How much notice is required to raise the rent in Wisconsin?

Verified July 9, 2026 All Wisconsin topics →

Wisconsin has no statute requiring advance notice of a rent increase — the 28-day figure commonly quoted for month-to-month tenancies is derived from Wis.

Stat. 704.19(3), which requires at least 28 days' written notice to terminate a periodic tenancy, so a landlord who wants higher rent effectively proposes new terms the tenant can decline by leaving on 28 days' notice (tenancies with rent payable more often than monthly need only notice equal to the rent-paying period). Fixed-term leases lock the rent unless the lease says otherwise. There is no cap on the size or frequency of increases: Wisconsin has no rent control, and Wis. Stat. 66.1015 flatly forbids every city, village, town, and county from regulating residential rents. The one hard statutory limit is retaliation — under Wis. Stat. 704.45 a landlord may not raise rent because a tenant made a good-faith code complaint, complained about repairs, or exercised a legal tenant right.

Wisconsin rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month	No rent-increase statute — notice derives from tenancy-termination rules (see summary)
Varies by increase size	Not addressed by statute
Fixed-term leases	Rent is fixed for the lease term unless the lease itself provides otherwise — a contract principle; neither ch. 704 nor ATCP 134 addresses mid-term or renewal increases.
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	No statewide rent control exists, and Wis. Stat. 66.1015(1) preempts local control: 'No city, village, town or county may regulate the amount of rent or fees charged for the use of a residential rental dwelling unit.' Narrow carve-outs in 66.1015(2) cover housing the municipality or a housing authority itself owns/operates or voluntary agreements with private parties; 66.1015(3) separately bans inclusionary zoning. Wis. Stat. 66.0104 adds a broader preemption belt around local landlord-tenant ordinances generally (screening, deposits, inspections, disclosures).
Local rent control preempted	Yes
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

notice_days_month_to_month is null per the TX/GA/AZ derivation convention: 704.19 addresses only TERMINATION and 'contains no provisions addressing rent increases' (confirmed on direct read), so the 28-day figure is practice-derived — page copy should present the derivation, not state '28 days' notice required to raise rent' as many summaries do. ATCP 134 contains NO rent-increase provision (all 134.09 subsections checked: entry, late fees, retaliation, self-help, etc.). Retaliatory increases are prohibited by 704.45(1) (good-faith code complaints, 704.07 repair complaints, exercising legal rights), and 704.44(1m) voids any lease clause purporting to authorize such retaliation. Preemption trap for local-rule believers: Madison's and Milwaukee's stricter tenant ordinances were largely gutted by the 2011-2018 preemption wave (2011 Act 108/143, 2013 Act 76, 2015 Act 176, 2017 Act 317 via 66.0104 and 66.1010); local ordinances are out of scope v1 but the state-law floor is now effectively also the ceiling. Dead-bill note: 2023 AB 877 (repeal of 66.1015) and the 2025-26 session's landlord-tenant bills all died — the 2025-26 Legislature adjourned sine die with bills failing 2026-03-23 pursuant to SJR 1, and AB 202 (would have exempted rentals from the Wisconsin Consumer Act and rewritten the 704.44 void-lease remedy) was VETOED — so none is flagged as pending.

Statute citations

Wis. Stat. 704.19 (2)-(3) Official source
Wis. Stat. 66.1015 (1)-(3) Official source
Wis. Stat. 66.0104 Official source
Wis. Stat. 704.45 (1) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute and administrative code text on the official Wisconsin Legislature site (docs.legis.wisconsin.gov, which officially hosts both Wis. Stats. and Wis. Admin. Code): Wis. Stat. 704.28, 704.05(2), 704.19, and Wis. Admin. Code ATCP 134.06 and ATCP 134.09 each read TWICE via independent fetches of alternate stable deep links — all load-bearing figures (21-day deposit return and its three trigger events, 12-hour entry notice, 28-day periodic-tenancy termination notice, 7-day check-in window, the three late-fee paragraphs of ATCP 134.09(8)) matched verbatim across both reads. Also read in full once: Wis. Stat. 100.20(5), 704.95, 704.44, 704.45, 704.08, 704.10, 704.17(1g), 66.1015, 66.0104, and ATCP 134.01/134.02(11) (scope and 'security deposit' definition). Pending-bill statuses checked on docs.legis.wisconsin.gov 2026-07-09: the 2025-26 Legislature adjourned sine die and all landlord-tenant bills (AB 1064 application fees, AB 1048 repeal of 66.0104) failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1 on 2026-03-23; AB 202 (Wisconsin Consumer Act exemption / void-lease remedy rewrite) passed both houses but was VETOED, so no 2025-26 enactment changes any field.