Free Wisconsin Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable Wisconsin residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to Wis. Stat. ch. 704 and Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 134 — the 21-day deposit return, 12-hour entry notice, and the ten clauses that void the whole lease.

Wisconsin ch. 704 + ATCP 134 21-Day Return Free PDF 2026 Edition

A Wisconsin residential lease agreement is governed by two books at once, and that is the single fact that decides whether a Wisconsin lease is enforceable. Wisconsin Statutes chapter 704 supplies the tenancy framework. Wisconsin Administrative Code chapter ATCP 134, the Residential Rental Practices rule made by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, supplies most of the operating duties — the check-in procedure, the twenty-one day deposit clock, the closed list of permitted deductions, the disclosure set, the twelve-hour entry notice and a list of prohibited lease provisions. A page built from chapter 704 alone is substantially incomplete, and every ranking Wisconsin lease page is built that way. The consequences are also unusual. Chapter ATCP 134 is a general order issued under Wis. Stat. 100.20, so a breach is an unfair trade practice, and Wis. Stat. 100.20(5) gives the tenant twice the pecuniary loss, plus costs, plus a reasonable attorney fee. And where a lease carries one of ten prohibited clauses, Wis. Stat. 704.44 and ATCP 134.08 do not strike the clause out — they void the entire agreement, expressly overriding the severability section. Every figure below was verified on 6 August 2026 against the official chapter PDFs published under Wis. Stat. 35.18 and 35.93, and all 247 acts of the 2025-26 session were swept individually.

Complete the fields below to generate a Wisconsin residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field is written into the document, including both required identifications, the utility allocation basis, each disclosure you check, and the separate NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISIONS page, and the generated lease cites the controlling section of chapter 704 or chapter ATCP 134 at each point. Before you hand keys to anyone, run proper tenant screening — and note that Wis. Stat. 704.085 caps what you may charge for it. Pair the signed lease with a Wisconsin move-in / move-out checklist so the twenty-one day accounting rests on documented condition rather than memory.

Because the operating duties were written as a consumer-protection rule, not as a statute. Wisconsin Statutes chapter 704 is the tenancy framework: definitions, the writing requirement, repairs and untenantability, notices, holdover, mitigation, retaliation. But most of what a landlord actually has to do in a Wisconsin tenancy lives in Wisconsin Administrative Code chapter ATCP 134, promulgated by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection under the authority of Wis. Stat. 100.20(2). The chapter’s own opening note records the arrangement plainly: it is adopted under the authority of Wis. Stat. 100.20(2), violations may be prosecuted under Wis. Stat. 100.20(6) and 100.26(3) or (6), and a person who suffers a monetary loss because of a violation of this chapter may sue the violator directly under s. 100.20(5), Stats., and may recover twice the amount of the loss, together with costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.

That is why a Wisconsin lease page built only from chapter 704 misses the check-in procedure, the deposit receipt, the earnest-money rules, the disclosure set, the twelve-hour entry notice, the late-fee conditions, the non-rent-charge duty, the promises-to-repair rules and the automatic-renewal prohibition. All nine live in ATCP 134. The two books also overlap deliberately in places — the deposit deduction list and the void-provision list each appear in both, at Wis. Stat. 704.28 and ATCP 134.06(3) and at Wis. Stat. 704.44 and ATCP 134.08 — and Wis. Stat. 704.95 explains the relationship: practices violating Wis. Stat. 704.28 or 704.44 may also constitute unfair trade practices under Wis. Stat. 100.20, but the department may not issue an order or promulgate a rule under 100.20 that changes any right or duty arising under chapter 704.

The Court of Appeals worked through exactly that boundary in State v. Lasecki, 2020 WI App 36. The court held that Wis. Stat. 704.28 speaks only to what a landlord may withhold and how long the landlord has to return the money; the duty to give the tenant a statement of withholdings arises only under ATCP 134.06(4). Because chapter 704 is silent on withholding statements, the rule alters nothing in the chapter, Wis. Stat. 704.95 does not bar it, and a landlord who fails to give the statement can be prosecuted criminally under Wis. Stat. 100.26(3). Our Wisconsin landlord-tenant laws guide maps the two books section by section.

Wisconsin recognises the ordinary range, and the type decides how the tenancy ends. A fixed-term lease under Wis. Stat. 704.01(1) runs for a definite period with a fixed commencement and expiration, or with both ascertainable by reference to an event, and expires on its own terms. A periodic tenancy under Wis. Stat. 704.01(2) is possession without a valid lease with rent paid on a recurring interval, and it continues until one party gives the Wis. Stat. 704.19 notice. A tenancy at will under Wis. Stat. 704.01(5) is possession with permission, without a valid lease, and without periodic rent.

Wisconsin also allows an oral agreement. Wis. Stat. 704.03(1) makes a lease for more than one year unenforceable unless it satisfies Wis. Stat. 706.02 and states the rent, the commencement and expiration, and a reasonably definite description of the premises. A term of one year or less can be oral — but Wis. Stat. 704.03(5) requires an unwritten agreement to be proved by clear and convincing evidence, and Wis. Stat. 704.03(2) converts a tenant who takes possession under an unenforceable long lease into a periodic tenant, month-to-month where the premises are residential and rent is payable monthly. ATCP 134.02(10) confirms that a rental agreement can be oral or written, so the whole of chapter ATCP 134 attaches either way.

What is outside these rules matters as much. ATCP 134.01 excludes seven categories from the rule: a unit operated by a public or private institution where occupancy is incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, educational, counselling or religious services; a unit occupied by a member of the fraternal or social organisation that operates it; a unit occupied under a contract of sale by its purchaser or the purchaser’s successor; a unit in a hotel, motel or boarding house rented only to tourist or transient occupants, defined by ATCP 134.02(14) as people occupying for less than sixty days while travelling away from their permanent residence; a unit the landlord provides free of charge, or as consideration to a current employee who operates or maintains the premises; a unit occupied by a tenant engaged in commercial agricultural operations on the premises; and a unit owned and operated by government or a government subdivision or agency. Separately, Wis. Stat. 704.96, created by 2025 Wisconsin Act 29 and in force since 10 August 2025, provides that chapter 704 does not apply to an occupant or guest of a campground or camping resort licensed under Wis. Stat. 97.67.

Mobile and manufactured homes deserve their own line, because 2025 Wisconsin Act 67 rewrote the governing section on 11 December 2025. A site in a manufactured or mobile home community is governed by Wis. Stat. 710.15, not by this lease: every site agreement must be by written lease, for a term of at least one year unless the resident asks for less. The new Wis. Stat. 710.15(6) then routes the other case back here — a person who is not a resident or occupant, and who rents a mobile or manufactured home in a community from a resident or operator, is subject to chapter 704.

There is no cap — but Wisconsin’s definition of a deposit is wide enough to catch money most landlords do not think of as one. No Wisconsin statute or rule limits the amount. What ATCP 134.02(11) does instead is define a security deposit as the total of all payments and deposits given by a tenant to the landlord as security for the performance of the tenant’s obligations, and includes all rent payments in excess of 1 month’s prepaid rent.

Read that second clause carefully, because it does the work. A landlord who collects first month, last month and a one-month deposit at signing is holding two security deposits under Wisconsin law: the deposit itself, and the last month’s rent, because it is rent in excess of one month’s prepaid rent. The code’s own note to ATCP 134.06(2) says so directly — the chapter does not prevent a landlord collecting more than one month’s prepaid rent, but if the landlord still holds any prepayment above one month when the tenant surrenders the premises, the landlord must treat that excess as a security deposit under subsection (2). Pet deposits, key deposits and cleaning deposits are caught by the first clause on the same reasoning. That is why the builder above puts prepaid rent in its own field: so the real deposit total is visible at signing rather than discovered at move-out.

Wisconsin imposes no duty to segregate the deposit, no trust or escrow account requirement, and no duty to pay interest on it. Those duties exist in other states and are routinely imported into Wisconsin templates; nothing in chapter 704 or chapter ATCP 134 creates them. What Wisconsin regulates instead is the paperwork at both ends of the tenancy, and it regulates that very tightly. Our Wisconsin security deposit laws guide covers the disputes in more depth.

Four things, and three of them are commonly skipped. Wisconsin front-loads the deposit rules, so a landlord who does the paperwork only at move-out has already breached the rule.

One: furnish the lease for inspection first. ATCP 134.03(1) requires written rental agreements and any written rules and regulations to be furnished to prospective tenants for their inspection before a rental agreement is entered into, and before any earnest money or security deposit is accepted. Copies must then be given to the tenant at the time of agreement.

Two: identify the unit. ATCP 134.05(1) provides that a landlord may not accept an earnest money deposit or a security deposit from a rental applicant until the landlord has identified to the applicant the specific dwelling unit or units for which that applicant is being considered.

Three: give a written receipt immediately. ATCP 134.03(2)(a) provides that immediately upon accepting any earnest money or security deposit, the landlord shall provide the tenant or prospective tenant with a written receipt stating the nature of the deposit and its amount. The only excuse is payment by a check bearing a nota