By Atty Heiner Giese
I was told today by a staff member of the DNS Milwaukee's Rental Property Registration office that the form DNS-8, which is used to register a change in ownership of rental property, no longer needs to be notarized.
This is due to a change in state law eliminating the need for a notary on most court and government forms.
The form has not yet been updated but the staffer said the box for notarization of the owner's signature could simply be left blank.
By Attorney Heiner Giese
Dawn Anastasi, RPA Board member, alerted us to this announcement about new “tenant protections” by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
These tenant protections apply to multifamily properties where the loan application was submitted after the policy effective date, February 28, 2025. So it would not apply to owners who have existing federally-financed mortgages.
Note in particular the provision requiring a 5-day grace period for rent payments. Owners will not be allowed to charge a late fee during this grace period. This is also going to affect Wisconsin law regarding 5 and 14 day notices for nonpayment. For example, assume the lease says rent is due on the first. Assume the owner has a clause imposing a late fee after the 5th.
Say the tenant hasn’t paid for July, the owner has let it slide without issuing a 5-day notice and now August 1st rolls around without a payment and the owner wants to do a 5-day notice and then go ahead promptly with an eviction filing.
The owner will have to wait until August 6 to issue the 5-day.
If the tenant is month-to-month the 14 day notice without a right to cure is always effective where the tenant has behavior problems or is chronically late and the owner just wants them to move – a 14 day notice could be used effectively as of the 2nd or 3rd day of the month if no rent was paid. But now owners would have to wait at least 5 days before serving the 14 day notice.
Finally, if an owner has a per diem type of late fee, the first 5 days of delinquency couldn’t be charged.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today announced a set of required tenant protections for multifamily properties financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises).
Covered housing providers will be required to provide tenants with the following:
Read the Full Article Here
If you are a housing provider that rents to tenants using Rent Assistance from HACM (Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee), this session is for you:
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
10:00am - 11:00am
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Or call in (audio only)
By Dawn Anastasi, RPA Board Member
Today I attended the first ever Milwaukee Landlord-Tenant Summit. It was held at the Community Advocates building on James Lovell St. If you have never been to this building, it houses not only Community Advocates, but also Legal Aid, and the Rental Housing Resource Center.
The meeting was lead by Ericka Crowley, the Rental Housing Quality Assurance Manager for Community Advocates. There was a mixture of landlords, tenants, and case workers in attendance at this summit.
The short meeting included the following discussion:
One focus of the meeting is the message that all parties involved in housing should be in the discussion, including landlords. Too often, rental property providers have been left out of the discussion, and it's a step forward to see that we are being included.
The city has been awarded $2.1 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This grant is part of an $85 million dollar investment from the Biden Administration in what officials are calling a first-of-its kind program.
Milwaukee is one of 21 cities awarded funds. "Among the steep competition, the city of Milwaukee's application stood out," said Marion McFadden, HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary.
Officials said the grant will help Milwaukee provide subsidies to builders to develop vacant lots and abandoned buildings.
Eviction Free MKE offers free legal help to residents facing eviction, but it’s set to end without funding
Kohler says both United Way and Legal Aid are working hard to secure more funding to keep the program running after this year. The pilot program is funded by American Rescue Plans Act funds and a $1.5 million gift to United Way from the Mackenzie Scott Foundation.
Note: Per the Eviction Study conducted in December 2019, the RPA found that the majority of eviction cases were due to unpaid rent. Matthew Desmond, the author of "Evicted" also came to the same conclusion.
Tim Ballering wrote a blog post at the beginning of the year regarding Eviction Diversion programs and how they harm good tenants.
Milwaukee Apartment Listing is Part of Nationwide Rental Scam
According to the FBI's 2022 internet crime report, 11,727 people in the U.S. reported falling victim to a real estate investment or rental fraud scam in 2022, losing a total of almost $400 million.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court today issued it’s long-awaited ruling (Rule Petition 22-03) on how long eviction case records should remain available to public view via online access to court records.
The Court rejected the petition of Legal Action of Wisconsin for only a one-year retention and accepted the proposal of the Rental Property Association of Wisconsin and other landlords: 2 years retention if no money judgment entered and 10 years if a writ of restitution was granted.
The dissent by Justice Hagedorn (joined by CJ Ziegler and J. Rebecca Bradley) says a change to open records should have first been vetted by the Court's own CCAP committee and there should have been more consideration as to how restricting access to eviction filings is going to affect the business practices of landlords -- who are entitled to know the prior rental history of tenant applicants and will pass on the costs of more difficult screening to other tenants (J. Hagedorn does not say it, but an example of this is landlords requiring a double security deposit because they can't be sure if an applicant had prior evictions and is thus not a good risk).
The Order's effective date is delayed for one year to July 1, 2025 but the current law found in Wisconsin statute section 758.20 -- which requires no less than a 2 year retention for evictions where no money judgment was docketed and 10 years if a writ of restitution was issued -- was acknowledged by the Supreme Court and should continue to apply. Legal Action of Wisconsin had urged the court to overrule that statute and make its own rules but the court specifically declined to do so.
Today Milwaukee County Housing Services had a meeting regarding their new LIFT Program.
What is LIFT?
LIFT stands for "Landlord Incentives to Foster Tenancy". LIFT was launched on June 1, 2024 to address the soaring demand for rental housing in the Milwaukee County.
LIFT was created based on feedback from landlords, including feedback from an RPA survey from 2021. Yes, the feedback from RPA members helped this program!
The Housing Authority heard from rental property owners reasons why Rent Assistance was not considered. One of those reasons is that it is very difficult (if not impossible) to collect monetary damages from program participants for damages to rental units.
What are the Benefits to Rental Property Owners who Enroll in the LIFT program?
How Does an Owner Join the LIFT Program?
1) Fill out a Membership Agreement on the LIFT website.
2) Fill out the Property Intake Form for each property you're entering into the LIFT program.
After the short presentation by Alexi Millard and Connor Goggins of Housing Services, they opened the session up to a Q&A. Here are some of the questions asked/answered:
Can claims for damages be made DURING tenancy instead of just at the end?
Yes, the LIFT program website allows for submitting claims for tenant damage made during tenancy. The rental property owner can submit photos, and/or an inspector can come out to verify damage. The owner will need to get a minimum of 2 bids for work and submit verification of actual expenses (receipts, invoices, etc). Damages can include that caused by the tenant, their pets, and/or their guests.
Does the LIFT program cover existing Milwaukee County Rent Assistance tenants?
No, this program is only for NEW tenants signed as of June 1, 2024. If an existing tenant is having trouble paying their rent, they can be referred to the Eviction Prevention Program which provides financial assistance payments to landlords.
Does Milwaukee County Housing Services have an open wait list for vouchers?
No, the wait list is closed. Milwaukee County Housing Services has other programs besides Rent Assistance and these include MyHome and Rapid Rehousing.
Milwaukee County has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country due to a shortage of rental units. 70% of people leaving homelessness need a studio or 1 bedroom unit, so these unit sizes are especially in demand.
Where can a rental housing provider find out more about the Milwaukee County Housing Authority Section 8 program?
Please see a link to the 54-page PDF here.
If you were not able to attend today's session and have more questions, please post a comment to this post. The Milwaukee County Housing Authority will also have additional informational sessions to be held virtually for those who cannot make it out in person.
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.
BECOME A MEMBER - JOIN TODAY!