The state Senate passed the divisive landlord-tenant bill that seeks to standardize rental regulations across the state Tuesday with limited discussion.
The bill has garnered debate in both houses of the state Legislature as well as on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus for the effect it could have on renters across the state, including students.
The bill would give landlords more power in the rental process, such as allowing landlords to dispose of an evicted tenant’s belongings without notifying the tenant, and exempting landlords from providing an itemized list of the deductions from a security deposit. Instead, the landlord would only be required to provide a list of the costs to renters.
The state Assembly originally passed a similar bill, but the state Senate rewrote portions of the bill and sent it back to the Assembly for consideration. The Assembly then discussed and approved of the reformed bill and sent it back for the Senate’s Tuesday consideration.
State Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, who authored the Senate bill, made a passionate speech on the Senate floor Tuesday after Democratic senators began further discussion of the bill. Lasee said the bill would not “open a whole can of worms” and was really a “simple question” of passing a bill that helped “good” tenants.
“Good tenants suffer when bad tenants fail to pay their bill,” Lasee said.
Democrats have criticized the effect the bill could have on students and other first-time renters in their opposition to the bill.
The bill will now move back to the Assembly for consideration.
