The 2900 residents decry unsafe conditions, maintenance neglects reports of mold, water damage

Residents of The 2900 apartments on Oak Tree Avenue said maintenance has been neglecting requests and leaving residents to live in unsafe conditions.

The 2900 is about 10 minutes from OU’s campus and marketed as student housing. The complex features three- to four-bedroom floorplans with rent ranging from $459 to $559 per lease. However, the complex is not student exclusive, renting entire units from $1,557 to $1,836.

Kasey Haze, a former resident of The 2900, said her landlord evicted her and her three children after she refused to pay rent, as first reported by KFOR. Haze told management she wouldn’t pay until the water damage and mold in her apartment were fixed.  

Haze told OU Daily maintenance staff cut a large hole in her ceiling to assess the mold and water damage and never repaired it, leaving Haze and her children at risk of black mold exposure for weeks.  

“They came up like three days later and sprayed bleach, and that's all they did,” Haze said.

Haze also reported some heavy flooding and water damage due to a leak in her apartment. She had requested maintenance to fix that leak several times over months.  

A staff member at The 2900 told OU Daily there was no flooding in Haze’s unit while she was living there. Haze said she told her landlord in October she would withhold her rent until maintenance fixed the damages in her unit. That decision led to Haze’s eviction.

Amy Pepper, assistant professor of clinical legal education at the OU College of Law, said Haze’s decision to withhold rent violated the conditions of her lease.

“I will tell you flat out, Oklahoma law is not favorable to tenants. It is a landlord-favorable set of laws,” Pepper said. “Basically, her not paying rent was terminating the lease. Her not paying rent was not a remedy that’s available to her.”  

Another tenant, Jessica Goode, who has been living at The 2900 since August, said she also has black mold growing in her apartment, and her landlord has refused to do anything about it.  

Goode, who lives in the building with her roommate and three children, has spoken up about the mold and other unsafe conditions in her unit to management.

“We have a venting issue with our dryer that we've told them about (by) putting the maintenance requests,” Goode said. “They completed the maintenance requests and never came back and never fixed it.” 

Goode’s apartment also has a leaking pipe beneath her kitchen sink.

Goode, like Haze, is concerned about her own safety and the safety of her children. In the time since black mold began growing underneath her sink, Goode said she has developed chronic nosebleeds, and her children have developed “a cough that would not go away with allergy medicine.” 

In the past two weeks, Goode said that she has submitted at least four maintenance requests, and all of them have gone unanswered. 

For her case, Haze still plans to take legal action against her landlord.

“I'm gonna hit him where it hurts, and it's their pockets. And maybe that'll teach people you can't treat people like that,” Haze said. “You can't. We're human.” 

This story was edited by Peggy Dodd and Anusha Fathepure. Avery Avery copy edited this story.