Wisconsin rental housing laws

What it would do: Voids residential rental agreements containing ten prohibited provisions, allows tenants to void or sever such provisions, and exempts residential leases from the Wisconsin Consumer Act. Provides remedies including double damages for pecuniary losses caused by prohibited provisions.

What it would do: Establishes residents' right to purchase mobile or manufactured home communities with 90-day notice periods, caps rent increases at consumer price index changes (2-4% range), requires evacuation plans, creates tax exclusions for community sales to resident groups, and allows complaints to the Department of Safety and Professional Services.

What it would do: Repeals limitations on political subdivisions' regulation of short-term residential dwelling rentals, eliminating restrictions on how cities, villages, towns, and counties can regulate such rentals.

What it would do: Requires landlords to offer tenants the option to have positive rental payment information reported to credit bureaus, with fees capped at the lesser of actual cost or $10 monthly. Prohibits lease termination for fee non-payment and exempts landlords with 15 or fewer units unless they own multiple buildings and are corporations, LLCs, or REITs.

What it would do: Prohibits landlords from requiring prospective tenants to grant access to credit scores or consumer credit reports, and requires landlords to inform tenants of this right and provide alternative screening methods if tenants decline.

What it would do: Prohibits landlords from charging application fees to prospective tenants. Allows landlords to charge up to $25 for credit reports and background checks only if the prospective tenant does not provide their own report less than 6 months old.

What it would do: Requires the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to promulgate a rent abatement schedule specifying items and amounts for tenant rent abatement. Presumes landlord actions increasing rent, decreasing services, or refusing lease renewal within 12 months of tenant exercising legal rights are retaliatory.

What it would do: Allows cities, villages, towns, and counties to require residential landlords to offer lease renewals with good cause standards, establish lease execution requirements, limit showings to prospective tenants, and provide penalties or relocation assistance for violations.

What it would do: Requires the director of state courts to promptly redact defendants' names from case management information on the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access Internet site when a civil eviction action is dismissed.

What it would do: Increases notice periods for eviction for nonpayment of rent from 5 to 30 days for month-to-month and week-to-week tenants and for leases of one year or less. Modifies provisions regarding acceptance of rent to require tenant payment of all past due rent and court-ordered payments before tenancy can be reinstated.

What it would do: Requires prior written notice to the obligated party before vacating a stipulated judgment of dismissal in eviction actions, and requires an evidentiary hearing before entering the unsatisfied portion of the judgment.

What it would do: Allows landlords to dispose of abandoned personal property left by tenants in any manner they determine appropriate, and requires the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to establish by rule a reasonable rate that landlords may charge tenants for removing, disposing of, selling, or storing such property.

What it would do: Creates a new small claims court action allowing tenants to seek relief from extrajudicial evictions, where landlords remove tenants or belongings without court proceedings. Modifies small claims procedures to apply expedited timelines and requirements to these new extrajudicial eviction relief actions.

What it would do: Requires public utilities and cooperatives to provide utility charge copies to tenants upon request, and requires landlords to disclose utility charges not included in rent, clearly explain allocation methods for shared meters, respond within 14 days to tenant accounting requests, and allow utility payments with rent without separate fees.

What it would do: Creates a grant program for mobile and manufactured home community owners to achieve licensing compliance and for individual home owners to repair and improve homes, funded by $5,000 annual forfeitures imposed on community owners who violate licensing requirements.

What it would do: Creates an Office of Civil Legal Aid overseen by a Civil Legal Aid Board to provide court-appointed counsel at public expense to residential tenants in eviction actions, and appropriates funds for the program's operation and implementation.

What it would do: Amends the definition of tenant at will to clarify that it means any tenant holding with landlord permission without a valid lease and not involving periodic rent payment, excluding persons holding property under purchase or employment contracts.

What it would do: Prohibits selling, licensing, or providing algorithmic software to residential landlords and prohibits using such software to set rental rates or occupancy levels. Allows enforcement by state officials and private tenants with penalties up to $1,000 per violation.

What it would do: Grants immunity from drug possession charges to sexual assault victims and those assisting them, extends the statute of limitations for second-degree sexual assault from 10 to 20 years, and allows tenants to terminate leases without liability if they provide proof of sexual assault without requiring an imminent threat.

What it would do: Prohibits residential rental agreements from containing express provisions that authorize retaliation for contacting services, allow non-judicial eviction, accelerate rent, require tenant payment of landlord's attorney fees, waive landlord liability or habitability duties, or terminate tenancy based on crime victimization. Allows tenants to void agreements or sever prohibited provisions and recover twice actual pecuniary losses plus attorney fees.

What it would do: Creates a landlord fire prevention grant program administered by the department to award grants up to 50 percent of costs for fire prevention measures like sprinklers and extinguishers, with total grants not exceeding $10,000,000, and appropriates $10,000,000 for 2025-26.