Landlord Atlas

What must a Wisconsin landlord disclose to a tenant, and what must the lease say?

Verified September 11, 2026 All Wisconsin topics →

Every Wisconsin residential lease must carry the notice of domestic abuse protections the statute writes out, and a landlord who leaves it out of a lease that also allows termination for a crime loses the whole agreement.

Cited to Wis. Stat. § 704.01 (1), (2) and 24 more cited sources · Verified September 11, 2026

Before signing, the landlord must put the owner's and manager's names and in-state addresses in writing, disclose any known uncorrected code violation that threatens health or safety along with six named habitability conditions, and say whether water, heat and electricity are outside the rent and how shared charges are split; copies of the lease go to the tenant at the time of agreement, and a check-in sheet at the start of occupancy, which the tenant has seven days to return. Ten kinds of clause, including any that makes the tenant pay the landlord's attorney fees, make the entire agreement void rather than merely being struck out. Wisconsin requires no flood disclosure and no mold, bed-bug, radon, methamphetamine or asbestos disclosure; its only lead duty applies to an owner who has voluntarily certified a property as lead-safe; and its cities may not add disclosure requirements of their own.

Wisconsin lease disclosures at a glance

Which law governs Wisconsin splits this topic between a statute and an administrative rule, and the rule carries most of it. Chapter 704 of the statutes is the landlord-tenant chapter: it defines a lease to include an oral agreement, sets the statute-of-frauds conditions for a lease of more than a year, prescribes the domestic-abuse notice every residential rental agreement must include, creates the check-in-sheet duty, and voids a residential rental agreement that contains any of ten listed provisions. Chapter ATCP 134 of the administrative code, Residential Rental Practices, carries the identity disclosure, the copy duty, the condition and utility disclosures, the receipts, the check-in procedures and a near-verbatim parallel of the void-provision roster; it is an order of the department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection under section 100.20, so a violation of the chapter is enforced through the private double-damages action in section 100.20, subsection 5. Section 704.95 keeps the department from changing by rule any right or duty arising under chapter 704. Chapter ATCP 134 excludes seven categories of dwelling unit; chapter 704 excludes campground occupants.
Who is covered Two layers, and they matter because most duties sit in the administrative rule. Chapter ATCP 134 does not apply to a unit operated by a public or private institution where occupancy is incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, educational, counseling, religious or similar services; a unit occupied by a member of the fraternal or social organization that operates it; a unit occupied under a contract of sale by the purchaser; a hotel, motel or boarding-house unit rented only to tourist or transient occupants; a unit provided free of charge or as consideration to an employee who operates or maintains the premises; a unit occupied by a tenant engaged in commercial agriculture on the premises; and a unit owned and operated by government or a government agency. On top of that, the identity disclosure alone does not reach an owner-occupied structure containing no more than four dwelling units; no other duty in the chapter carries that exemption. Chapter 704 does not apply to occupants and guests of a licensed campground or camping resort, and the check-in-sheet section does not apply to the rental of a manufactured-home or mobile-home lot, which has its own page. The domestic-abuse notice in section 704.14 is the one duty with no exemption at all: it reaches every residential rental agreement in the state.
Written lease, copy and signature rules

No statute requires a residential lease to be in writing beyond the statute of frauds, so an oral tenancy is lawful. The landlord must give the tenant a copy of the lease; the statute sets no day count.

No statute requires a residential rental agreement to be written: the chapter's own definition covers an agreement whether oral or written, and an oral tenancy is lawful. A lease of more than a year that fails the statute-of-frauds conditions does not simply vanish; a tenant who enters into possession under it becomes a periodic tenant, month to month where rent is paid monthly, and an unwritten agreement must be proved by clear and convincing evidence. Where there is a written agreement, the copy duty sits in the administrative rule and comes in two stages: the agreement and any landlord rules, if written, must be furnished to a prospective tenant for inspection before the agreement is entered into and before any earnest money or security deposit is accepted, and copies must be given to the tenant at the time of agreement. There is no day count to work with, and no statute or rule prescribes a type size, a boldface passage, a placement or a plain-language standard for a dwelling lease; the boldface and underline requirements in section 704.90 belong to self-service storage space, which the same section bars from residential use. No lease or notice must be given in a language other than English.

Statute of frauds: A lease for more than a year, or a contract to make one, is not enforceable unless it meets the conveyance formalities of section 706.02 and in addition sets out the amount of rent or other consideration, the time of commencement and expiration, and a reasonably definite description of the premises; alternatively a writing signed by the landlord and the tenant, expressly including electronic mail or a facsimile, setting out the rent, the duration and a reasonably definite description will do where the commencement date is established by the tenant's entry into possession under it (section 704.03, subsection 1).

Electronic leases and signatures: Wisconsin's electronic-transactions act, chapter 137, makes a record or signature valid despite being electronic, and nothing in it excludes a residential lease, so an electronic lease and signature are good. Two limits matter. The act stands aside, to the extent federal law excludes it, from a notice of default, acceleration, repossession, foreclosure or eviction, or of the right to cure, under a rental agreement for an individual's primary residence. And section 704.10 makes electronic delivery in this topic opt-in rather than automatic: a landlord may deliver the copy of the rental agreement and related documents, the security deposit paperwork, a promise made before the initial agreement to clean or repair, and an entry notice by electronic means only if the rental agreement itself contains a provision permitting it. The statute-of-frauds writing may be an electronic mail or a facsimile on the face of section 704.03.
Owner and agent identity

Yes — an administrative rule requires the landlord to disclose the owner's or managing agent's identity to the tenant, in the lease or in a separate writing.

The landlord must disclose to the tenant in writing, at or before the time the rental agreement is entered into, the name and address of two people: the person authorized to collect or receive rent and to manage and maintain the premises, who can readily be contacted by the tenant, and the owner or other person authorized to accept service of legal process and other notices and demands for the owner. The address given for that second person must be an address inside Wisconsin at which service of process can be made in person. The rule says only that the disclosure be in writing, so it may sit in the lease or in a separate writing; there is no posting alternative and no telephone number is required. The landlord must keep the tenant informed of changes and must mail or deliver written notice of each change within ten business days after it occurs. An owner-occupied structure of four units or fewer is exempt from this disclosure, and from this one only. Failure is a violation of the department's residential rental practices order, which carries the private action in section 100.20, subsection 5, for twice the pecuniary loss with costs and a reasonable attorney fee, and the department may also proceed under sections 100.20, subsection 6, and 100.26. Wisconsin has no statewide landlord or rental registration; section 66.0104 caps what a municipality may require to one owner or contact name, an address, a telephone number and an electronic mail address where available, with a one-time registration fee of no more than ten dollars a building and no fee at all outside a first class city, and no tenant-facing notice flows from any of it.

If the landlord fails to comply: the tenant may recover damages and a fine or penalty applies. Threshold: Does not apply to an owner-occupied structure containing no more than four dwelling units; beyond that, the seven exclusions from chapter ATCP 134 apply.
Required statements and lease text

No — no state document or statement of tenant rights must be handed over; what the state prescribes is text the lease itself must carry.

Wisconsin hands over no booklet, summary, handbook or agency form at signing, and no statute or rule prescribes one. What it prescribes is a single block of text the lease itself must carry: the notice of domestic abuse protections in section 704.14, whose words the statute sets out and which may sit in the agreement or in an addendum. That is why the answer is prescribed lease text rather than a prescribed document. Two landlord-written documents carry rule-prescribed titles, NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISIONS for an enlarged entry right and NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISION for a lien or property-holding agreement, but each exists only where the landlord chooses to take that clause, so neither changes the answer and neither is published by an agency. The lead-safe pamphlet and reporting form a lead-safe certificate brings with it are hazard documents and are described in the hazard table. Wisconsin has no list of subjects a lease must address: the four items a lease of more than a year must state are conditions of enforceability against the parties, not a duty owed to the tenant, and they are described with the written-lease rules.

Required item:

NOTICE OF DOMESTIC ABUSE PROTECTIONS — words or content the lease itself must carry. Every residential rental agreement in Wisconsin must include this notice, either in the agreement or in an addendum to it, and the statute sets out its words. The notice tells the tenant three things: that a tenant has a defense to an eviction action where the landlord knew or should have known the tenant is a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking and the eviction is based on conduct related to it committed by someone who was not the tenant's invited guest, or by an invited guest against whom the tenant has sought an injunction or whom the tenant has barred in a written statement to the landlord and not since invited back; that a victim may have the right to end the rental agreement in limited situations and should contact a local victim service provider or law enforcement where there are safety concerns; and that the notice is only a summary, with the statutes governing in all instances. The section states no penalty of its own. The sanction arrives only through the void-provision roster: an agreement that lets the landlord end the tenancy for a crime committed in relation to the rental property and does not include this notice is void and unenforceable in its entirety. Given at signing and on renewal, inside the lease itself. The statute fixes the words. (Wis. Stat. § 704.14)

Listed, but not a general duty counted above:

NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISIONS (entry beyond the ordinary rule) — a document the landlord must supply that no agency publishes. A rental agreement may let the landlord enter the dwelling unit at reasonable times in circumstances the entry rule does not otherwise allow, but only through a separate written document the landlord writes and titles NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISIONS and gives to the tenant. The landlord must specifically identify and discuss the provision with the tenant before the tenant enters into any rental agreement. If the tenant signs or initials it, the law presumes, rebuttably, that the discussion happened and that the tenant agreed. The document may be pre-printed. No agency publishes it and no wording is prescribed beyond the title, so this is listed here but does not make Wisconsin a prescribed-document state: it exists only where the landlord chooses to take broader entry rights. Entry notice itself is on the entry page. Given before signing, handed over. Typography: The rule prescribes the document's title, in the plural, and requires it to be separate from the rental agreement. Threshold: Only within the scope of chapter ATCP 134, and only where the landlord takes an entry right beyond the ordinary rule. (Wis. Admin. Code § ATCP 134.09(2)(c)) Not counted as a general duty.

NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISION (landlord's lien or property-holding agreement) — a document the landlord must supply that no agency publishes. A Wisconsin landlord has no lien on a tenant's property and may not seize or hold it except under the named statutes or by express agreement of the parties. An express agreement must be executed in writing at the time of the initial rental agreement, in a separate written document the landlord writes and titles NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISION, given to the tenant and specifically identified and discussed before the tenant enters into any rental agreement. The agreement is not effective unless the tenant signs or initials it. The title is printed in the singular here and in the plural for the entry document; both are reproduced as the rules print them. Listed but not counted, because it exists only where the landlord chooses to take such an agreement. Given at signing, handed over. Typography: The rule prescribes the document's title, in the singular, and requires it to be separate from the rental agreement. Threshold: Only within the scope of chapter ATCP 134, and only where the landlord takes a lien or property-holding agreement. (Wis. Admin. Code § ATCP 134.09(4)(b))
Move-in condition report

Yes — the landlord must give a written condition statement, checklist or inventory.

A landlord must provide a new residential tenant, when the tenant commences occupancy, with a check-in sheet the tenant may use to make comments about the condition of the premises, and the tenant has seven days from commencement to complete and return it. The duty does not depend on a deposit being taken. It is not a walk-through and not a jointly executed condition report: no signature is required from either side, no agency prescribes the sheet and the statute fixes no categories, only that it be a sheet the tenant may use for comments on condition. The landlord need not provide it again on renewal, and it does not reach the rental of a manufactured-home or mobile-home lot, which has its own page. Section 704.08 states no consequence for failing to provide it, and because the duty sits in the statute rather than in the department's residential rental practices order, the double-damages action does not reach it. Two further duties run alongside. Before accepting a security deposit, or converting earnest money into one, the landlord must notify the tenant in writing that the tenant may inspect the unit and tell the landlord of pre-existing damage or defects, and may ask for a list of damages or defects charged to the previous tenant's deposit, by a stated deadline no earlier than seven days after the start of the tenancy; the landlord may require that request to be in writing. If the tenant asks, the landlord must give a list of all physical damages or defects charged to the previous tenant's deposit, whether or not they have since been repaired, within thirty days after receiving the request or seven days after telling the previous tenant about the deductions, whichever is later, and need not reveal the previous tenant's identity or the amounts withheld. Those two duties sit in the department's order, so the double-damages action does reach them.

When and who signs: The landlord must provide the check-in sheet when the tenant commences occupancy; the tenant then has seven days from the date occupancy commences to complete it and return it. Nobody signs it.

Deposit notice at signing: Wisconsin prescribes no deposit statement at signing beyond the written notice of inspection rights described above; the twenty-one-day return, the itemized statement of amounts withheld and the withholding limits are in section 704.28 and in section ATCP 134.06, subsections 2 to 4, and are covered on the security-deposits page.
Hazard disclosures

Two in-force state hazard disclosures: lead-safe materials owed to a tenant of a registered lead-safe property (before signing, within a stated period, and by posting); and known code violations and the six habitability conditions (before signing). Also on the books: certificate of lead-safe status — a registry or certificate owed to the state, with no disclosure to the tenant; no state duty exists for mold, bed bugs, radon, methamphetamine, or asbestos.

Every state duty and every stated absence, hazard by hazard:

Certificate of lead-safe status (a filing with the state) — a registry or certificate owed to the state, with no disclosure to the tenant (a statute and an administrative rule). An owner may have a property certified as lead-safe by the department of health services and pay the statutory fee for the certificate, and the department tells the local health department quarterly which certificates of lead-free and lead-safe status it has issued. The certificate itself is owed to the state, not to the tenant, and nothing about it need be shown to anyone renting the unit. It matters here only because taking one switches on the tenant-facing duty in the next row. Threshold: Voluntary. Nothing requires a Wisconsin landlord to seek a certificate, and a property without one carries no state lead duty at all. If the registration is not made: Chapter DHS 163 is enforced by the department itself, through the actions and appeal route in sections DHS 163.30 to 163.33. No tenant remedy attaches to the certificate.

Lead-safe materials owed to a tenant of a registered lead-safe property — in force — a state duty, before signing, within a stated period, and by posting, on an agency document (an administrative rule). Where an owner has had a property certified as lead-safe, the owner must see that a lead-safe information pamphlet and a reporting form reach an adult or other responsible occupant entering into a tenancy, delivered in person, by post or by delivery service. The reporting form is the occupant's route for reporting deteriorated paint, a failed enclosure, encapsulation or covering, or another potential lead hazard; it asks for the reporter's name and contact details, the location and a short description of the problem, the date the form is delivered, and, if the occupant chooses to say, whether a child under six lives there. Materials must go out before the tenancy starts, before the rental agreement is entered into, or before earnest money or a deposit is accepted, whichever is later; distribution must be complete within sixty days after the certificate is issued; and where the certificate runs for three years or more the materials must go out again no later than every thirteen months while the tenancy continues, unless the owner posts the pamphlet in each covered dwelling unit instead. A parallel limb covers a tenancy with no rental agreement, reaching an occupant of sixteen or over in possession for thirty consecutive days or more where materials have not gone to other occupants of the unit in the previous twelve months, and the department also issues posters for a child-occupied facility and for premises that are not dwellings. The pamphlet must be obtained from or approved by the department; the reporting form must be obtained from the department or must ask for the same information. No tenant signature is required. Threshold: Only where the owner holds a certificate of lead-safe status for the property, and only for a dwelling unit or premises occupied by someone other than the owner or the owner's immediate family. There is no general duty tied to the building's age. Document: Lead-safe information pamphlet, and the form for reporting deteriorated paint, failure of an enclosure, encapsulation or covering, and any other potential lead-based paint hazards, issued by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Revision: No revision date could be established. The rule requires a pamphlet obtained from or approved by the department and a reporting form obtained from the department, and gives the department's lead pages as the place to find both, but neither document appears on those pages or in the publications library they carry, so no printed edition, date or title beyond the rule's own description is available. The publications library is the page checked weekly. Agency page. If the duty is not met: The rule states no tenant remedy. Chapter DHS 163 is enforced by the department through the actions and appeal route in sections DHS 163.30 to 163.33.

Mold — no state duty. No Wisconsin statute or rule requires a landlord to say anything about mold. The word does not appear in the landlord-tenant chapter, in the residential rental practices order or in the environmental health chapter, and the six habitability conditions a landlord must disclose before signing do not include it. Wisconsin does name mold once, in the statute governing local rental inspection: a unit that contains excessive mold is a habitability violation for that purpose. So a city inspector may act on mold that a landlord need not mention.

Bed bugs — no state duty. Wisconsin has no bed-bug disclosure, no history duty and no inspection-record duty. The term appears nowhere in the landlord-tenant chapter, the residential rental practices order or the environmental health chapter, and the statutes' own subject index carries no bed-bug entry at all. An infestation is a repair and habitability question, covered on the habitability page.

Radon — no state duty. No radon disclosure is owed to a Wisconsin tenant. What the state has instead is an information program: the department of health services develops and distributes radon information and runs a measurement program for educational facilities. The radiation-protection rules use the word only in technical definitions and impose nothing on a landlord. A seller's condition report does ask about radon, but that form belongs to a sale.

Methamphetamine — no state duty. Wisconsin has no methamphetamine disclosure statute and no contamination or remediation regime that produces one. The term appears nowhere in the landlord-tenant chapter, the residential rental practices order or the environmental health chapter, and the statutes' subject index resolves it only to treatment programs, the controlled-substances schedules and a data system. One related point cuts the other way: the statute that otherwise bars a municipality from making a landlord tell tenants anything beyond state or federal law leaves an opening for an ordinance with a reasonable and clearly defined objective of regulating the manufacture of illegal narcotics.

Asbestos — no state duty. No Wisconsin statute or rule requires an asbestos disclosure to a tenant. The state's asbestos provisions are testing fees, certification and management planning in the environmental health chapter, and certification, training and work practices in the health department's asbestos rules; neither body reaches a landlord or a lease.

Known code violations and the six habitability conditions — in force — a state duty, before signing (an administrative rule). Wisconsin's substitute for named-hazard disclosures is one broad condition duty, and it is wider than most states'. Before entering into a rental agreement or accepting any earnest money or security deposit, the landlord must disclose to the prospective tenant any building code or housing code violation that the landlord actually knows about, that affects the unit or a common area, that presents a significant threat to the prospective tenant's health or safety, and that has not been corrected. The landlord must also disclose six conditions affecting habitability, whether or not code enforcement has said anything, where the landlord knows of them or could know on the basis of reasonable inspection: no hot or cold running water; heat that is unsafe or cannot hold sixty-seven degrees Fahrenheit; no electricity or unsafe wiring; structural or other substantial hazards; plumbing not in good operating condition; and sewage disposal not in good operating condition. No form, no writing and no signature is prescribed. Knowledge standard: Actual knowledge for a building or housing code violation; for the six conditions, what the landlord knows or could know on the basis of reasonable inspection, whether or not code enforcement has given notice. Threshold: Applies within the scope of chapter ATCP 134. The owner-occupied four-unit exemption reaches only the identity disclosure and does not reach this duty. If the duty is not met: A violation of the department's residential rental practices order gives the tenant the action in section 100.20, subsection 5, for twice the pecuniary loss with costs and a reasonable attorney fee; the department may also proceed under sections 100.20, subsection 6, and 100.26, subsections 3 and 6.
Flood disclosure

No.

Wisconsin requires no flood disclosure to a renter of any kind: not a zone determination, not a flooding history, not an insurance advisory. The landlord-tenant chapter and the residential rental practices order do not use the word. The state's residential condition report does ask an owner about flooding and floodplain status, but the chapter that requires it reaches only a person who transfers real property by sale, exchange or land contract, so it never touches a lease; that asymmetry is the whole of the Wisconsin answer. The state's floodplain statute is a zoning provision directed at counties, cities, villages and the department of natural resources, and says nothing about tenants or leases.
Disclosures about the property's situation Two duties, and the first runs backwards from the pattern most states use. Sex offender registry: a landlord or the landlord's agent has no duty to disclose to anyone, in connection with a rental, that a particular person must register as a sex offender or anything else about the registry. But if someone asks for that information in connection with a rental, the landlord or agent must disclose it where the landlord or agent actually knows it. A landlord who wants protection has an optional route: give the person asking timely written notice that the information can be obtained from the department of corrections, including that department's telephone number and internet site, and the landlord is immune from liability for any act or omission related to the disclosure (section 704.50). Condominium conversion: residential real property may not be converted to a condominium unless the owner gives prior written notice of the conversion to each tenant of the buildings scheduled for conversion. For sixty days after the notice is delivered the tenant has the first right to purchase the unit if it is offered for sale in that period, at the price it is offered at, the price in an accepted offer, or a price agreed with the seller; the tenant may not be required to vacate for one hundred and twenty days after delivery unless the tenant breaks a lease covenant or fails to pay rent; and the tenant may waive either right in writing (section 703.08). Nothing else in this family is required: no death or psychological-impact disclosure, no demolition-permit notice, no military ordnance or noise-zone notice, and no pending-sale or foreclosure notice at the lease stage. One neighboring rule is a prohibition rather than a disclosure: no landlord may rent or advertise for rent premises that have been placarded and condemned for human habitation, or that are subject to a notice of intent to placard and condemn or an order to raze or to rehabilitate or raze, until the repairs needed to bring the property into compliance are complete.
What need not be disclosed None — no statute says a fact about the property need not or may not be disclosed in a rental, or bars a claim over its non-disclosure.
Utility, fee and payment disclosures Five duties, all in the department's residential rental practices order except the renewal reminder, which sits in both the order and the statute. Utilities: if charges for water, heat or electricity are not included in the rent, the landlord must disclose that before entering into a rental agreement and before accepting any earnest money or security deposit; and where individual units and common areas are not separately metered and the charges are not in the rent, the landlord must also disclose the basis on which the charges will be allocated among units. That second half is Wisconsin's answer to ratio billing, and it is the allocation basis itself that must be told, not merely the fact of separate billing. Non-rent charges: a landlord may not, for the purpose of inducing a person to enter into a rental agreement, misrepresent the amount of rent or non-rent charges, and may not fail to disclose, in connection with any representation of a rent amount, the existence of any non-rent charge that will increase the total the tenant pays during the tenancy. It is a disclosure duty written as a prohibited practice, it is not limited to the lease document, and it carries the double-damages action. Receipts: immediately on accepting earnest money or a security deposit the landlord must give a written receipt stating the nature and amount of the deposit, except where payment is by a check bearing a notation of its purpose and the tenant has not asked for one; and a written receipt is owed for any rent paid in cash, though not for rent paid by check. Promises made before the lease: every promise that the unit or premises will be cleaned, repaired or improved must state the date or period for completion, every promise made before the initial rental agreement must be in writing with a copy furnished to the tenant, and where a delay is caused by something beyond the landlord's control the landlord must give the tenant timely notice of the reason and of when the work will be finished. Automatic renewal: a provision renewing or extending a lease automatically unless notice is given cannot be enforced against the tenant unless the landlord gives the tenant separate written notice, at least fifteen and not more than thirty days before the deadline for the tenant's notice, calling attention to the renewal provision; the statute makes the clause unenforceable and the parallel rule adds the damages action. Wisconsin requires no rent-concession disclosure, no renter's-insurance disclosure, no smoking-policy disclosure, no rent-reporting disclosure, no payment-method or payment-location disclosure and no first-page total-payment rule. Late fees may be charged only where the rental agreement provides for them (late-fee page); the credit-report charge, the notice before it and the applicant's right to a copy of the report are on the application and screening-fee page; deposit amounts and returns are on the security-deposits page.
Lease clauses that are void or prohibited

Yes — the statute lists prohibited provisions, and a listed clause voids the whole lease, not just the clause.

Wisconsin enumerates the same ten prohibited provisions twice, once in section 704.44 and once, near word for word, in section ATCP 134.08, and in both places the consequence is that the entire agreement falls. The roster is a single list in each instrument rather than a set of scattered commands, and it reaches clauses that burden the tenant rather than either party's clauses. The statute is the primary source because it carries the voidness; the rule matters because it carries the damages route. Section 704.95 makes the relationship explicit: a practice violating section 704.44 may also be an unfair trade practice, but the department may not make a rule that changes a right or duty arising under chapter 704. Two small drafting differences between the statute and the rule are real and harmless, in the wording of the maintenance savings clauses and in whether the tenant is the victim or a victim. An attorney general opinion printed on both instruments holds that a clause requiring the tenant to pay for professional carpet cleaning, absent tenant negligence or improper use, does not void the agreement, because routine carpet cleaning is not a duty the law puts on the landlord. One scope question is open: the supreme court assumed without deciding whether a general unlawful-purpose covenant combined with a material-breach termination clause is a termination clause for the tenth item, and reversed the decision below on other grounds, so the court of appeals' answer to that question no longer stands.

The whole agreement is void.

Sanction as the statute states it: The whole residential rental agreement is void and unenforceable, not merely the offending clause: both the statute and the parallel rule open by displacing the severability section. There is no cure window, no rent multiple and no per-violation figure. On the rule side a tenant may also sue under section 100.20, subsection 5, for twice the pecuniary loss with costs and a reasonable attorney fee, but since June 5, 2026 the state supreme court has required a claimant to prove an unauthorized charge actually paid and causally connected to the violation; rent paid for occupancy enjoyed is not a loss, and a tenant under a void agreement becomes a periodic tenant who still owes rent.

The listed provisions:

• Allowing the landlord to raise rent, cut services, bring a possession action, refuse to renew, or threaten any of those, because the tenant contacted an entity for law enforcement, health or safety services.

• Authorizing the eviction or exclusion of a tenant other than by the judicial eviction procedure in chapter 799.

• Providing for acceleration of rent payments on the tenant's default or breach, or otherwise waiving the landlord's duty to mitigate damages under section 704.29.

• Requiring the tenant to pay attorney fees or costs the landlord incurs in any legal action or dispute arising under the rental agreement, though a court-ordered award of costs or fees under chapter 799 or 814 to either party is untouched.

• Authorizing the landlord or the landlord's agent to confess judgment against the tenant in any action arising under the rental agreement.

• Stating that the landlord is not liable for property damage or personal injury caused by the landlord's own negligent acts or omissions, without affecting a tenant's ordinary maintenance obligations under section 704.07 or assumed by agreement.

• Imposing liability on the tenant for personal injury arising from causes clearly beyond the tenant's control, or for property damage caused by natural disasters or by people other than the tenant or the tenant's guests or invitees, with the same saving for ordinary maintenance obligations.

• Waiving any statutory or other legal duty of the landlord to deliver the premises in a fit or habitable condition or to maintain them during the tenancy.

• Allowing the landlord to end the tenancy based solely on the commission of a crime in or on the rental property where the tenant, or someone who lawfully lives with the tenant, is the victim of that crime.

• Allowing the landlord to end the tenancy for a crime committed in relation to the rental property where the agreement does not include the notice of domestic abuse protections required by section 704.14.
Attorney-fee clauses

A lease clause making a party pay the landlord's attorney fees is void.

Wisconsin does not convert a one-way landlord fee clause into a reciprocal one and does not award fees to the prevailing party by statute. It goes further than either: a clause requiring the tenant to pay attorney fees or costs the landlord incurs in any legal action or dispute arising under the rental agreement is one of the ten provisions that make the whole agreement void and unenforceable. The ban runs one way only, against the clause charging the tenant; the same item preserves a court-ordered award of costs or attorney fees to a landlord or a tenant under chapter 799 or chapter 814. The one statutory fee right runs to the tenant, as part of the double-damages action for a violation of the department's residential rental practices order, and since June 5, 2026 it requires proof of an unauthorized charge actually paid and causally connected to the violation.
When, how, and what happens on a failure Timing pegs. Before the agreement is entered into and before any earnest money or deposit is taken: the written lease and any landlord rules for inspection, the owner and agent identity, the known code violation and the six habitability conditions, the utility exclusion and allocation basis, any non-rent charge whenever a rent amount is represented, any promise to clean or repair, the written notice of inspection rights where a deposit is taken, the NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISIONS document where the landlord takes an enlarged entry right, and the lead-safe materials where the property carries a lead-safe certificate. At the time of agreement: copies of the lease and rules, the notice of domestic abuse protections inside the agreement or an addendum, the lien document where the landlord takes one, and a written notice at signing and again at every renewal where the landlord does not intend to store property the tenant leaves behind. At commencement of occupancy: the check-in sheet, which the tenant has seven days to return. Within ten business days: written notice of a change in the owner or agent. Fifteen to thirty days before the tenant's notice deadline: the automatic-renewal reminder. On request: sex offender registry information the landlord actually knows, and the list of damages charged to the previous tenant's deposit. Immediately on payment: receipts for earnest money, a deposit or cash rent. Electronic delivery is opt-in, not the default: only where the rental agreement contains a provision permitting it may the lease copy and related documents, the deposit paperwork, a pre-lease repair promise or an entry notice go electronically, and the renewal reminder must go by the statutory service methods. Only two documents involve a signature, both landlord-written: signing the enlarged-entry document raises a rebuttable presumption that it was identified and discussed, and the lien document is not effective unless the tenant signs or initials it. Remedies are uneven. Everything in the department's residential rental practices order carries the private action for twice the pecuniary loss with costs and a reasonable attorney fee, now requiring proof of an unauthorized charge actually paid and causally connected to the violation. The ten prohibited provisions void the whole agreement. The domestic abuse notice, the check-in sheet, the conversion notice and the registry rule each state no consequence at all, and because the check-in sheet sits in the statute rather than the rule, the double-damages action does not reach it. A missing no-storage notice is not penalized but costs the landlord the modern abandoned-property regime, throwing it back on the older storage and notice duties. A missing renewal reminder makes the renewal clause unenforceable. The lead rule states no tenant remedy and is enforced by the department.
Can cities add their own rules Wisconsin preempts local landlord-to-tenant disclosure ordinances by name. No city, village, town or county may enact an ordinance requiring a landlord to communicate to tenants any information that state or federal law does not already require, and the only exception is an ordinance with a reasonable and clearly defined objective of regulating the manufacture of illegal narcotics. No locality may require a landlord to report information about the landlord or a tenant to the locality either, unless state or federal law requires it or it is required of all residential property owners. The same statute bars local requirements on security deposits, earnest money and pre-tenancy or post-tenancy inspections beyond the state residential rental practices rules, which is why Wisconsin has no city move-in packet; bars local limits on screening and on re-letting or showing a unit; bars local limits on the tenant's responsibility for damage, waste or neglect; caps rental registration at one owner or contact name with an address, telephone number and electronic mail address, with a one-time fee of no more than ten dollars a building and no fee outside a first class city, while preserving a district-based inspection program; and bars occupancy and transfer-of-tenancy fees. Inconsistent older ordinances stopped applying on dates the statute fixes in 2011, 2014 and 2016. The court of appeals has applied the disclosure limb directly, holding that it preempts an ordinance requiring landlords to notify tenants of city inspections while leaving local inspection and registration programs in place as part of a housing code. Two provisions must not be read against this. The 1980 savings clause in the residential rental practices order, which lets a local ordinance stand where it is not in direct conflict, is an agency rule that cannot revive what a later statute forbids; and section 704.95 limits the department, not municipalities. Local law still supplies the content of a state duty, since the disclosure of code violations and the bar on letting condemned premises both turn on local codes and orders. No Wisconsin city carries its own lease packet.
How state law refers to the federal rules Wisconsin's lead rule refers to the federal requirements once, and only to allow joint delivery: a note printed on the rule says that for rental housing the state lead-safe materials may be distributed together with the disclosure materials the federal housing and environmental regulations require. The state duty is separate and additional, and it applies only to a property the owner has certified as lead-safe. Wisconsin's pre-renovation education rule, which requires written notice and a pamphlet to owners and occupants before a renovation, binds the firm doing the renovation rather than a landlord at signing, and is the state's authorized version of the federal renovation rule.
Changes already signed into law No signed act is waiting beyond any not-yet-in-force duty already stated on this page
Leading court decisions Koble Investments v. Marquardt, 2026 WI 19 (Wisconsin Supreme Court; residential setting; bears on void or prohibited lease clauses): Reversing the court of appeals in a residential month-to-month tenancy, the court held that a residential lease with rent payable monthly is not an agreement to defer payment and so is not governed by the consumer act, and that a tenant claiming under the double-damages provision for a violation of the void-provision roster must prove an unauthorized charge actually paid and causally connected to the violation. Rent paid for occupancy enjoyed is not a pecuniary loss, and a tenant occupying under a void and unenforceable lease becomes a periodic tenant still obliged to pay rent. The court assumed without deciding whether the clauses at issue triggered the tenth item of the roster, so the scope of that item is unsettled.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Wisconsin Lease Disclosure Laws & Required Lease Terms (verified September 11, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/lease-disclosures/wisconsin/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Wisconsin hazard disclosures at a glance

Two rows below are in-force state duties to disclose, hand over, attach or post a hazard notice as part of renting; the federal lead-paint rule applies on top for housing built before 1978. Each row's full text, trigger, threshold and remedy are in the table above.

Hazard Status When Form Prescribed document
Certificate of lead-safe status (a filing with the state) Registration only — — —
Lead-safe materials owed to a tenant of a registered lead-safe property In force Before signing, within a stated period, and by posting Agency document Lead-safe information pamphlet, and the form for reporting deteriorated paint, failure of an enclosure, encapsulation or covering, and any other potential lead-based paint hazards — Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Mold None — — —
Bed bugs None — — —
Radon None — — —
Methamphetamine None — — —
Asbestos None — — —
Known code violations and the six habitability conditions In force Before signing Not specified —

Federal rules that apply in every state

The federal layer for the lease-disclosures topic, carried once for the whole site. Every row names who it binds: most federal lease attachments bind only a landlord who takes a voucher or holds HUD-assisted or HUD-insured property, and the one rule that binds every landlord (the lead-paint disclosure rule) is a floor that state law may add to. No state record restates these rows; a state record says only where its own law references or extends them. Each row below says who it binds before it says what it requires. The full text of each row, with its citations, is on the 50-state page.

Notes and caveats

Common questions: Wisconsin lease disclosures

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

Does Wisconsin require a landlord to give the tenant a written statement of tenant rights?
No — no state document or statement of tenant rights must be handed over; what the state prescribes is text the lease itself must carry. Wisconsin hands over no booklet, summary, handbook or agency form at signing, and no statute or rule prescribes one.
Does a Wisconsin landlord have to disclose the owner's name and address?
Yes — an administrative rule requires the landlord to disclose the owner's or managing agent's identity to the tenant, in the lease or in a separate writing. The landlord must disclose to the tenant in writing, at or before the time the rental agreement is entered into, the name and address of two people: the person authorized to collect or receive rent and to manage and maintain the premises, who can readily be contacted by the tenant, and the owner or other person authorized to accept service of legal process and other notices and demands for the owner.
Is a move-in inspection checklist required in Wisconsin?
Yes — the landlord must give a written condition statement, checklist or inventory. A landlord must provide a new residential tenant, when the tenant commences occupancy, with a check-in sheet the tenant may use to make comments about the condition of the premises, and the tenant has seven days from commencement to complete and return it.
What hazards must a Wisconsin landlord disclose to a tenant?
Two in-force state hazard disclosures: lead-safe materials owed to a tenant of a registered lead-safe property (before signing, within a stated period, and by posting); and known code violations and the six habitability conditions (before signing). Also on the books: certificate of lead-safe status — a registry or certificate owed to the state, with no disclosure to the tenant; no state duty exists for mold, bed bugs, radon, methamphetamine, or asbestos.
Does Wisconsin require flood disclosure to renters?
No. Wisconsin requires no flood disclosure to a renter of any kind: not a zone determination, not a flooding history, not an insurance advisory. The landlord-tenant chapter and the residential rental practices order do not use the word.
Does Wisconsin void or prohibit specific lease clauses?
Yes — the statute lists prohibited provisions, and a listed clause voids the whole lease, not just the clause. Wisconsin enumerates the same ten prohibited provisions twice, once in section 704.44 and once, near word for word, in section ATCP 134.08, and in both places the consequence is that the entire agreement falls.

Citations

How this record was verified: Direct reading of the certified Wisconsin Statutes on the Legislative Reference Bureau's own host, the 2023-24 edition updated through 2025 Wisconsin Act 247 and certified under section 35.18 on September 4, 2026: chapter 704 (Landlord and Tenant) read in full from the certified chapter file in both column orders and again section by section, with sections 704.01, 704.03, 704.05, 704.08, 704.10, 704.14, 704.15, 704.21, 704.28, 704.44, 704.50, 704.95 and 704.96 read from the per-section pages with their history lines and printed annotations; chapter 709 (disclosures by owners of residential real estate) read in full for its scope clause; chapter 254 (environmental health) read in full for the hazard family; sections 66.0104, 66.1015, 100.20, 703.08, 706.02 and 87.30 read from the per-section pages. Administrative code on the same host: chapter ATCP 134 (residential rental practices, Register November 2024 No. 827) read in full and again section by section for the verbatim quotations; chapter DHS 163 (lead-based paint, Register February 2026 No. 842) read in full; chapters DHS 159 (asbestos) and DHS 157 (radiation protection) read in full; the chapter titles of every ATCP, DHS, SPS and NR chapter group enumerated to establish that no other chapter carries a landlord-to-tenant disclosure. Currency established from the bureau's Numerical Listing of Sections Affected by Wisconsin Acts for the 2025-2026 session (period ending July 25, 2026, Acts 1 to 247) taken whole and by chapter, together with the complete act roll, which ends at Act 247 and agrees with the statutes' September 4, 2026 certification; the administrative-code part of the same listing carries no ATCP entry for the biennium. The bureau's Subject Matter Index to the statutes and its Subject Index to Legislation (period ending September 11, 2026, heading Landlord and tenant) were read whole for the statewide negatives and the bill roll, and the Assembly Bill 202 and Senate Bill 206 pages were read for their dated action histories. Koble Investments v. Marquardt, 2026 WI 19, was read in full from the Supreme Court's own slip opinion. The department of health services lead pages were opened for the pamphlet and reporting form the lead rule requires. Verified September 11, 2026.

What was read to state each absence on this page: