Landlord Atlas

What are the security deposit rules in Wisconsin?

Verified July 9, 2026 All Wisconsin topics →

Wisconsin sets no cap on residential security deposits, but the landlord must return the deposit within 21 days — with a written statement itemizing every amount withheld — and a violation exposes the landlord to double damages plus attorney fees.

The 21-day clock starts on the lease termination date if the tenant leaves on time, on the earlier of the termination date or a replacement tenant's move-in if the tenant leaves early, or on the date the landlord learns a holdover tenant is gone. Deductions are limited to unpaid rent, tenant damage/waste/neglect, certain utility and municipal charges, and reasons spelled out in a separately signed 'NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISIONS' document — never normal wear and tear. Anything paid as security counts, whatever it is called, including pet deposits and any prepaid rent beyond one month. There is no interest or escrow requirement. Tenants also get front-end rights: a check-in sheet with 7 days to record existing damage, and on request, a list of what was deducted from the previous tenant's deposit.

Wisconsin security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit No statutory cap
Return deadline 21 days
Deadline conditions 21 days after a trigger date that depends on how the tenancy ended (Wis. Stat. 704.28(4)(a)-(c), mirrored in ATCP 134.06(2)): (a) if the tenant vacates ON the termination date, the clock starts on the date the rental agreement terminates; (b) if the tenant vacates or is evicted BEFORE the termination date, it starts on the termination date — or earlier, on the date a new tenant's tenancy begins if the landlord rerents first; (c) if the tenant vacates or is evicted AFTER the termination date, it starts on the date the landlord LEARNS the tenant has vacated or was removed under s. 799.45(2). The landlord must 'deliver or mail' the deposit; sources that flatly say '21 days after move-out' miss that for a holdover the clock can start later (landlord's knowledge) and for an early move-out it can start before the tenant is even gone from the lease term.
Itemization required Yes
Itemization rules If any amount is withheld, the landlord must deliver or mail — within the same 21-day window — a written statement accounting for ALL amounts withheld, describing each item of physical damage or other claim and the amount withheld as reasonable compensation for each item or claim (ATCP 134.06(4)). Intentionally misrepresenting or falsifying any claim against the deposit is itself a prohibited practice. Note the layer split: the itemized-statement duty lives in the ADMINISTRATIVE CODE, not in Wis. Stat. 704.28 — a statute-only read misses it. Front-end scaffolding: Wis. Stat. 704.08 requires a check-in sheet for new tenants (7 days from start of occupancy to complete and return), and ATCP 134.06(1) requires pre-deposit written notice that the tenant may inspect within not less than 7 days after the start of tenancy and may request a list of deductions taken from the PRIOR tenant's deposit (landlord must provide that list within 30 days of the request, or within 7 days after notifying the prior tenant of their deductions, whichever is later).
Separate account required No
Interest owed to tenant No
Account & interest rules Neither Wis. Stat. 704.28 nor ATCP 134 contains any escrow, trust-account, or interest requirement. Madison's old ordinance requiring interest on deposits is dead letter: Wis. Stat. 66.0104 prohibits local ordinances imposing security-deposit requirements 'additional to the requirements under administrative rules,' so charts still showing Madison deposit-interest rules are citing preempted law.
Pet deposits No pet-deposit statute. Under ATCP 134.02(11), 'security deposit' means the TOTAL of all payments and deposits given as security — however labeled — so a refundable pet deposit is simply part of the security deposit, subject to the 21-day return and itemization rules. The same definition sweeps in all rent prepayments in excess of one month's prepaid rent (e.g., prepaid 'last month's rent' is legally a security deposit in Wisconsin).
Non-refundable fees allowed Not addressed by statute
Penalty for violation Double damages plus attorney fees, via the two-layer enforcement hook: ATCP 134 is a rule/order issued under Wis. Stat. 100.20, and 100.20(5) lets any person suffering pecuniary loss from a violation sue and 'recover twice the amount of such pecuniary loss, together with costs, including a reasonable attorney fee.' Wisconsin courts have long applied this to tenants suing over ATCP 134 deposit violations (e.g., Shands v. Castrovinci, 113 Wis. 2d 265 (1983)). On the statutory side, Wis. Stat. 704.95 provides that practices violating 704.28 or 704.44 'may also constitute unfair methods of competition or unfair trade practices under s. 100.20,' bridging statute violations into the same double-damages remedy.
Tenant forwarding-address duty No affirmative statutory duty to furnish a forwarding address, but ATCP 134.06(5) shields a landlord who complies with the section from violation merely because postal delivery to the tenant failed — so a tenant who leaves no address risks a timely-mailed refund going astray with no remedy.

Notes and caveats

Encoding decisions and traps. (1) TWO-LAYER STRUCTURE: Wisconsin deposit law lives in BOTH Wis. Stat. 704.28 (withholding grounds, 21-day return, wear-and-tear bar — added by 2011 Act 143) and Wis. Admin. Code ATCP 134.06 (check-in rights, prior-tenant deduction disclosure, the itemized-statement duty, misrepresentation ban). The texts are deliberately parallel on the 21-day rule, but the itemization duty is ATCP-only and the withholding grounds are statutory — page copy must read both. ATCP 134 violations carry the 100.20(5) DOUBLE-DAMAGES + attorney-fees private remedy; 704.95 extends that hook to 704.28 violations. (2) max_deposit is null because NO cap exists in either layer — the '1 month unfurnished / 2 months furnished' cap displayed for Wisconsin on major listing-site guides (seen live 2026-07-09) is pure fabrication, apparently imported from other states. (3) nonrefundable_fees_allowed is null: no provision addresses nonrefundable fees; the operative rule is definitional — any payment given 'as security' is a security deposit under ATCP 134.02(11) regardless of label, so a 'nonrefundable deposit' is an oxymoron inviting an ATCP claim, while a true fee (not held as security) falls outside the scheme. (4) ATCP 134 scope (134.01): does not cover hotels/transient occupancy, employer-provided or free units, agricultural tenancies, government-owned units, and similar carve-outs; 704.28(5) limits that section to residential tenancies. (5) Stale-source warning: pre-2012 summaries predate 2011 Act 143's creation of 704.28 and describe a purely administrative-code regime.

Statute citations

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.