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Landlord and tenant disputes continue to be a top source of consumer complaints in Wisconsin, second only to telemarketers. As innumerable apartments change hands in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin this month, many disgruntled renters are learning of the patchwork of government agencies and nonprofits in place to protect their rights. It’s a system that cools many tempers and keeps a lot of renters out of court, but it has limits.

In 2009 and 2008, the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) received almost equal numbers of written complaints related to disputes between landlords and tenants – 1,650 and 1,646, respectively. So far this year, the state database that tracks complaints registers about 600 rental disputes, but department spokesman Brock Bergey says he expects the number to rise as more are recorded this year. “We’re on track to have a similar year,” he says. “Those numbers are very consistent.”

(photo by adrian palomo)

Like cats and dogs, tenants and landlords are always fighting. What do they fight about most in Wisconsin? According to the department, security deposits are a leading point of contention and account for about a third of all complaints. When landlords fail to return the deposits, delay their reduction or make unfair deductions, tenants can file a written complaint with the department.

“A number of state laws are in place to protect tenants from being cheated out of their security deposits,” says Janet Jenkins, administrator of DATCP’s Division of Trade and Consumer Protection. State law regulates what landlords can legally deduct from the deposits. They can deduct the cost of repairing damages but nothing for “normal wear and tear” such as the cost of a carpet shampoo to prepare the apartment for a new tenant.

But the department doesn’t enforce the laws – it acts as mediator. For enforcement, cases have to be referred to district attorneys or the state Department of Justice. Still, the threat of legal action is enough for most landlords. “Most people just don’t want to deal with any possible recourse,” Bergey says. In small claims court, landlords can be sued for twice the value of the security deposit.

In 2007, about 70 tenants and roommates won a $300,000 class action lawsuit settlement against Milwaukee landlord Tim Brophy Jr., who was accused of failing to return security deposits. While security deposit claims are a substantial portion of  the cases handled in small claims courts, class action suits against landlords “are really, really rare,” says Brenda Konkel, executive director of Wisconsin’s Tenant Resource Center, which recently opened a new office in Milwaukee.

“We’ve been trying to get an office in Milwaukee for forever because the need is so high,” she says. Until the opening of the new office, the Center’s headquarters in Madison handled inquiries from renters seeking advice. “The biggest reasons people call are evictions, repairs, security deposits” and advice on breaking a lease, Konkel says.

Calls go up in the late summer as apartments are changing hands at a frenzied pace – one driven in part by the start of the fall semester on university campuses in Milwaukee and around the state. Renters may not like what they find upon moving in. In Milwaukee, if the source of their displeasure constitutes a building or fire code violation, they can call the Residential Code Enforcement Program at the city’s Department of Neighborhood Services.

The city isn’t interested in mediating disputes, only evaluating code violations.  But building codes have teeth, and the city will take landlords to court over unpaid citations. According to the city, the average court-ordered fine for violating one is about $820. Failure to pay can lead to an arrest warrant.

“We try as much as possible to stay out of the whole relationship,” says Dave Krey, residential code enforcement manager for the city’s DNS. “We try to be as objective as we can.”

The program received about 20,000 complaints in 2009 related to residential properties, including rentals. Krey says some tenants file complaints as a way to get back at a landlord. He encourages them to call the landlord about the issue if they haven’t already.

“We get a lot of complaints, and sometimes when we start digging, we find that sometimes the tenants are the issue,” he says. But in other cases, such as complaints about damaged roofs and flooded basements that followed last month’s massive rainstorm, he adds, renters’ concerns are justified.

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