I’m sorry to hear about the foreclosure — you are not alone. I have heard of landlords in foreclosure who stop paying their mortgage but continue to get rent from tenant – which they are legally entitled to do since they still own the property. But I have to admit that I have never heard of a landlord who just let the tenant live rent free once the foreclosure started. That is money that you are leaving on the table.

No there is no time limit. Even if there was you would then just serve a 5 day notice based on the last month rent or two only. But that is not necessary as you can (and should) list all past due rent. The only problem you could have would be if you told the tenant they were no longer responsible for rent.

Good Luck

When serving a Notice via certified mail it is deemed served once it is in the mail. It does not matter whether the tenant accepts the cert. mail or not.

I advise most of my clients to serve notices via certified mail (and all of the notices that I serve for my clients I send via certified mail) and in almost 70% of the cases the tenant says that they never received the notice — too bad. I have not had any problems with service via certified mail — the court commissioners and judges are aware that the tenant need not “pick up” the cert. mail in order for it to be a valid service.

Regarding this topic, I was wondering what happens in a situation where a tenant is late with rent, a 5-day notice is mailed via certified mail, but the tenant simply refuses to accept/sign for the letter? Where can a landlord turn to at that point? Thank you again!

Under Wisconsin law you can legally choose not to renew a tenant’s lease for any reason — or even for no reason — as long as your decision is not retaliatory or discriminatory. In other words, if you have decided not to renew a tenant’s lease solely becasue they are a member of a protected class or because they asserted a legal right (i.e. formed a tenant’s union, called the building inspector) then you are in violation of Wisconsin law and could be in big trouble. As long as your decision to not renew is not retaliatory or discriminatory then you are legally protected.

Having said that, please realize that allegations of retaliation and/or discrimination are commonplace in the L-T context. So if you have documentation in your file showing ongoing difficulties with a tenant, to support why you have decided not to renew their lease, you will be better prepared to refute any discrimination or a retaliation claims should they be raised.

It should be noted that the above information applies to “market rate” leases and rentals only. If you are operating Sec. 8 housing you must have a valid reason (i.e. tenant’s breach) in order to not renew a subsidized lease. The same is true inthe mobile home context.

to do so is not made in retaliation for a tenant asserting his/her rights and/oas long as the decision to not renew is not discriminatory (i.e. – You can’t be decisding to not renew their lease becasue of their inclusion in a protected class.