Landlord-Tenant Law

WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee v. Party Sealed by Judge Morales-42

Case No.: 2024AP002464d

Officials: Donald, C.J.

Focus: Landlord-Tenant Law

In Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee v. Dunn, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the Housing Authority’s claims for unpaid rent and fees after concluding that its residential lease contained an unlawful abandonment clause. The lease allowed the Housing Authority to deem a unit abandoned after fourteen days of vacancy and to enter, take possession, and remove property “with or without process of law.” The court held that this provision violated WIS. STAT. § 704.44(2m), which prohibits lease terms authorizing eviction or exclusion of a tenant other than through judicial eviction procedures. Because Wisconsin law treats the inclusion of such a prohibited provision as itself unlawful, the entire lease was void and unenforceable, regardless of whether the clause was ever invoked.

The Housing Authority argued that, even if the lease was void, the tenancy should be treated as a periodic tenancy under Chapter 704, allowing it to recover unpaid rent. The court rejected that argument, finding no statutory basis for automatically converting a void lease into a periodic tenancy. It reasoned that doing so would effectively permit enforcement of an otherwise unenforceable lease and would undermine the legislature’s goal of deterring landlords from including prohibited lease provisions.

The court also declined to address issues concerning tenant damages and the applicability of Wisconsin’s landlord-tenant administrative code to governmental housing providers because the tenant’s counterclaim had been denied and no damages were awarded, rendering those issues moot. Accordingly, the court affirmed the circuit court’s order in full.

Affirmed.

Decided 06/09/26

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