Current Tenant Won't Leave, With New Tenant Moving In
I've got a situation in WI whereas the current tenant in a property elected not to renew his lease as he was moving. The lease expires today at Noon. A new tenant signed a lease for the same unit, beginning two days from now at Noon. Two days ago, the current tenant left a message with the landlord that he could not find a new place to live, so he is not going to move out. The landlord has not been able to establish contact with the current tenant, and the new tenant is expecting to move in 48 hours from now.
Does the landlord and/or new tenant have any way to take immediate action? The landlord would need to see a judge and get an eviction (which would take more than 2 days to get him out), right? Or could the police remove the tenant for tresspassing or something of that nature?
Thanks :)
Wisconsin Eviction of Holdover Tenant
Under the Wisconsin Administrative Code,
Quote:
Quoting ATCP 134.02(12)
Tenant" means a person occupying, or entitled to present or future occupancy of a dwelling unit under a rental agreement, and includes persons occupying dwelling units under periodic tenancies and tenancies at will.
The term applies to persons holding over after termination of tenancy until removed from the dwelling unit by sheriff's execution of a judicial writ of restitution issued under s. 799.44, Stats. It also applies to persons entitled to the return of a security deposit, or an accounting for the security deposit.
Note that there is a statutory provision for recovery of damages against a holdover tenant:
Quote:
Quoting Wisconsin Statutes Section 704.27 - Damages for failure of tenant to vacate at end of lease or after notice.
If a tenant remains in possession without consent of the tenant's landlord after expiration of a lease or termination of a tenancy by notice given by either the landlord or the tenant, or after termination by valid agreement of the parties, the landlord may recover from the tenant damages suffered by the landlord because of the failure of the tenant to vacate within the time required. In absence of proof of greater damages, the landlord may recover as minimum damages twice the rental value apportioned on a daily basis for the time the tenant remains in possession. As used in this section, rental value means the amount for which the premises might reasonably have been rented, but not less than the amount actually paid or payable by the tenant for the prior rental period, and includes the money equivalent of any obligations undertaken by the tenant as part of the rental agreement, such as payment of taxes, insurance and repairs.