response.
“It’s been crazy quiet,” Brittain said. “Vesta has basically abandoned the apartment complex.”
Vesta Realty declined Oklahoma Watch’s request for an interview.
Essential services
An attorney representing Vesta told the Tulsa television news station News on 6/KOTV that the waste management company suddenly dropped Vesta Realty, and that is what is causing the problems.
This is not the first time trash has piled up at a Vesta property. In March, Oklahoma City television news station KFOR-TV reported that dumpsters had gone missing from Drexel Flats, and residents received water shutoff notices in March.
Also in March, the Tulsa Flyer reported that more than half of the money owed to the city for unpaid multi-tenant water bills came from nine of Vesta Realty’s properties.
Greg Beben, an attorney with Legal Aid Services Oklahoma, said in Oklahoma, tenants have very few options when a landlord isn’t paying a city for a service, such as water.
“The tenants in this situation are innocent third-parties to the contract between Vesta and the city for the water,” Beben said.
This leaves tenants with one option: break the lease.
“If the landlord is not providing an essential service, and, of course, water is a very essential service, tenants under the Oklahoma Residential Landlord-Tenant Act would have the right to immediately terminate their lease with written notice,” Beben said.
Rhodes lives on a fixed income. Not only would it be challenging for her to move, but her daughter, who is on disability, lives in the same complex. Rhodes said moving is not an option for them right now.
Beben recognized that reality.
“Unfortunately, for a lot of tenants who are renting from Vesta, a lot of those tenants might be lower-income tenants,” Beben said. “They might not have the resources to just pick up and move and pay a new security deposit and cover all the little costs that go along with the move. That’s just the reality a lot of people face.”
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
