Know your Tenant Rights!

-Are you being "required" by your landlord or the apartment management company to pay for the shampooing of your apartment when you move out?

-Are they saying that you have to hire and pay for professional carpet cleaning and give them the receipt, only because you have a cat on your lease?

-Are they implying that if you don't give them a receipt they could take from your security deposit?

Did you know that a landlord/company in Madison is not legally allowed to do those things...?

Many landlords/companies in Madison purposefully ignore or spread misinformation about the rights tenants have here in Madison. We have a lot of rights! Stay informed! Know the laws and don't get tricked.

Wisconsin Administrative Code Chapter ATCP 134.06(3)(c) states that: "a landlord may not withhold from tenant's security deposit for routine painting or carpet cleaning, where there is no unusual damage caused by tenant abuse."

In the city of Madison, however, the rules are even more specific when it comes to protecting your rights as a tenant.

Here is the list of Madison General Ordinances. Chapter 32 is called "Landlord and Tenant".

Here are your rights, enforceable by law:

1. You as a tenant are not responsible for paying for any shampooing of the carpet unless there is evidence of tenant abuse. (MGO 32.11(9))
2. The landlord/apartment manager must take photographs of excessive damage in order to charge you for cleaning costs. In other words, if there are no visible, bad stains to photograph, they cannot legally withhold money from your security deposit for shampooing the carpet.(MGO 32.07(7b))
3. No rental provision can waive your rights to not be charged for carpet shampooing. So, even if you signed a "Pet Addendum" to your lease agreeing that you'd pay to have the carpets shampooed, that section is VOID and unenforceable! It doesn't matter that you signed it! (MGO 32.07(13), MGO 32.07(14f))

Madison law is looking out for you. Now you can look out for yourself.

Answers from your apartment manager such as "We've done it for years" mean nothing! Claims from a management company that having a legal pet on your lease means that you've automatically lost your rights is misinformation. A landlord's ignorance of the law is no excuse. You alone are the one who pays for not knowing these rights.

Are you being purposefully misled or ignored by your landlord or apartment management company here in Madison when it comes to your tenant rights? You have many options!

1. You can file an official consumer complaint with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection at http://datcp.state.wi.us/core/consumerinfo/cp.
2. If you refuse to pay for carpet cleaning, and your landlord/apartment management company illegally takes money from your security deposit anyway, you can challenge it in small claims court. You may be eligible for two to three times the amount wrongly withheld.
3. You can tell your friends and other tenants! Let them know what your landlord or apartment management company is doing when it comes to violating your rights, and why what they're doing not legal.
4. You can warn people about your landlord/apartment management company ignoring your rights on an apartment rating site such as apartmentratings.com.

The landlord cannot legally retaliate against you for exercising these options. If you have any specific questions about your tenant rights or how to file a claim against a landlord, please consult the Tenant Resource Center, right here in Madison. You can call or walk-in (center is on Willy St.) and volunteers are there to help you. Here is the Tenant Resource Center's page on carpet shampooing rules in Madison. As you can tell, these rules must have been violated quite often!

But, if you know the rules, and you let landlords/apartment management companies know that you know the rules, they don't have that power over you. And, you won't get cheated out of your security deposit! Congrats!