Tristan R. Pettit just added a very important post to his blog regarding one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issues facing landlords in the last 30 years.
Read the Blog Post Here
In summary: if a landlord has a provision in its rental agreement, which includes any rental documents as they are incorporated into the rental agreement, that violate any of the “10 Deadly Sins,” the landlord must return all rent that it received from the tenant during the tenant’s entire tenancy.
(The “10 Deadly Sins” are illegal rental agreement provisions as set forth in Wis. Stat. § 704.44.)
Essentially, because of something that may not even have been intentional by the landlord, the tenant will get to live in the landlord’s rental property for free for the tenant’s entire tenancy, even if the tenant was not damaged because of the prohibited language in the rental agreement.