Wisconsin Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in Wisconsin
Wisconsin law bars every city, village, town, and county from regulating the amount of rent or fees charged for residential rental units, except for housing the local government itself owns or operates or regulates by voluntary agreement.
Cited to Wis. Stat. § 66.1015 · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full Wisconsin rent-increase rules →
Wisconsin Security deposits
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.
Wisconsin Rent increase notice
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).
Wisconsin Late fees
Wisconsin puts no dollar or percentage cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period, but a landlord may charge a late fee only if the rental agreement specifically provides for it.
Wisconsin Entry notice
Wisconsin landlords must give at least 12 hours' advance notice before entering a rental unit, may enter only at reasonable times, and only to inspect, make repairs, or show the unit to prospective tenants or purchasers — unless the tenant agrees to shorter notice, requests or consents to the entry, a health or safety emergency exists, or the tenant is absent and entry is reasonably necessary to protect the premises from damage.
Wisconsin Eviction process
Wisconsin evicts through a small-claims 'civil action of eviction' in circuit court, and the required pre-filing notice depends on the tenancy type: most nonpaying tenants get a 5-day pay-or-vacate notice with the right to cure, but a month-to-month landlord may instead give a 14-day notice to vacate with no cure right at all, and a tenant on a lease longer than one year gets 30 days.
Wisconsin Application fees
Wisconsin caps what a landlord may charge an applicant for screening reports but does not set a separate application fee cap, and it turns any other application-stage charge into refundable earnest money.
Wisconsin mobile home park laws
Wisconsin governs manufactured and mobile home community lot tenancies through one statute section, Wis. Stat. § 710.15, and a binding state rule, Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 125: every site rental must be a written lease of at least one year, a tenancy may be ended or a renewal refused only on thirteen listed grounds, a rent increase or other substantial change takes at least 28 days' written notice and may take effect only at renewal, and the owner must give at least 90 days' written notice before permanently retiring the community or a site from the rental market.
Lot-rent, closure, park-sale and home-sale rules with statute citations →
Wisconsin Fair Market Rents (FY 2026) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Wisconsin metro area and county.
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 alternate stable deep links — all key 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.