Tim Ballering’s Landlord Links

Tim Ballering — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:59:14 +0000

These are the reference links I use everyday
- Tim Ballering, Affordable Rentals Milwaukee, WI

ATCP 134 (known by many as the Ag rules) is the section that has caused owners the most grief. If you mess up here you face double damages and have to pay your tenant’s attorney. Read this and then reread it to insure that your practices are in complaince. The Department of Consumer Protection “Wisconsin Way provides a plain english review of this law.

Three & One Company v. Geilfuss, 178 Wis. 2d 400, 504 N.W.2d 393 (Ct. App. 1993), the Wisconsin Court of Appeals found that tenants who allowed their cats to use the unit as a litter box committed waste. If waste is found the owner is entitled to double the damages pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 844.19.
Baierl d/b/a Supreme Builders v. McTaggart, Wis. Supreme Court, Case #98-3329 (2001). Because a lease contained a provision specifically prohibited by ATCP 134, the landlord could not enforce the lease against the tenant. The court declined to sever the illegal provision and enforce the rest of the lease, because that would undermine the policy behind ATCP 134.
Dawson v. Goldammer In Dawson v. Goldammer, 2003 WI App 3 (Dawson I), the court of appeals held that a tenant may seek enforcement of a rental agreement that includes an attorney fee provision that violates Wisconsin Administrative Code section ATCP 134.08(3). In the case at bar, the court held that when a tenant seeks enforcement of such a lease, the tenant can sever the attorney fee provision and enforce the remainder of the lease. The court therefore reversed the part of the circuit court’s judgment that awarded attorney fees to the landlords, but it affirmed the circuit court’s rulings on all other disputed grounds (see ¶ 1).

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