Tristan’s Landlord-Tenant Law Blog
Mayor Signs Milwaukee's Residential Rental Certificate Program Ordinance
About 1 hour before the close of business yesterday, December 10, 2009, Mayor Tom Barrett signed the city of Milwaukee's Residential Rental Certificate Program ordinance into law. Mayor Barrett left everyone waiting and wondering if he would sign it as the deadline to do so was the close of business yesterday.The ordinance can be read in its entirety here.The Preinspection Checklist can be found here. The checklist gives a ...
Does Your Tenant Have A Pet? If Yes, Then You Should Be Using A Written Pet Agreement
NOTE: THIS BLOG POST WAS REVISED ON AUGUST 26, 2015 In talking with my clients and potential clients over the past year, I have also noticed that more and more landlords are allowing tenants to keep pets. I am not sure if this is because of the many pet owners that were also homeowners that have since lost their homes to foreclosure and have been forced to become renters ...
AASEW Continues To Fight Against The City of Milwaukee's Residential Rental Certificate Program
The Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc. (AASEW) continues its attempt to defeat the recently passed ordinance creating a Residential Rental Certificate Program in two areas of the city. On December 7, 2009, the AASEW issued a Press Release urging the mayor to veto the legislation in order to avoid expensive litigation. Additonally, President of the AASEW Tristan Pettit wrote a letter to Mayor Tom Barrett pointing out ...
MILWAUKEE'S RESIDENTIAL RENTAL CERTIFICATE ORDINANCE PASSES
Earlier today by a vote of 9-5 the city of Milwaukee's Residential Rental Certificate Program ordinance was passed by the Common Council. Voting in favor of the new ordinance were Aldermen Ashanti Hamilton (1st district), Nic Kovac (3rd district), Robert Bauman (4th district), Milele Coggs (6th district), Willie Wade (7th district), Robert Puente (9th district), Michael Murphy (10th district), Terry Witkowski (13 district), and Willie Hines, Jr. (15th district). Voting against ...
TENANT MOVED OUT AND LEFT YOU HOLDING THE BAG!
With a short week ahead of us due to the Thanksgiving holiday, and the fact that I will be traveling to the wonderful land of flat terrain and tons of wind (a.k.a Kansas), I thought I would take this opportunity to re-post some very good advice from a friend of mine and fellow blogger, Bill Gray of Rent Recovery Services, who is also known as The Landlord Doctor. http://www.TheLanlordDoctor.comBill writes a blog that focuses ...
CITY OF MILWAUKEE'S REVISED RENTAL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM ORDINANCE RELEASED
As I mentioned in a prior post, the City of Milwaukee's Common Council agreed to hold off on voting on the city's proposed mandatory rental inspection ordinance (Residential Rental Certificate Program) for 1 month. The reason for the postponement was to allow the drafters of the proposed ordinance time to go back and make some revisions and clarifications.The Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc. (AASEW) retained the services of ...
What Questions Should You Ask An Applicant's Current and/or Prior Landlord During The Screening Process
Screening applicants/potential tenants is the single most important element of landlording in my opinion. As I have mentioned in prior posts, if you properly screen your applicants you will have a better chance of finding a good tenant that pays rent on time and does not abuse your investment property.Landlords should require each adult person to completely fill out a written rental application. After you have all this good information about your applicant you now need to confirm that info. ...
How To Really "Read" A Person's Drivers License
I always enjoy learning information that will assist my clients and myself when screening potential new tenants. Based on my review of the Analytics for my blog, readers also appreciate this info because my post on the Social Security Number Validator consistently ranks as one of the most viewed posts each month.While co-presenting at the City of Milwaukee and UWM's Landlord Training Program this past October I learned that a person's drivers license ...
More (and More) Legislation Introduced That Will Affect Landlords
I'm not sure if it is just me but it seems like more and more legislation is popping up that affects landlords. Maybe it is just because I am paying more attention to the rental industry then I used to -- kind of like buying a new jacket, bike, or car and then noticing from that point forward how many other people also are wearing that same jacket, riding that same bike, or ...
LLC's - PART 2: How To Insure They Protect You From Personal Liability
In my October 28, 2009 post entitled LLC's - Part 1: Why You Should Consider Using Them To Hold Your Rental Property, I indicated that in the near future I would write a second post on LLC's and include a link to the outline that I drafted and presented to the AASEW membership at the October monthly meeting. My portion of the presentation on LLC's focused on ...
MILWAUKEE'S RESIDENTIAL RENTAL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM VOTE PUSHED BACK 1 CYCLE
The Common Council did not vote on the passing of the city's proposed Residential Rental Certificate Program earlier today as was planned. Instead the Comon Council voted 9-5 to hold the proposed ordinance for 1 cycle (1 month) for further review. The proposed ordinance, which would require all rental property owners in the UWM-area and Lindsay Heights neighborhood on the north side of Milwaukee to pay an $85 fee per unit fee ...
LLC's - PART 1: Why You Should Consider Using Them To Hold Your Rental Property
The AASEW's October monthly membership meeting focused on the issue of LLC's and why you should consider using this business entity to hold your rental properties. Attorney Lydia Chartre of Petrie and Stocking S.C. spoke to the membership about several issues related to LLC's including: - Why create an LLC? - Steps to create an LLC
Milwaukee's Residential Rental Certificate Program Is On It's Way To The Common Council
On Tuesday, October 27, 2009, Milwaukee's ZND (Zoning, Neighborhood and Development) committee voted 3-2 to send the proposed ordinance to the Common Council for a final vote. The proposed ordinance, referred to as the Residential Rental Certificate Program, would require all rental property owners in 2 targeted areas of the city to apply for a certificate in order to continue renting out their property. The cost would be $85 per ...
Milwaukee County Eviction Court to Alter Court Times During Flu Season
A friend of mine who works in the courthouse sent me an email today which she asked that I pass along to my clients and friends in the rental industry. Apparently in an attempt to reduce crowding during the flu season Milwaukee Co. Eviction Court has decided to have certain plaintiffs, based on the spellling of their last name or company name, to appear on intial appearances at 3 pm rather ...
Hearing On Milwaukee's Residential Rental Certificate Program to be Held on October 27th at 10 am
A hearing on Milwaukee's proposed Residential Rental Certificate Program will be held before the Zoning and Development Committee on October 27, 2009 at 10 AM in room 301 of Milwaukee's CIty Hall.It is at this hearing that people may speak in favor or against the proposed ordinance. The ZND committee will then decide whether or not the proposed ordinance should be referred to the common council for a vote by the ...
City of Milwaukee's "Residential Rental Certificate Program" Is Unveiled
Well I have finally been able to get my hands on a preliminary copy of the city of Milwaukee's proposed mandatory rental inspection ordinance. The ordinance is sponsored by Alderman Kovac, Wade, Davis and Hines. The ordinance refers to the proposed program as a "Residential Rental Certificate" program. The program is really just a variation on "landlord licensing" and mandatorty rental inspection programs. I would encourage you to read the
WHY ARE THE "BAD LANDLORDS" THE ONLY ONES WE EVER HEAR ABOUT?
I was catching up on some long overdue blog reading this weekend and I came across a great blog post that I thought was very timely. I asked the author is I could re-post his thoughts and he agreed. The author of the post is Bill Gray who runs Rent Recovery Service, a company that assists landlords with collecting past due rent and damage charges from ex-tenants. I was fortunate enough ...
FREE SEMINAR ON LLC'S - WHY YOU NEED THEM AND HOW TO INSURE THEY PROTECT YOU FROM PERSONAL LIABILITY
Lydia Chartre and I will be presenting a free seminar at the AASEW's October monthly meeting on October 19, 2009 at 7 pm. The meeting will be held at the Best Western Midway Hotel which is located at 1005 S. Moorland Road in Brookfield.Lydia and I will be speaking on LLC's and why you should consider using this form of business entity to hold your rental property and ...
MARYLAND ARMS CASE WILL BE REVIEWED BY WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT
In my May 28, 2009 post I wrote about the then recently published Wisconsin Court of Appeals case of Maryland Arms Limited Partnership v. Connell, 2009 WI App 87, __ Wis.2d __, 769 N.W.2d 145. This was an important case because a divided Court of Appeals held that a tenant could not be held responsible for the damages that resulted after her hair dryer caused a fire which resulted in ...
UPDATE ON AB-340 (CCAP BILL)
As many of you know a public hearing was held on AB340 - the proposed bill by Rep. Marlin Schneider that would restrict who can use CCAP and what information would be contained on CCAP -- at the State Capitol in Madison last week.Several board members from the AASEW (Dave Ohrmundt and Richard Bishop) and the head of Milwaukee RING (Brian Fleming) attended the hearing to make sure that landlords' voices ...