Just A Landlord

A lot has changed in Milwaukee County eviction court over the past nine months. Recently a property owner we do work for faxed in a five-day notice she filled out herself, requesting we give it to the attorney and proceed with an eviction.

Our staff immediately noticed two problems with the notice that would cause the eviction to fail:

1. The owner listed late fees on the notice
2. She had used an older “fill in the date” 5-day notice. The date she entered was five days after the day she mailed it certified.

I had to call the owner and tell her she needed to start over with a new five day. She was upset and said this was the last financial straw – she is ready to walk away from the properties.

While hopefully she rethought this, it reminded me of the need to post these changes again so the rest of us do not make the same mistakes.  So what are these are  changes … (more…)

I was listening to NPR while clearing some paperwork off my desk.  They had a half  hour segment “How We Survive: Renters, Rights, and Resistance”

Under the guise of protecting tenants from foreclosure related evictions the speakers were  promoting just cause eviction laws – starting with CA but their goal is nationwide.  Let’s face it in most foreclosures the tenants live rent free for months.

More alarming was the second half the program where they discussed tactics used to avoid eviction for non-payment. (more…)

As a rental property owner in Milwaukee the following items should rank high on your list of concerns. (Just a draft) (more…)

This will be has been posted shortly at the Courthouse:

PLEASE NOTE

In Small Claims Eviction cases, you may only sign complaints and appear in court on behalf of a property owner if you are one of the following:

· The property owner (if the property is not owned by a corporation/limited liability corporation)

· A full time employee of the property owner
· An attorney

Employees of management companies or other outside service providers may not sign complaints or appear on behalf of property owners.