Septic and on-site sewage
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. DEQ regulates on-site sewage systems, issues the authorisations and holds the inspection framework, at their on-site sewage page.
Our article on a failed septic system covers what the owner is actually required to do and what a sale needs.
DEQ also publishes guidance relevant to mold and to former methamphetamine manufacturing, both of which come up in property sales and neither of which Oklahoma licenses the remediation trade for.
Oil, gas and buried tanks
Oklahoma Corporation Commission. The Commission regulates oil and gas wells and, through its Petroleum Storage Tank Division, aboveground and underground storage tanks. The Division is at oklahoma.gov/occ.
Our article on an old underground fuel tank covers why you ring them before anybody digs, and our article on an old oil or gas well covers the orphan well list.
The one that pays for work on your land. The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board restores abandoned well sites at no cost to the landowner, and you register the site with them at oerb.com. Their own site has recorded hundreds of referred projects sitting unclaimed because owners never registered.
Mine subsidence
Oklahoma Conservation Commission. Its Abandoned Mine Land Division reclaims abandoned coal mines, including subsidence sites, at conservation.ok.gov.
If a hole has opened, that is a safety matter before it is anything else. Keep people away and ring the Commission before investigating.
Termites and pest control
Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. ODAFF sets the forms and procedure for wood destroying insect reports, including the Oklahoma official report used here rather than the national form. We are not linking the department here because we could not verify a current URL to the standard we hold ourselves to on this page; search for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and use its own site.
Our article on the wood destroying insect report covers when a lender requires one and why your county can decide the answer.
Licensing and who regulates whom
Oklahoma Real Estate Commission. Licensing and conduct of real estate brokers and associates, and where a complaint about a licensee goes, at the Commission's consumer resources, with consumer resources at their resources page.
The Commission's own guidance points consumers elsewhere for other trades, and the map is worth knowing: the Oklahoma State Bar for attorneys, the Oklahoma Appraisal Board for appraisers, the Oklahoma Home Inspector Licensure Board for home inspectors, and the Oklahoma Office of the Commissioner of Banks for banks, mortgage companies and mortgage brokers.
Our article on broker relationships in Oklahoma covers what a broker actually owes you under the Act the Commission administers.
Tax, records and history
Oklahoma Tax Commission publishes the ad valorem forms, including the valuation protest forms. The current informal protest form sits at oklahoma.gov.
Oklahoma Historical Society maintains cemetery records. We are not linking a URL here because we could not verify a current one to the standard this page holds; search for the Society and use its own site. It matters if a burial site turns up on a parcel. Our article on Oklahoma statutes themselves are published by the Legislature and through the courts network, and every statutory reference on this site can be checked against them.
Wells, plugging and what a surface owner is dealing with
An unplugged or abandoned well on a property is one of the few things that can genuinely frighten a buyer, and the information available to owners is poor. Here is what is actually established, with the source.
The regulator is the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Oil and gas wells in Oklahoma are regulated by the OCC, which is the body to approach with a question about a well on or near your property.
There is a plugging fund. Where a well poses the risk of pollution and the responsible operator cannot be found or is financially unable to pay for plugging, the Commission may plug that well using its plugging fund. That is the mechanism behind every story you have heard about a state plugged well, and the two conditions in that sentence are the ones that matter: a pollution risk, and an operator who cannot be made to do it.
Operators post security. An operator is required to post a 25,000 dollar Category B surety toward plugging costs, which can be increased to a maximum of 100,000 dollars. Those figures explain why orphaned wells exist at all: the security is not necessarily the cost.
There is more money in the system than there used to be. The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed on 15 November 2021, provided 25 million dollars to Oklahoma for plugging abandoned wells with an estimated further 281 million potentially available, and Senate Bill 852, signed in 2023, amended 52 O.S. section 310 to let the Commission create a framework for carbon offset credits generated by plugging abandoned wells and use that revenue for further plugging.
Source for all of the above: the Oklahoma Bar Journal, May 2024, "Overcoming Oklahoma's Orphaned and Abandoned Well Problem". Programmes, funding and figures change, and that article does not state what a landowner's own remedies are, so we are not asserting any. Ask the Commission, and take legal advice if there is a live pollution or access problem.
What this means for a sale. A visible wellhead, a tank battery, a pad or an access route is something a buyer will see and ask about, and it is a material fact. Produce what you know early: what is on the land, whether it is active, who the operator was if you know, and whether anything is recorded. Our page on selling a house with acreage covers the minerals and leases side, and selling land in Tulsa covers bare parcels.
What to have in front of you before you ring any of them
Every office on this page answers questions about its own slice and nothing else, and the fastest way to a useful answer is to arrive with the right identifiers. Have these written down before you dial:
- The parcel or account number from the county assessor. Every search is easier with this than with an address
- The legal description, copied exactly, lot and block and addition or section, township and range. Our page on Tulsa County property records explains how to read one
- The address as the office holds it, plus any former address format if the street was renamed or renumbered
- The owner name exactly as it appears on the deed, including middle initials and former names
- Any case, permit, licence or instrument number you have ever been given
- Dates, in order, of whatever happened
- Which county, because the Tulsa metro spans several and the wrong county is the most common reason for a wasted morning. Our page on county offices by town sorts that out
Two habits worth adopting. Ask for the answer in writing where it matters, especially anything involving a balance, a deadline or an approval. And keep a log of every call with the date, the name and any reference number, because these matters are settled on the record rather than on recollection.
And one warning. Ask every office whether the property is actually within their jurisdiction before you take their answer as final. Properties in unincorporated areas are county rather than city matters, and a confident answer from the wrong office is worse than no answer. Our page on City of Tulsa property offices covers the city side of that line.
A caution about this page
Checked in August 2026 and reviewed every six months. State sites are reorganised and agencies are occasionally renamed or merged.
No telephone numbers, deliberately. Each agency publishes its own current number, and a wrong number on a page about a leaking tank or a denied claim is worse than no number at all.
