Oregon Landlord Repair Laws: Deadlines and Tenant Remedies

Oregon landlord repair laws, set out in ORS Chapter 90, require your landlord to keep the rental habitable throughout the tenancy and to fix problems on strict deadlines once you give written notice: 48 hours for an essential-service failure that creates an immediate danger, 7 days for other essential-service failures, and 30 days for everything else that affects habitability. If the landlord misses the deadline, you have several enforcement tools, and none of these rights can be waived in a lease.

What Your Landlord Has to Maintain

ORS 90.320 lists the conditions a rental must meet. If the unit “substantially lacks” any of them, the landlord is in violation regardless of lease language. The required minimums cover weatherproofing of the roof, exterior walls, windows, and doors; working plumbing connected to an approved sewage system, with safe hot and cold running water; heating equipment that meets the code in force when it was installed; electrical wiring and fixtures that meet the code in force when installed; working smoke alarms and, where a source is present, carbon monoxide alarms provided at the start of each new tenancy; and working locks on all entrance doors plus latches on accessible windows. Any access-control system must have at least one alternative way to unlock it.¹

Anything the lease adds on top of these minimums is equally enforceable once the landlord agrees to it.

Cooling

Buildings with construction permits issued on or after April 1, 2024, must include adequate cooling in at least one room other than a bathroom, whether from central air, a heat pump, or a landlord-provided portable unit.²

In older buildings that don’t require cooling, ORS 90.320 still bars landlords from prohibiting tenants from installing their own portable cooling devices. A landlord can restrict a unit only if it would violate building codes, exceed the electrical system’s capacity, block the only emergency-exit window, or risk falling or water damage. You don’t need permission to plug in a portable AC unless one of those narrow exceptions applies.³

What Counts as an “Essential Service”

The label matters because it controls how quickly your landlord has to act. Oregon defines essential services as heat, plumbing, hot and cold running water, gas, electricity, light fixtures, exterior door locks, window latches, and any cooking appliance or refrigerator the landlord supplies or is required to supply. The definition also sweeps in any other service whose absence poses a serious threat to health, safety, or property.⁴

Because the definition is open-ended, a broken front door, a failed sump pump in a flood-prone basement, or a malfunctioning fire escape can qualify depending on the facts, even when they aren’t listed by name.

How to Request a Repair

Under ORS 90.360, the formal process starts with written notice. The notice must describe the specific defect and its location and state that the rental agreement will terminate if the landlord doesn’t fix it within the allowed time. Date it. Keep a copy. If this ends up in court, that notice is the single piece of evidence that proves the landlord knew about the problem and had a chance to act.⁵

ORS 90.155 accepts personal delivery, first-class mail (which adds three days to every deadline for transit), or mail plus attachment to a location the lease specifically designates. Email counts only if you and the landlord signed a separate written addendum, after the tenancy began, listing each party’s email address and including the statutory disclosure. Either party can revoke email consent with at least three days’ notice. Without that signed addendum, an emailed request has no legal effect.⁶

The Repair Deadlines

48 Hours: Imminent Safety Threat

When an essential-service failure creates an immediate and serious danger to health, safety, or property, you can give written notice that the lease terminates in not less than 48 hours unless the landlord fixes the problem within that window. This is the fastest tool in the statute and reaches situations like a complete loss of heat in winter or a gas leak. Radon, asbestos, lead-based paint, and future flood or seismic risk are expressly excluded from the “imminent threat” category.⁷

7 Days: Essential Services

For essential-service failures that aren’t emergencies, the landlord has 7 days from receipt of your notice to make the repair. Your notice must set a termination date at least 30 days after delivery. If the landlord completes the repair within 7 days, the termination is cancelled.⁵

30 Days: Other Habitability Problems

For habitability defects that don’t involve an essential service, the landlord gets 30 days to fix the problem, with the same termination structure. There’s a shorter path for repeat failures: if substantially the same problem returns within six months of your original notice, you can terminate with 14 days’ written notice.⁵

If you send notice by first-class mail, add three days to whichever deadline applies.

What You Can Do If the Landlord Doesn’t Fix It

Remedies for Essential-Service Failures

When a landlord intentionally or negligently fails to provide an essential service, ORS 90.365 gives you three options after written notice and a reasonable time to respond. You can hire someone to restore the service and deduct the reasonable cost from your next rent payment. You can claim damages based on the reduced rental value of the unit for as long as the service is out. Or, if the failure makes the unit unsafe or unfit, you can move to comparable temporary housing, stop paying rent during the noncompliance, and recover any cost of the substitute housing that exceeds your normal rent. A landlord who is making a good-faith effort to restore the service and has substantially supplied it in the meantime has a defense.⁷

Repair and Deduct for Minor Defects (Up to $300)

ORS 90.368 offers a narrower self-help remedy for smaller problems, like a leaky faucet, clogged toilet, or broken light switch. If the repair can reasonably be completed for $300 or less, a tenant can arrange the work and deduct the cost from rent. The requirements are strict, and skipping any of them can turn your deduction into unpaid rent and expose you to eviction:

Give the landlord written notice that describes the defect and states you will have it repaired and deduct the cost if it isn’t fixed by a specified date at least 7 days later.
You cannot do the work yourself. Someone else must make the repair, and it must meet building codes and be done competently.
The landlord may specify who does the work, so long as the choice is reasonable and doesn’t undermine your rights.
Give the landlord a written statement from the person who did the repair showing the actual cost before you deduct.

The $300 ceiling applies to total cost, not per item. Mold, radon, asbestos, and lead-based paint are excluded from “minor habitability defect” and cannot be handled this way. You also can’t use this remedy if you caused the problem, knew about it for more than six months before giving notice, already used the remedy for the same occurrence, or prevented the landlord from repairing it.⁸

Damages, Court Orders, and Counterclaims

ORS 90.360 lets tenants recover damages and obtain a court order for any violation of habitability standards or the lease. Small claims court handles disputes of $10,000 or less.

The most useful courtroom tool is often the counterclaim under ORS 90.370. If the landlord sues for unpaid rent or files a nonpayment eviction, you can counterclaim for what the landlord owes you under the lease or statute. The court offsets the two amounts. If your counterclaim wipes out the claimed rent, judgment goes in your favor and the eviction fails. You must show the landlord knew or should have known about the problem before filing. If the court orders you to pay rent into the court during the case and you don’t, you lose the right to assert the counterclaim, so comply with any payment order even while the dispute is pending.⁴

Retaliation Is Illegal

Under ORS 90.385, a landlord cannot raise your rent, cut services, threaten eviction, or file an eviction because you complained about conditions, reported a code violation, joined a tenants’ organization, or exercised any other legal right. If any of those actions happens within six months of your complaint, Oregon law presumes it was retaliatory and the landlord has to prove a legitimate reason. Proven retaliation is a complete defense to eviction and can support damages under ORS 90.375. It is not available if you were already behind on rent when the eviction notice arrived, or if you or your guest caused the code violation.⁹

This is why dates and copies matter throughout. A written repair request followed two weeks later by a rent hike or termination notice tells a clear story. Without the paper trail, that story is much harder to prove.

When the Landlord Doesn’t Have to Fix It

Repair obligations run both directions. ORS 90.325 requires tenants to use rooms for their intended purpose, keep the unit reasonably clean, dispose of garbage safely, test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms at least every six months, replace batteries, notify the landlord in writing when a detector fails, and refrain from tampering with alarms or sprinkler heads. If a habitability problem is the result of the tenant’s own negligence, the landlord doesn’t have to fix it at no cost, and the self-help remedies above are unavailable for that defect.¹⁰

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 90.320 – Landlord to Maintain Premises in Habitable Condition
2
Oregon Public Law. ORS 90.320 – Landlord to Maintain Premises in Habitable Condition
3
Oregon Health Authority. Tenants Have the Right to Install Portable Cooling Devices
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 90 – Residential Landlord and Tenant
5
Oregon Public Law. ORS 90.360 – Effect of Landlord Noncompliance With Rental Agreement or Obligation to Maintain Premises
6
Oregon Public Law. ORS 90.155 – Service or Delivery of Written Notice
7
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 90.365 – Failure of Landlord to Supply Essential Services – Remedies
8
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 90.368 – Repair of Minor Habitability Defect
9
Oregon Public Law. ORS 90.385 – Retaliatory Conduct by Landlord
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Oregon Public Law. ORS 90.325 – Tenant Duties