March 7, 2018

Landlord Tenant Law

We frequently get questions about landlord / tenant law. The main resources on our website are legal topics pages on Landlord/Tenant law and Small Claims. Our legal topics pages provide links to resources and forms that may help answer basic questions about the law.

Here are some common types of questions and the websites we often use to answer them.

Eviction

Many people have questions about eviction procedures, or understanding the different types of notices.

An eviction notice chart from the Milwaukee Justice Center provides a clean and easy-to-read format for understanding what type of notice must be given for each type of lease, and violation.

We also often refer users to the Tenant Resource Center's eviction page. It can be a bit difficult to read because of the way it color codes its guide based off of recent law changes. However, it discusses some aspects of eviction in detail and links to the Wisconsin Statutes and Administrative Code in each section. Information about the different types of notices begins about a quarter of the way down the page under "Types of Notices." This page also discusses how the landlord may deliver notices and how tenants may respond to the notice. 

Forms

We resell residential lease and eviction notice forms that are created by the Wisconsin Legal Blank company. Users can purchase copies from us (see: Forms for sale) but these forms can also be bought online from Wisconsin Legal Blank. Sometimes forms like residential leases or eviction notice forms can also be bought from your local office supply store. 

Milwaukee County has 5, 14, and 28 day eviction notices for their residents on their website. 

Complaints

Different agencies may be involved depending on the type of complaint. For general consumer complaints, contact the WI Bureau of Consumer Protection to file a Landlord/Tenant Complaint

Fair Housing (housing discrimination) complaints are handled by the WI Equal Rights Division, or by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on the federal level. See HUD's page on fair housing for more information on their complaint procedure.