New and Improved Residential Rental Agreement Form Available Now

As many of you know, there was a large Landlord-Tenant law that was enacted last month. If you were not aware of this you should take a look at my earlier post on Act 317. As a result of that new law, it was necessary for me to add a new section to the Residential Rental Agreement forms (Forms 19 and 19L) that I draft and which are sold at Wisconsin Legal Blank Company, Inc.

I also took the opportunity to make some other additions/revisions to improve the Rental Agreement form. You know how it goes, once something is completed, rather it be a newly remodeled house, a tweak to your golf swing, or as in this case, a residential rental agreement form, you automatically start wanting to do something more to it. Anyhow, I have been keeping a list of changes that I wanted to make to the Rental Agreement ever since it was printed back in August of 2016.

Below is a summary of the changes to the new and improved Residential Rental Agreement form:

1. Electronic Delivery of Certain Information/Documentation

I added a new section entitled “Electronic Delivery of Certain Information/Documentation" which summarized the new law that allows a Landlord to send certain information and documents to a Tenant via electronic means as long as the parties have agreed to this in writing. Please note that in order for this portion of the new law to apply, a landlord will have to enter into a new rental agreement or renewal that includes such language after April 18, 2018, which is when Act 317 became effective.

2. Short-Term and Vacation Rentals Prohibited

With the significant rise of tenants everywhere subletting their rentals, or portions of their rentals, via online websites like Airbnb, Homeaway, and VRBO, it became necessary to add to the form's section entitled “Assignment or Sublease" clarifying that short-term or vacation rentals are indeed a subletting and are not allowed.

3. End of Lease Term will be 12 noon.

I added a section that specifies that a lease for term will terminate at 12 noon on the final day of the term thus allowing, Landlords a bit more time to turn the unit over.

4. Additional Occupants Under Age 18 Residing on the Premises

I added a new section that allows a Landlord to list underage occupants residing in the premises. This was especially needed because if you were using the digital version of the Rental Agreement form and you included a child's name in the “Tenant" section, it would automatically create a signature line for the child. Oops.

5. No Mounting of Flat Screen Televisions or Satellite Dishes

Under the section entitled “Modifications To Premises" I added a prohibition against the mounting of flat screen televisions to walls and satellite dishes to shared portions of the premises, unless previously authorized by Landlord.

6. Payment for Damage

I added a new section entitled “Payment for Damage" that indicates that if Tenant-caused damage is repaired by Landlord that Tenant must reimburse Landlord for the costs within 10 days of demand,

7. Clarification of Overnight Guest Provision

The language used in the “Use of Premises and Guests" section of the Rental Agreement relating to how long a guest could reside in the rental unit needed to be clarified as it was vague and unclear. Language was added to explain that a guest may not reside in the rental unit for more than 14 non-consecutive days within any one year period or for more than 3 consecutive days within any one month period, without the prior written permission of Landlord.

8. Damage By Casualty

I completely re-wrote the “Damage by Casualty" section of the rental agreement in light of huge uptick in floods and fires that I have seen recently.. I felt that the prior language was not sufficiently clear to allow a Landlord all of the options available to him/her if the rental premises became untenatable due to casualty.

9. No Third-Party Checks Allowed and Ability to Require Future Payments Be Made By Certified Funds

I added language to the “Rent" section of the rental agreement form stating that unless otherwise agreed to by Landlord, all rental payments must be made from Tenant or Co-signer's account and that third-party checks will not be accepted. I also added language explaining that if a Tenant's rent payments is returned due to insufficient funds or for any other reason that a Landlord may require that future rent be paid by certified funds.

It is my hope that these changes will make the Residential Rental Agreement form more up-to date and beneficial to those of you using it. If you are interested in purchasing the new and improved Rental Agreement please contact Wisconsin Legal Blank Co., Inc. at (414) 344-5155, wilegalblank.com or in person at 749 N. 37^th Street in Milwaukee

Take Care

T

More New and Revised Landlord Forms Available at Wisconsin Legal Blank

I have recently completed drafting some new landlord forms which are now available at Wisconsin Legal Blank, including:

1. Smoking Policy Addendum (Form 982) - This form may be used when a landlord wants to prohibit smoking on the rental premises or only allow smoking in specific location/s of the rental premises. This form also sets forth the terms, conditions and rules related to any smoking prohibition or restriction on smoking.

2. Co-Signer Agreement (Form 20) - I wanted to "beef up" the co-signer agreement section that previously was located in the lower left-hand corner of the Rental Agreement (Forms 19 and 19L). This new form will allow a landlord to obtain more information about the co-signer similar to the information requested of a potential tenant on a rental application lie address, DOB, SS#, place of employment etc. This information will aid a landlord in evaluating the collectability of a co-signer and provide necessary information should the co-signer need to sued or turned over to a collection agency. This form also explains in greater detail the obligations of a co-signer if the tenant fails to pay rent or violates other portions of the rental agreement.

I have also revised several of Wisconsin Legal Blank's current forms to make them better, including:

3. Applicant Screening Criteria (Form 990A) - This form needed to be modified in light of HUD's April 4, 2016 directive regarding the use of applicants' criminal history during the screening process. I also took this opportunity to make this form easier to use by combining all requirements into separate numbered paragraphs.

4. Nonstandard Rental Provisions (Form 984) - If you will recall, the main purpose of a NSRP is to list things that a landlord can deduct from a tenant's security deposit. Toward that end, I added a new provision that will allow a landlord to deduct any rental promotion or concession (i.e. first month free rent upon the signing of a 12 month lease) from a tenant's security deposit should the tenant skip out prior to the end of the lease or be evicted. Another provision that was added includes any costs incurred by a landlord associated with the removal of tenants' abandoned property. Finally, I also clarified that a landlord may deduct for "damage, waste or neglect" to the rental unit and not just "damage."

5. Landlord Reference Questionnaire (Form 12) - This form provides suggested questions that a landlord can ask a rental applicant's current or prior landlord during the screening process. Revisions were made to bring the form into compliance with HUD's directive (see reference above and prior blog post). I also made some grammatical changes to the questions.

6. 12 Hour Notice To Enter (Form 331) - I made some changes to this form so that it better explains the situations in which a landlord may enter a tenant's rental unit. I also clarified the portion of the form dealing with who the tenant may contact if s/he has any questions/concerns.

Happy Landlording!

New & Revised Landlord-Tenant Forms Available at Wisconsin Legal Blank

As a result of 2015 Act 176 becoming law earlier this month it became necessary to draft and/or revise some of the landlord-tenant forms sold at Wisconsin Legal Blank Co., Inc.

As of March 24th the following revised or new forms will be available at WLB:

• 5 Day Notice To Vacate for Criminal Activity or Drug-Related Criminal Activity

This new notice may be served on a tenant, under any tenancy, if the tenant, a member of the tenant's household, or a guest or other invitee of the tenant or of a member of the tenant's household, has engaged in criminal activity or drug-related criminal activity. The notice cannot and should not be served on a Tenant who is a victim, as defined in Wis. Stat. § 950.02(4), of the criminal activity. It is not necessary that the tenant have been arrested for or convicted of the criminal activity or drug-related criminal activity in order to serve this notice.

For more information on the new law regarding criminal activity in rental housing refer to my blog post summarizing Act 176.

• 5 Day Notice To Vacate for Imminent Threat of Serious Physical Harm

This notice has nothing to do with Act 176. I had never drafted this form in the past because as there did not seem to be a demand. In the last few months I have had many clients encounter domestic violence issues amongst their tenants such that the victim of the domestic abuse has requested that the landlord remove the abuser, and therefore I thought I better create the form.

• Residential Rental Agreement

The biggest change to this form is the inclusion of language regarding criminal activity and drug-related criminal activity on the rental premises as set forth in Wis. Stat. 704.17(3m) as created by Act 176.

I also added a new clause which addresses the non-liability of the landlord in certain circumstances and another clause prohibiting modifications to the premises by the tenant without prior written approval by the landlord.

I also made some smaller changes as a result of the passage of Act 176 which most likely will not even be noticed but are important. Finally, I removed the language that said rent is "due" by a specific date and replaced it with rent "must be received by" a certain date. modified that rent must be "received by" a certain date.

In order to fit the above changes into the form it became necessary to remove the "Co-Signer/Guarantor" section of the Rental Agreement. I am in the process of creating a separate Personal Guaranty Addendum with beefed up language.

I am currently working on the following forms which are not yet available. When they become available I will let you know via this blog.

• A table that summarizes all of the various notices in Wisconsin and when to use each one
• A revised Nonstandard Rental Provisions form
• A Smoking Policy Addendum
• A Personal Guaranty Addendum
• A Bed Bug Addendum
• A basic Commercial Lease

Revised Wisconsin Legal Blank Forms Will Be Available on Monday, February 17th

As I hope most of you are aware, Wisconsin passed a new law that will great affect landlord-tenant law - Act 76. Whenever the law is changed, there is usually a need to revise and/or update your rental documents to comply with the law. That is definitely the case with the changes from Act 76.

As such, I have had to update many of the rental documents that are sold at Wisconsin Legal Blank.

The new law becomes effective March 1, 2014. So for those of you that use the WLB forms you will want to use these revised forms for any new tenancies that commence on or after March 1, 2014.

The following Wisconsin Legal Blank forms have been revised:

1. Residential Rental Agreement (#19)

The changes made to this form are very important. As of March 1, 2014, it will be required that all residential rental agreements include certain language that provides notice of domestic abuse protections. Act 76 states that a rental agreement will be void and unenforceable if it allows a landlord to terminate a tenancy for a crime and the rental agreement fails to include the domestic violence notice language. As a result of having to add this additional language verbatim the Residential Rental Agreement form will be much longer.

Several other changes and modifications were made to this form as well including:

a. Revision of the "Extermination Costs" section

b. Addition of a "Non-Waiver" section

c. Addition of a "Criminal Activity Prohibited" section

d. The "Notice to Vacate" section was modified to clarify the law better regarding terminating a lease for term. The 30 day notice required to terminate a month to month tenancy was changed to 28 days to coincide with Wisconsin statutes.

e. The "Abandoned Property" section was modified to comply with the law changes in Act 76

f. Additional language was added to clarify that operating a business or providing child care services are not allowed in the rental unit.

g. Additional language was added in the section entitled "Security Deposit" to state that if the repair costs for tenant damages are not known in time for the sending of the security deposit transmittal letter that a "good faith" estimate may be used.

f. Clarifying language was added to the "Breach and Termination" section.

2. Residential Lease Renewal or Notice To Vacate (#970) -- Was updated to comply with Act 76's changes regarding abandoned property.

3. Notice of Rent Increase (for Month to Month Tenant) (#332) - Was updated to comply with Act 76's changes regarding abandoned property.

4. Check-In / Check-Out Sheet (#997 and #993) -- Was updated to to comply with Act 76 with regards to the title and the "When To Use" explanation as well as some stylistic changes.

5. Rental Application (#996) - Eliminated some sections that were not needed and could possibly cause problems for landlords, added some additional instructions for applicant, restructured the layout of the form, and reworded much of the language at the bottom of the signature page.

6. Nonstandard Rental Provisions (#984) -- Rewrote the "When To Use" section to better explain the purpose of a NSRP document, removed the "Miscellaneous Matters" section of the form, revised the statutory references, and fixed some grammatical issue.

I can't stress enough how important it is to use updated/revised forms when they become available. I still see landlords using the Residential Rental Agreement that was drafted over 10 years ago. There are important reasons that rental documents are updated: (1) To comply with law changes, (2) To eliminate problem language that has caused landlords problems. Each new version of these forms are supposed to make your life easier. Using old forms is just an invitation for problems. Effective, March 1, 2014, failing to use the revised Residential Rental Agreement may result in your Agreement being declared void and unenforceable.

T

New & Improved Nonstandard Rental Provisions Form Available at Wisconsin Legal Blank

As many of you know, I draft the various landlord-tenant law forms that are sold at Wisconsin Legal Blank Co., Inc. In light of the recent court of appeals decision (Keyes & Gruner v. Waldbillig et. al) that I referenced in an earlier blog post, I have made some additions and revisions to WLB's Nonstandard Rental Provisions Form. As such, a new and improved Nonstandard Rental Provisions form is now being sold at Wisconsin Legal Blank.

The date of the new form is May 29, 2013.

I would strongly encourage landlords and management companies to start to using the new form as soon as is legally possible.

The new form includes an added provision that allows alandlord to deduct re-rental costs as allowed under Wis. Stats. sec. 704.29 from a tenant's security deposit -- this was the specific deduction that was at issue in the Keys & Gruner v. Waldbillig et. al. Court of Appeals case referenced in my earlier post.

The new Nonstandard Rental Provision form also includes a provision addressing the withholding of "holdover" damages as set forth in Wis. Stats. sec. 704.27, from a tenant's security deposit.

Finally, I made some grammatical changes and reworded a few provisions in the old Nonstandard Rental Provisions form to make them more straightforward and clear.

So to best protect yourself, I would encourage you to pick up the new Nonstandard Rental Provision form dated May 29, 2013 from Wisconsin Legal Blank.

DISCLAIMER: For those of you who may think that I am "pushing" the new Nonstandard Rental Provisions form because I receive a portion of the sale proceeds, that unfortunately is not the case : ). I am paid up front by WLB for my time to draft the forms and revise them as needed based on changes in the law. So I have no vested interest in you purchasing the new form other than I don't want you to be caught in the same situation as the landlord was in the Keyes & Gruner v. Waldbillig et. al court of appeals case. : )