A Republican-sponsored bill designed to standardize statewide housing regulations, including tenant-landlord relations, drew criticism from Madison city officials and University of Wisconsin-Madison students after it was introduced to the state Assembly Tuesday.
The bill, which contains 10 tenant-landlord provisions, would give landlords more flexibility in how they communicate with their tenants. Under the new bill, landlords would no longer be required to notify tenants of housing code violations unless a local housing code enforcement agency documented the violations. Additionally, landlords would no longer be required to provide tenants with a checklist outlining the property’s condition. Instead, tenants would be responsible for bringing any issues with the space to the landlord’s attention.
The bill was introduced by four Assembly Republicans and received co-sponsorship from state Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere.
Robert Kovach, Lasee’s chief of staff, said the legislators introduced the legislation because they discovered there were specific needs that needed to be addressed in statewide housing rules.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said he disapproves of the bill because it takes rights away from student tenants in favor of landlords. He cited specific portions of the bill he said could affect students the most, including portions relating to a landlord’s ability to withhold portions of a security deposit for damages without notifying tenants of specific deductions.
“Essentially, students would just receive the bill from their landlord,” Resnick said. “What this does is it makes it easier for the landlord to put students at a significant disadvantage, basically to [not] even be aware of what they’re being charged with.”
Ryan Prestil, an Associated Students of Madison council representative who has worked on the Student Tenant Bill of Rights, also said he opposes the proposed legislation, mainly because it largely eliminates a landlord’s responsibility to communicate with student tenants.
“The landlord is not responsible for getting [students’] information,” Prestil said. “That is something that is really concerning for me being an advocate for having an actual dialogue with the landlord before and during the lease term.”
Resnick and Prestil also raised concerns that legislators were trying to “fast-track” the bill by introducing it so late in the school year, essentially keeping students from having a chance to give their input.
“I don’t know if it was planned that way, but it is definitely not to the benefit of us as students to organize around [the bill],” Prestil said.
But Kovach maintained the bill did not contain any language that disenfranchised student tenants or other citizens in the state.
Melissa Howison contributed to this report.
