The Wisconsin Landlord Tenant Law Omnibus bill was signed into law by Governor Scott Walker around 4 PM March 21st, 2012. You must be in compliance with the provisions for tenancies entered into beginning April 1st.
One thing the bill does is add a new prohibited lease provision:
There is a lot of frustration among owners with changes to the eviction procedures in Milwaukee County. It seems something changes every month, all to the detriment of owners who just want to get rid of freeloading tenants.
The Apartment Association wishes to quantify what problems are of the greatest concern to owners then see what can be done to correct the problems. Some will be reasonably easy to fix, some not so.
You can post your comments here or if you are a bit shy email me directly at: Tim@ApartmentsMilwaukee.com
I’ll start the discussion:
The law says ‘the court can’t issue a stay on eviction, without the tenant paying all past due rent.’ * But the courts give out stays like neighbors give out candy on Halloween.
* Obviously laws are not that concise, what it actually says is:
799.44(3) Stay of writ of restitution. At the time of ordering judgment, upon application of the defendant with notice to the plaintiff, the court may, in cases where it determines hardship to exist, stay the issuance of the writ by a period not to exceed 30 days from the date of the order for judgment. Any such stay shall be conditioned upon the defendant paying all rent or other charges due and unpaid at the entry of judgment and upon the defendant paying the reasonable value of the occupancy of the premises, including reasonable charges, during the period of the stay upon such terms and at such times as the court directs. The court may further require the defendant, as a condition of such stay, to give a bond in such amount and with such sureties as the court directs, conditioned upon the defendant’s faithful performance of the conditions of the stay. Upon the failure of the defendant to perform any of the conditions of the stay, the plaintiff may file an affidavit executed by the plaintiff or attorney, stating the facts of such default, and the writ of restitution may forthwith be issued.
On August 25th we evicted a tenant. The court stayed the writ (a court order for the Sheriff to remove the tenant) until August 28th. On September 6th we turn the eviction into the Sheriff, who performs the move on September 14th.
The day following the move we receive notice that the tenant has filed bankruptcy on the 7th – the day after we turned in the writ. This was followed the next day by a notice that she is demanding a hearing in Federal Court, seeking sanctions against us alleging we violated the automatic stay granted by bankruptcy by not stopping the move.
So what is the law?
Fellow landlords
What services, tools, resource, supplies, innovations, changes in laws, grants, education, support from fellow owners etc. do you find lacking, unavailable, too expensive, too difficult to obtain, change etc.?
You get the idea…what do you see as the three, four or twenty things that would make your business more successful? Skies the limit. If it has to do with landlording or real estate investing throw it on the list.
Don’t worry if you think it is “doable” or not, Wild Ideas welcome and encouraged. But also don’t put off posting the more pedestrian needs and wants either.
You can leave comments, here or via private email to me at Tim [at] JustAlandord.com (makes sending the truly wild and innovative stuff easier for shy folks like me.) I’ll compile the list for all to see.
Some will have readily available solutions that will be posted and shared, I’m sure. Others are things our industry should be working on finding, changing, designing etc.
Some rather thought provocative comments below. Many of these were sent via email or posted on one of the list serves and reposted here as a central collection place. Please throw yours into the mix — Thanks Tim
Attorney Tristan Pettit is presenting the Landlord Boot Camp again this February. Prior Boot Camps were very well received, with positive feed back from all that attended
After reading the “5-Day, 14-Day or 28-Day, Which notice do I use?” post, AASEW Attorney Heiner Giese suggested I should have used a more visual approach. As usual Heiner was right.
Eviction Notice Matrix |
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Type of Agreement
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Problem |
Month to Month |
Lease (1 year or less) |
| Non Payment of Rent | 5-day or 14-Day | 5-Day* |
| Non Payment of Deposit, Late Fees or Other charges | 14-Day | 5-Day* |
| Violation of Rental Agreement | 14-Day | 5-Day* |
| Drug or Gang Activity Letter from Police | 5-Day Drug/Gang | 5-Day Drug/Gang |
Notes:
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Improper service of the notice is one of the most common causes of an owner losing an eviction.
There are three basic methods to properly serve a notice. Do it wrong and lose the eviction case. The proper ways to serve the notice are:
All eviction actions begin with a properly served notice to vacate. In Wisconsin these are typically 5, 14 and 28-day notices. If you use a rental agreement or lease with a longer notice period the 28-day notice is replaced by a notice with the length of time contained in the lease or agreement, often 45 or 60 days. The type of notice you will use depends on the reason that you wish the tenant to vacate and the type of rental agreement that you have with the tenant.
So what notice do you use?
The following is a basic outline of the steps required for an eviction. These instructions and forms are optimized for Milwaukee County, however most are valid statewide.
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Disruptive tenants only get worse the longer they are allowed to act poorly without intervention. A tenant who is falling further behind in their rent is less likely to be able to pay off their balance as time goes on. Owners who succeed address the problems quickly. Either the tenant resolves it, moves or the owner evicts.
The problem for a lot of owners is they are intimidated by or unsure of the process. Here is an overview / outline
Wisconsin CCAP (The WI Circuit Court Automation Program), which is under attack by some legislators, provides free access to WI evictions, criminal and civil court cases. This is invaluable in checking out prospective tenants, thereby avoiding nonpaying and disruptive tenants.
What resources are available for similar screening searches outside of WI? I have attached the list of the ones we have identified. Our list currently has resources for about half the states, but not all counties in all of those states. Some are free as is WI, others we have found so far are fee based.
So let’s “crowdsource” a more complete list. The results will be shared here for all of us to use when screening out of state tenants. If you have found other or better resources please post them to the comments on this page. I will update this list and repost it as additional resources are identified.
Continue reading to see the list we already have assembled . Clicking on a state’s name will take you to that point on the list.