Wisconsin Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified October 1, 2026

Wisconsin at a glance

Rule	Wisconsin	Cited to
Max security deposit	No statutory cap	Wis. Stat. 704.28 +7 more
Deposit return deadline	21 days	Wis. Stat. 704.28 +7 more
Rent-increase notice (month-to-month)	No statute — derived from termination notice	Wis. Stat. 704.19 +3 more
Statewide rent control / rent cap	No	Wis. Stat. 704.19 +3 more
Late-fee cap	No statutory cap	Wis. Admin. Code ATCP 134.09 +2 more
Entry notice	12 hours	Wis. Admin. Code ATCP 134.09 +3 more
Eviction notice (nonpayment)	5 days	Wis. Stat. 704.17 +15 more
Application fee cap	No separate dollar cap on an application fee as such, but a charge for a nationwide consumer credit report is limited to the landlord's actual cost, up to $25, and a background check charge is limited the same way but may be imposed only on an applicant who is not a Wisconsin resident.	Wis. Stat. s. 704.085 (1) (a) +28 more
Interest owed on deposits	No — no statute addresses it	Wis. Stat. § 704.28 (Withholding from and return of security deposits) +3 more
Repair deadline after tenant notice	No statutory count	Wis. Stat. § 704.07 (repairs; untenantability) +15 more
Repair and deduct	No — no statute or decision authorizes it	Wis. Stat. § 704.07 (repairs; untenantability) +15 more
Landlord notice to end a month-to-month tenancy	28 days (2 counting rules)	Wis. Stat. § 704.19 +16 more
Owner and agent identity disclosure	Required — in the lease or in a separate writing	Wis. Stat. § 704.01 +24 more
In-force state hazard disclosures beyond the federal lead-paint rule	2	Wis. Stat. § 704.01 +24 more
Pet deposit	No statute, no cap	Wis. Stat. § 106.50 +19 more
Assistance animals: the state instrument	Documentation statute or rule	Wis. Stat. § 106.50 +19 more

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Wisconsin Landlord-Tenant Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/wisconsin/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Wisconsin statute it comes from on the linked topic page.

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 October 1, 2026 · Full Wisconsin rent-increase rules →

Wisconsin landlord-tenant laws by topic

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 & screening 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 deposit interest

Wisconsin requires no interest on a residential security deposit, and the widely circulated claim that a Wisconsin landlord owes five percent a year after the first year is false.

Wisconsin habitability & repairs

Wisconsin requires a landlord to keep the premises and the equipment supplying agreed services in a reasonable state of repair, to make all necessary structural repairs, and to comply with any local housing code that applies.

Wisconsin lease termination

Either side ends a Wisconsin month-to-month tenancy with at least 28 days' written notice, and the tenancy can end only at the end of a rental period, so the real lead time is usually longer than 28 days.

Wisconsin lease disclosures

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.

Wisconsin pets & assistance animals

Wisconsin has no cap on a security deposit and no statute or rule about pet deposits, pet rent or pet fees at all.

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.

Wisconsin Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Wisconsin metro area and county.

Editable Wisconsin deposit kit · Editable Wisconsin disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified Wisconsin rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

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: 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, and AB 202 (Wisconsin Consumer Act exemption / void-lease remedy rewrite) passed both houses, was vetoed on March 27, 2026, and failed on the override vote on May 13, 2026. October 1, 2026: every section named above, with Wis. Stat. 704.17, 704.21, 704.29, 799.05, 799.20, 799.206, 799.40 to 799.45, 422.203 and 421.301 and ATCP 134.05 and 134.08, was read again on docs.legis.wisconsin.gov in the edition updated through 2025 Wisconsin Act 247 and in effect on October 1, 2026, which takes in the whole 2025-26 session; ATCP 134 stands at Register November 2024 No. 827. No 2025-26 act amended a section the security deposit, rent increase, late fee, entry or eviction answers rest on; 2025 Acts 90 and 29 changed the lease-termination sections and are stated there. Koble Investments v. Marquardt, 2026 WI 19 (June 5, 2026), was read on wicourts.gov.