The exterior of an apartment complex on NE Killingsworth Street from the parking lot, pictured on Monday, June 27, 2022.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian

After nearly 100 Oregonians died in last year’s sweltering heat wave, the state Legislature passed a bill giving tenants the right to have air conditioning units in their apartments.

But as the region faces another heat wave this week, some Oregon renters say their landlords have nonetheless threatened them with fines or eviction for using certain types of cooling units.

Even as the state scrambled to deliver portable air conditioning units to residents through a program aimed at protecting older adults, people with medical conditions and homebound people from the heat to avert another wave of deaths, other tenants said they’re being barred from taking precautions against heat illness even at their own expense.

On Monday, as temperatures grazed 100 degrees and with the worst of the week’s heat wave still to come, residents of a Tigard apartment complex received a notice that window air conditioners were prohibited. The email reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive said tenants who failed to remove the units could be fined $50.

“It’s not a comfort thing, it’s literally survival,” said Sunny Sidman, a resident of the complex. “I know some people living in this complex are older, or have little kids. It’s very concerning.”

The following day, Sidman said property managers sent a follow-up email saying they would allow window cooling units. They did not offer an explanation for the reversal, and a manager for the apartment complex declined to comment before hanging up the phone.

Tenants at Haworth Terrace, a Newberg apartment complex, told KGW News that they had received eviction notices this month because they were using window units. The Yamhill County Housing Authority, which operates the low-income housing complex, told KGW that they were legally required to comply with federal building standards and that some of the AC units did not meet those standards. The agency’s director said it was giving residents extra time to come into compliance given the looming heat wave.

The Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 1536 in March, establishing tenants’ right to have cooling units in their homes. The bill requires landlords to allow most types of air conditioners in rental housing and prohibits blanket bans on AC units.

A slew of tenant advocacy groups pushed for the bill, and the region’s largest apartment industry group, Multifamily NW, took a neutral stance and posted an alert for their members online outlining the new rules.

The rule includes a long list of exceptions, however. If an AC system violates building codes or prevents a window from locking, for example, a landlord can prohibit its use.

Troy Pickard, an attorney specializing in landlord-tenant litigation, said it would be hard for landlords to collect fines or terminate leases because the state law requires landlords to give tenants 14 days to fix lease violations such as a prohibited AC unit. And if a landlord’s restrictions don’t meet the requirements of the new law, they can’t use it against a tenant in court.

But many tenants aren’t aware of the new law, tenants’ rights advocates say, or fear retaliation for pushing the issue.

“A renter would have a hard time arguing with a landlord about whether or not the unit was a fire hazard or if it would overload a power grid,” Kim McCarty, the executive director of the Community Alliance of Tenants, said in an email. “So renters will often give up quickly after being told no.”

Pickard said the consequences of violating the air conditioning rules, even under the protections the new law, can be dire for tenants.

“If it goes wrong for the tenant, you get forced out of your home and have an eviction judgement on your record,” he said. “Just like many other landlord-tenant laws we have, it’s often easy for a landlord to bully a tenant who is unknowledgeable, or not willing to expose themselves to that risk. And it’s doubly true for people who are undocumented.”

Most of the Oregonians who died during last year’s heat wave were renters.

According to a 2019 housing survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 86% of owner-occupied homes in the Portland metro area had any air conditioning, compared to 66% of renter homes.

Of those with air conditioning, 65% of rental homes relied on room air conditioning such as window or portable AC units, while most owner-occupied homes had central air conditioning.

Pickard said he expects to see an increase in landlord-tenant disputes over cooling units in the coming weeks.

“I think there are a lot of tenants who before the heat wave might not have had AC at all, and certainly not installed,” he said. “Now people are getting them, and that’s going to trigger landlords to respond.”

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