§799.40 of the Wisconsin Statutes states that an eviction action may be commenced by a "person entitled to possession of the property." This law has often been ignored, and many eviction lawsuits have been brought in the name of someone other than the property owner. Often, a management company is named as the plaintiff rather than the property's actual owner.
Milwaukee County is paying close attention to this issue lately. At one of my pre-trials with the court commissioner on an eviction action this week, the commissioner specifically asked whether the plaintiff I represented was the owner of the real estate. The court commissioner then went to his computer and searched the internet to confirm that my client was the person whose name was on the deed to the property.
I have heard of several eviction actions being dismissed lately because the plaintiff's name did not match the name on the deed.
While many management companies have written agreements with the owners of the property they manage that allow the management company to bring an eviction lawsuit on the owner's behalf, I am not aware of whether that argument will prevail. It might or it might not, but why take the chance?
Be safe, and make sure the named plaintiff in the eviction action is the person or entity that owns the property at issue; it is the law.
