Oklahoma Administrative Code
Title 710 - Oklahoma Tax Commission
Chapter 10 - AD Valorem
Subchapter 5 - Homestead Exemption
Section 710:10-5-3 - What constitutes residence and domicile; temporary absence

(a) Legal residence. A person's legal residence must be the place for which a homestead exemption is sought and the person must actually be residing there, as of January 1st assessment date. In most cases, a person cannot obtain the exemption if the home was rented on January 1st. The one exception is that a person in the Armed Services in the time of war, or during a National Emergency, or his family, is not required to be residing on the property and may even rent the property and still receive the exemption, if properly claimed.

(b) Effect of absence. Temporary absence for the purpose of making a visit or for other purposes, where the home is not rented and the owner intends to return to the home within a reasonable length of time and does not establish what could properly be considered to be a permanent residence elsewhere, will not serve to deprive the owner of a homestead exemption. For example, a school teacher may own a home and maintain it for her mother and herself, although for nine months of the year, she is absent from the home, teaching, provided the home is not rented or closed during her absence and she returns during vacation months. In such a case, she is entitled to homestead exemption. In any case where a person is absent from his home and rents his home during his absence, and if the home is rented on the first day of January, the applicant cannot obtain an exemption. [See: Op. Att'y Gen. issued 03-17-54]