How to Evict a Tenant in Wisconsin: Laws, Process, and Timeline
Wisconsin Eviction Timeline 2026: Which 5-Day Notices Offer a Cure, and When a 14-Day Notice Skips It
Wis. Stat. Chapter 704 sets the notice rules statewide, with no county opt-in and no population gate, and Chapter 799 runs the lawsuit itself as a small claims case. Wis. Stat. § 66.0104 separately bars cities, villages, towns, and counties from adding their own rules on tenant screening, security deposits, and most landlord disclosures. This page covers the lawsuit: notice, filing, the hearing, the writ. Deposits, repair rules, and disclosures are on our Wisconsin landlord-tenant law guide.
Grounds and Notice Periods — The Tenancy Type Sets the Menu, the Cure Right Sets the Stakes
§ 704.17 is organized by tenancy type — month-to-month and week-to-week, leases of a year or less, leases over a year — and within each type the question that matters is whether the tenant gets a chance to fix the problem. Calling every 5-day notice “non-curable” gets it backwards: most of them are cure notices, and the criminal-activity and nuisance notices are the exceptions.
| Ground | Notice Period | Statute | Curable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-payment, month-to-month or week-to-week tenant | 5 days | § 704.17(1p)(a) | Yes — pay by the date in the notice |
| Non-payment, month-to-month tenant, landlord’s alternative track | 14 days | § 704.17(1p)(a) | No — a notice to vacate served while rent is in default; the statute gives this option for month-to-month tenancies, not week-to-week |
| Breach other than rent, month-to-month tenant | 5 days to remedy or vacate, or a 14-day notice to vacate | § 704.17(1p)(b) | Yes on the 5-day notice; no on the 14-day notice |
| Non-payment or other breach, lease of one year or less or year-to-year tenant | 5 days | § 704.17(2)(a)–(b) | Yes — pay, or take reasonable steps to remedy and keep at it with reasonable diligence |
| Repeat default within one year of an earlier 5-day notice, lease of one year or less or year-to-year | 14 days | § 704.17(2)(a)–(b) | No |
| Non-payment or other breach, lease over one year | 30 days | § 704.17(3)(a) | Yes — all rent due has to be paid by the date in the notice |
| Criminal activity threatening other tenants, neighbors, or the landlord, or drug-related criminal activity on or near the premises | 5 days | § 704.17(3m) | No — terminates without an opportunity to remedy; doesn’t apply to a tenant who is the victim of the crime |
| Nuisance reported to the landlord in writing by police or the district attorney | 5 days | § 704.17(1p)(c), (2)(c), (3)(b) | No — a notice to vacate; the tenant can contest it in the eviction case |
| No-cause, periodic tenancy | 28 days, ending at the end of a rental period; if rent is paid more often than monthly, one rent period is enough | § 704.19(3) | N/A — Wisconsin uses a flat 28-day figure rather than a calendar month, so it holds steady regardless of which month it falls in |
Treat the 5-day and 14-day notices as separate tools, not one notice under two names. No statute fixes how long a Wisconsin case runs from notice to lockout, either — the summons window and the county’s own docket decide that more than any flat range printed in a guide.
The Court Process
- File. Once notice has run, the landlord files an eviction action in circuit court, which uses the small claims procedure regardless of how much rent is claimed (Wis. Stat. § 799.01(1)(a)). Accepting past-due rent after serving the notice or filing doesn’t by itself get the case dismissed (§ 799.40(1m)).
- Serve. The summons sets a return date 5 to 25 days after it issues, and the tenant has to be served at least 5 days before that date (§ 799.05(3)(b)).
- Hearing. The return date is the first appearance. If the tenant applies for emergency assistance under § 49.138, the court stays the case until eligibility is decided, for no more than 10 working days (§ 799.40(4)(a)).
- Judgment. A landlord who wins gets an immediate order for judgment for restitution of the premises (§ 799.44(1)).
- Writ of restitution. The court orders the writ at the same time as the judgment. On a hardship finding, it can hold the writ back for up to 30 days, conditioned on the tenant paying the rent due and the value of occupancy during the stay (§ 799.44(2)–(3)).
- Sheriff removal. The sheriff executes the writ, using reasonable force if needed; a writ the sheriff receives more than 30 days after it issued can’t be executed (§§ 799.44(2), 799.45).
What This Costs
Circuit court filing fees vary — check the current schedule before filing.
What a Landlord Cannot Do
A court order is the only thing that authorizes a lockout here: ATCP 134.09(7) bars excluding, forcibly evicting, or constructively evicting a tenant other than through the Chapter 799 eviction procedure, and § 704.44(2m) voids any lease that authorizes exclusion outside judicial eviction. Retaliation is covered twice. § 704.45 bars raising rent, cutting services, suing for possession, or refusing to renew if that wouldn’t have happened but for the tenant’s good-faith complaint about a defect to a public official or code agency, a complaint to the landlord about a § 704.07 or housing code violation, or the exercise of a legal right — though the landlord can still sue for unpaid rent. ATCP 134.09(5) separately bars terminating or refusing to renew in retaliation, including constructive eviction by cutting heat, water, or electricity. Neither provision attaches a specific number of months to the protection.
§ 704.16 is titled for an “imminent threat of serious physical harm,” and it reaches domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking. It gives three separate tools. A tenant facing that threat, with a certified injunction, no-contact bail condition, or qualifying criminal complaint, can end the tenancy and owes no rent after the end of the following month. A landlord can end the tenancy of an offending tenant who threatens another tenant in the same building or complex, on 5 days’ notice. And the locks-only fix: the same certified documents require the landlord to change the locks, or allow the tenant to, within 48 hours, paid for by the tenant requesting it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the 5-day or 14-day Wisconsin eviction notice give the tenant a chance to fix the problem? The ordinary 5-day notice does — pay what’s owed or cure the violation by the stated date, and the tenancy holds. The 14-day notice doesn’t offer that chance: a landlord can use it for a month-to-month tenant instead of the 5-day route, or for a tenant on a lease of a year or less who defaults again within one year of an earlier 5-day notice. The 5-day criminal-activity and nuisance notices don’t offer a cure either.
Why does Wisconsin use 28 days instead of 30 for a no-cause notice? It’s a flat period rather than a calendar-month count, so the notice runs the same length regardless of which month it falls in — one of the state’s more distinctive departures from the 30-day figure most other states use.
Can a Wisconsin domestic-violence victim get the locks changed? Yes — see § 704.16 above for the 48-hour timeline and who pays.