Quick Reference: Wisconsin Repair Duties and Remedies at a Glance

A Milwaukee manager reads a 2026 guide explaining that Wisconsin tenants have a statutory repair-and-deduct remedy: after written notice and a reasonable time, the tenant may hire a contractor and deduct up to one month's rent, citing Wis. Stat. § 704.07(4).

She builds her maintenance escalation policy around it, on the theory that a tenant who deducts has acted within the statute.

That remedy does not exist in Wisconsin. Section 704.07(4) provides the statutory untenantability remedies of removal from the premises in the circumstances the statute describes, and proportionate rent abatement where the tenant remains in possession. There is no repair-and-deduct provision in § 704.07, no dollar cap, and no contractor mechanism. The subsection says expressly: "This section does not authorize rent to be withheld in full, if the tenant remains in possession."

And a second correction is worth making up front. Wisconsin's landlord repair obligations are not in ATCP 134. They are in Wis. Stat. § 704.07, "Repairs; untenantability." ATCP 134 governs deposits, prohibited lease provisions and prohibited practices. Even the pre-lease code-violation disclosure that many guides attribute to ATCP 134 sits in § 704.07(2)(bm).

If your Wisconsin habitability policy is built on ATCP 134 and a repair-and-deduct remedy, it is built on the wrong chapter and a remedy that is not there. Here is what the statute actually says.

Step 1: The Duty Cannot Be Waived

Section 704.07(1) applies to any nonresidential tenancy if there is no contrary provision in writing signed by both parties, and to all residential tenancies. Then: "An agreement to waive the requirements of this section in a residential tenancy, including an agreement in a rental agreement, is void."

A residential lease therefore cannot validly waive the requirements of § 704.07. Commercial tenancies are treated differently: a nonresidential tenancy can contract around the section by a written provision signed by both parties.

Separate restrictions under ATCP 134 may also apply to the same clause. Section ATCP 134.08 opens: "Notwithstanding s. 704.02, Stats., a rental agreement is void and unenforceable if it does any of the following," and its list includes an agreement that waives any statutory or other legal obligation to deliver the premises in a fit or habitable condition, or to maintain the premises during the tenant's tenancy. So a habitability waiver can be attacked from two directions, and the ATCP consequence reaches the agreement as a whole. That framework is set out in our guide to Wisconsin's ATCP 134 prohibited lease provisions.

Because a single clause can carry consequences under both provisions, the lease template is the control point rather than the maintenance process. Knowing which template each tenancy was executed on, through contracts and renewals, is what makes that auditable.

Step 2: The Five Landlord Duties, and the Words That Limit Them

Section 704.07(2)(a) opens with a carve-out applying to every duty that follows: "Except for repairs made necessary by the negligence of, or improper use of the premises by, the tenant, the landlord has a duty to do all of the following."

1. Keep in a reasonable state of repair portions of the premises over which the landlord maintains control. The test is control, not ownership.

2. Keep in a reasonable state of repair all equipment under the landlord's control necessary to supply services that the landlord has expressly or impliedly agreed to furnish, such as heat, water, elevator, or air conditioning.

Note "expressly or impliedly agreed." A service the lease never mentions can still fall inside the duty, and air conditioning is named in the statute's own examples.

3. Make all necessary structural repairs. In Raymaker v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., 2006 WI App 117, the Court of Appeals held this does not require a landlord to make all structural repairs, only all necessary structural repairs, and that it implies the landlord will have some notice of the defect, latent or obvious, so that the landlord can evaluate whether a repair is, in fact, a necessary repair.

The duty is not strict liability for every structural condition; it presupposes notice and an assessment of necessity.

4. Except for residential premises subject to a local housing code, and except as provided in sub. (3)(b), repair or replace any plumbing, electrical wiring, machinery, or equipment furnished with the premises and no longer in reasonable working condition.

5. For a residential tenancy, comply with any local housing code applicable to the premises.

For residential premises subject to an applicable local housing code, § 704.07(2)(a)4. contains an express exception, while § 704.07(2)(a)5. separately requires compliance with the applicable local housing code. Section 704.07(3)(b) contains a parallel carve-out on the tenant's side.

And one tenant's conduct does not excuse you as to others. Under § 704.07(2)(b), where the premises are part of a building with other tenants, negligence or improper use by one tenant does not relieve the landlord of the duty as to the other tenants.

Because the applicable municipal code changes what you owe, it is a per-property fact. For portfolios spanning Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and smaller municipalities, that belongs on the property record, and surfacing it alongside open work orders through dashboards and reports is what stops a Madison standard being applied to a rural property or the reverse.

Step 3: The Pre-Lease Disclosure Most Guides Misplace

Section 704.07(2)(bm) creates a disclosure duty with four cumulative conditions.

A landlord shall disclose to a prospective tenant, before entering into a rental agreement with or accepting any earnest money or security deposit from the prospective tenant, any building code or housing code violation to which all of the following apply:

1. The landlord has actual knowledge of the violation.

2. The violation affects the dwelling unit that is the subject of the prospective rental agreement, or a common area of the premises.

3. The violation presents a significant threat to the prospective tenant's health or safety.

4. The violation has not been corrected.

The trigger is earlier than lease signing. The duty attaches before entering the agreement or accepting any earnest money or security deposit, whichever comes first. Taking a holding deposit starts it.

"Actual knowledge" is the standard, not constructive knowledge or what an inspection would have revealed. All four conditions must hold. And it covers common areas, not only the unit being let.

Because the duty attaches at the point money changes hands, the open-violations position has to be knowable at the leasing desk rather than at the maintenance desk. Connecting outstanding code violations to the unit record so leasing staff can see them, as service request and task management does, is what makes the disclosure possible before a deposit is taken.

Step 4: Tenant-Caused Damage, and the Limit on What You Can Charge

If the premises are damaged, including by an infestation of insects or other pests, due to the acts or inaction of the tenant, the landlord may elect to allow the tenant to remediate or repair and restore the appearance by redecorating. However, the landlord may elect to undertake the remediation, repair, or redecoration, and in that case the tenant must reimburse the landlord for the reasonable cost.

The statute creates a presumption that the landlord's cost is reasonable unless the tenant proves otherwise.

Reasonable costs are defined to include the landlord's own time. Under (3)(a)1. and 2., they include materials provided or labour performed by the landlord, and at a reasonable hourly rate, the time the landlord spends purchasing or providing materials, supervising an agent of the landlord, or hiring a third-party contractor.

These categories of recoverable cost can be important when calculating a reimbursement claim, particularly where the landlord has documented time spent purchasing materials, supervising an agent, or hiring a contractor.

But the presumption does not eliminate the need to identify actual costs. In Boelter v. Tschantz, 2010 WI App 18, a landlord deducted $85 to clear a plugged toilet, comprised of a $40 service call fee plus 45 minutes at $60 per hour, and justified it as "less than or equal to the average charge an area plumber would bill." The Court of Appeals disagreed: "a landlord may not charge what a professional laborer would charge for their services," because the statute allows reimbursement only for actual costs incurred, and a professional plumber would be paying overhead and making a profit in addition to covering actual costs.

Read that alongside the presumption. The presumption puts the burden on the tenant to disprove your figure. Boelter defines what the figure must be built from: your actual cost, not the market rate for the work. A landlord whose contractor billed a given rate cannot mark it up to what a professional would have charged.

The practical consequence is that the reimbursement claim depends on cost records, not on rate benchmarks. Capturing the invoice, the materials and the hours against the work order, through how to manage maintenance requests, is what makes the presumption usable and survives a Boelter challenge.

The tenant also has a repair duty. Under § 704.07(3)(b), except for residential premises subject to a local housing code, the tenant must keep plumbing, electrical wiring, machinery and equipment furnished with the premises in reasonable working order if repair can be made at a cost which is minor in relation to the rent. Under (3)(c), a residential tenant shall comply with a local housing code.

Step 5: Untenantability, and the Remedies That Exist

The triggers. The premises become untenantable because of damage by fire, water, or other casualty, or because of any condition hazardous to health, or there is a substantial violation of sub. (2) materially affecting the health or safety of the tenant.

Removal. The tenant may remove from the premises unless the landlord proceeds promptly to repair or rebuild or eliminate the health hazard or the substantial violation. The tenant may also remove if the inconvenience by reason of the nature and period of repair, rebuilding, or elimination would impose undue hardship on the tenant.

What protects a landlord here is proceeding promptly. Moving quickly defeats the removal remedy's first branch, though not the undue-hardship branch.

Abatement. If the tenant remains in possession and the condition materially affects the health or safety of the tenant or substantially affects the use and occupancy of the premises, rent abates to the extent the tenant is deprived of the full normal use of the premises.

Two limits inside that sentence. The condition must meet the materially affects health or safety, or substantially affects use and occupancy threshold. And abatement is proportionate: to the extent the tenant is deprived of the full normal use.

And the express prohibition: "This section does not authorize rent to be withheld in full, if the tenant remains in possession."

If the tenant justifiably moves out, the tenant is not liable for rent after the premises become untenantable, and the landlord must repay any rent paid in advance apportioned to the period after the premises become untenantable.

And the subsection does not apply where the tenant caused it. "This subsection is inapplicable if the damage or condition is caused by negligence or improper use by the tenant."

Case law fills in two edges. In Boelter, an appliance that cannot be used as intended without creating a risk of fire or electrocution was held not in reasonable working condition and a substantial violation materially affecting health or safety, entitling the tenant to rent abatement; the court directed that rent should abate proportionally to the extent the loss of use deprived the tenant of full normal use. And in Zehner v. Village of Marshall, 2006 WI App 6, the court held that § 704.07(4) is the exclusive remedy for violations of § 704.07(2), and that sub. (2) does not authorize an independent cause of action for defective conditions that do not rise to the level of a health or safety hazard.

Raymaker adds that the section imposes no negligence per se and does not provide a private cause of action.

Because abatement is measured by the extent of deprivation and depends on when the condition arose and when it was addressed, the dated repair record is the evidence that sets the number. Keeping the report date, the response, the works and the completion on one tenancy record, as a Tenant 360 View approach does, is what makes an abatement claim answerable rather than conceded.

Step 6: Two Boundaries Worth Knowing

Cleaning is not repair. Under OAG 4-13, the term "repair" does not extend to routine cleaning. Cleaning carpets at the end of a tenancy does not fall within the landlord's duties under sub. (2), and because carpet cleaning is not a landlord's legally prescribed duty, including a provision in a residential rental agreement requiring the tenant to have carpets professionally cleaned does not waive the landlord's legal obligation. The section is silent on the imposition of cleaning responsibilities, as distinct from repairs, leaving the parties free to assign responsibilities through lease provisions.

Note the limit: it makes the clause permissible. It does not make routine carpet cleaning a permissible security deposit deduction, which is governed separately by the rules in our guide to Wisconsin security deposit laws. Boelter itself was a deposit case.

A written lease is required to create broader repair remedies. In Halverson v. River Falls Youth Hockey Ass'n, 226 Wis. 2d 105, the court held that if there is no written lease, this section applies to the obligation to make repairs, and that for there to be a remedy for a breach of a duty to repair other than that provided in this section, the obligation must be in a written lease signed by both parties.

Local ordinances are constrained. Under § 704.07(5), an ordinance regulating abatement of rent shall permit abatement only for conditions that materially affect the health or safety of the tenant or substantially affect the use and occupancy of the premises.

Step 7: What This Article Does Not Cover

• Security deposits, ATCP 134.06. See our guide to Wisconsin security deposit laws.

• Prohibited lease provisions and practices, ATCP 134.08 and 134.09. See our guide to Wisconsin's ATCP 134 rules.

• Eviction, Wis. Stat. § 704.17 and ch. 799. See our guide to the Wisconsin eviction process.

• Retaliation. Wisconsin addresses retaliatory conduct in § 704.45 and in ATCP 134. Read both before acting against a tenant who has reported a condition or contacted a building inspector.

Common Wisconsin Repair Mistakes Property Managers Make

1. Looking for the repair duty in ATCP 134
It is in Wis. Stat. § 704.07.

2. Believing Wisconsin has repair-and-deduct
Section 704.07(4) provides removal or proportionate rent abatement. There is no repair-and-deduct remedy and no dollar cap.

3. Assuming a tenant may withhold rent in full
The subsection expressly says it does not authorize that if the tenant remains in possession.

4. Including a habitability waiver in a residential lease
Section 704.07(1) makes the waiver void, and ATCP 134.08 reaches the agreement as a whole.

5. Overlooking the § 704.07(2)(bm) disclosure
It attaches before entering the agreement or accepting earnest money or a security deposit.

6. Treating any known violation as disclosable
All four conditions must hold: actual knowledge, affecting the unit or a common area, a significant threat to health or safety, and uncorrected.

7. Applying duty 4 where a local housing code governs
Section 704.07(2)(a)4. contains an express exception for residential premises subject to a local housing code.

8. Letting one tenant's conduct excuse repairs for others
Section 704.07(2)(b) preserves the duty to other tenants.

9. Charging only materials for tenant-caused damage
Reasonable costs include the landlord's labour and, at a reasonable hourly rate, time spent purchasing materials, supervising an agent and hiring a contractor.

10. Billing the market rate rather than your cost
Boelter holds a landlord may not charge what a professional laborer would charge; reimbursement is for actual costs incurred.

11. Treating pest infestation as automatically the landlord's cost
Section 704.07(3)(a) covers infestation due to the tenant's acts or inaction.

12. Conceding abatement below the statutory threshold
Abatement requires a condition materially affecting health or safety or substantially affecting use and occupancy.

13. Conceding full abatement
It is proportionate, to the extent the tenant is deprived of the full normal use.

14. Delaying on a condition the tenant has reported
Proceeding promptly defeats the removal remedy's first branch.

15. Forgetting to repay prepaid rent where the tenant justifiably moves out
Section 704.07(4) requires repayment apportioned to the period after untenantability.

16. Assuming a carpet cleaning clause solves the deposit question
OAG 4-13 makes the clause permissible; deposit deductions are governed separately.

Conclusion

Wisconsin's repair framework is short, and the two things most commonly said about it are both wrong.

• It is not in ATCP 134. The landlord repair duty, the tenant repair duty, the pre-lease code violation disclosure and the untenantability remedy are all in Wis. Stat. § 704.07.

• And there is no repair-and-deduct remedy. Section 704.07(4) provides removal in the circumstances the statute describes, or proportionate abatement where the tenant remains. The statute expressly does not authorize rent to be withheld in full while the tenant remains in possession, and Zehner holds that sub. (4) is the exclusive remedy for violations of sub. (2).

• Two provisions run in a landlord's favour, and both are underused: the presumption that the landlord's cost for tenant-caused damage is reasonable unless the tenant disproves it, and the inclusion of the landlord's own hourly time for procurement, supervision and contractor engagement. But Boelter sets the boundary: reimbursement is for actual costs incurred, not the rate a professional would charge.

• And one provision runs sharply against you. The duty cannot be waived in a residential tenancy, and a clause attempting it is exposed under ATCP 134.08 as well.

For teams managing Wisconsin portfolios in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay or the Fox Valley, the repair file rests on four records: whether a local housing code applies to the property, what violations you have actual knowledge of before taking a deposit, the dated report and response for every condition, and the actual cost of work attributable to tenant-caused damage. The first two decide what you owe. The last two decide what you can recover.

This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Wisconsin landlord and tenant repair obligations sit at Wis. Stat. § 704.07, "Repairs; untenantability," last amended by 2017 Wisconsin Act 317. Security deposits, prohibited rental agreement provisions and prohibited practices are governed separately by Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 134, and retaliation is addressed in Wis. Stat. § 704.45 and in ATCP 134. The decisions cited are Zehner v. Village of Marshall, 2006 WI App 6; Raymaker v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., 2006 WI App 117; Boelter v. Tschantz, 2010 WI App 18; Halverson v. River Falls Youth Hockey Ass'n, 226 Wis. 2d 105; Bennett v. West Bend Mutual Insurance Co., 200 Wis. 2d 313; and Laska v. Steinpreis, 69 Wis. 2d 307; together with OAG 4-13. Local housing codes materially change the allocation of duties under § 704.07(2)(a)4. and 5. and § 704.07(3)(b), and § 704.07(5) restricts local rent abatement ordinances. Verify the current statutory text with the Wisconsin Legislature and consult a licensed Wisconsin attorney for guidance specific to your portfolio.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Are Wisconsin landlord repair obligations in ATCP 134?
No. They are in Wis. Stat. § 704.07. ATCP 134 governs security deposits, prohibited rental agreement provisions and prohibited practices.

Q2. Does Wisconsin have a repair-and-deduct remedy?
No. Section 704.07(4) provides that the tenant may remove from the premises, or remain and have rent abate to the extent they are deprived of the full normal use. There is no repair-and-deduct provision and no dollar cap.

Q3. Can a tenant withhold all the rent?
No. Section 704.07(4) states that the section does not authorize rent to be withheld in full if the tenant remains in possession.

Q4. What are the landlord's repair duties?
Keeping in reasonable repair the portions of the premises the landlord controls and the equipment supplying agreed services; making all necessary structural repairs; repairing or replacing plumbing, wiring, machinery and equipment furnished with the premises, except where a local housing code applies; and complying with any applicable local housing code.

Q5. What must a landlord disclose before a lease is signed?
Under § 704.07(2)(bm), any building or housing code violation of which the landlord has actual knowledge, that affects the unit or a common area, presents a significant threat to health or safety, and has not been corrected. The duty attaches before entering the agreement or accepting earnest money or a security deposit.

Q6. Can a Wisconsin lease waive the repair duty?
No. Section 704.07(1) makes an agreement to waive the section in a residential tenancy void, including an agreement in a rental agreement.

Q7. What can a landlord charge for tenant-caused damage?
Under § 704.07(3)(a), the reasonable cost of remediation, repair or redecoration, including materials and labour and, at a reasonable hourly rate, the landlord's time purchasing materials, supervising an agent or hiring a contractor. The cost is presumed reasonable unless the tenant proves otherwise, but under Boelter reimbursement is limited to actual costs incurred rather than what a professional would charge.

Q8. Is carpet cleaning a landlord repair duty?
No. Under OAG 4-13, "repair" does not extend to routine cleaning, and a lease clause requiring professional carpet cleaning does not waive the landlord's legal obligation. Deposit deductions are a separate question.