A Wisconsin Security Deposit Itemization is the written statement of claims a landlord must deliver whenever any portion of a security deposit is withheld. It is the accounting ledger — the original deposit, a line for every deduction with its description and dollar amount, and the resulting refund balance owed to the tenant (or the amount the tenant still owes if deductions exceed the deposit). Under Wis. Admin. Code ATCP 134.06(4), this statement must describe each item of damage or claim and the amount withheld for each, and under Wis. Stat. §704.28(4) it must be delivered within twenty-one days. A vague or late itemization exposes the landlord to double damages under §100.20(5).

Generate Your Wisconsin Security Deposit Itemization

Complete the form below to generate a state-compliant itemized security deposit statement, ready to print, sign, and deliver by certified mail. Enter the original deposit, itemize each deduction with a specific description and dollar amount, and the generator will total the deductions and calculate the refund balance automatically — or the amount the tenant still owes when the itemized deductions exceed the deposit. The same figure that appears on the page is written into the PDF, so your arithmetic and your statement can never disagree.

Itemization vs. Return Letter — Wisconsin’s Two Documents

For the broader statutory picture, see the comprehensive Wisconsin security deposit laws guide. The upstream evidence for every line on this statement is the Wisconsin Move-In/Out Inspection Checklist, and the companion cover document is the Wisconsin Security Deposit Return Letter.

What the Itemization Does and Why It Matters

The Wisconsin Security Deposit Itemization is the legally operative accounting a landlord produces at the end of a tenancy whenever the full deposit is not being returned. Under Wis. Stat. §704.28, the landlord must, within twenty-one days, either return the full deposit or deliver a written statement that itemizes each deduction and the amount withheld for each. The itemization is that written statement. There is no separate demand requirement and no grace period — the clock runs automatically once the tenant surrenders the premises.

The statement serves three legal functions. First, it discharges the landlord’s affirmative duty under ATCP 134.06(4) to account, in writing, for every dollar withheld. Second, it fixes the deductions so the tenant knows precisely what to dispute and by how much. Third, it becomes the contemporaneous record the landlord produces in small claims court if the tenant challenges the accounting. Without a properly delivered itemized statement, even legitimate deductions are vulnerable, because ATCP 134.06 treats the written itemized statement as a precondition to withholding rather than an afterthought.

Think of the itemization as a two-sided ledger. On one side sits the deposit the landlord holds — the original amount plus any interest or credit that has to be returned. On the other side sit the amounts the landlord is entitled to keep, and only those amounts, each supported by a description and a figure. The difference is the refund the tenant is owed, or, in the rarer case where the damage exceeds the deposit, the balance the tenant still owes. The generator on this page performs exactly that subtraction and prints the result, so the number the tenant sees and the number in the landlord’s file are identical.

The Wisconsin Legal Framework — Wis. Stat. §704.28 and ATCP 134.06

Two authorities govern the Wisconsin itemization: the statute, Wis. Stat. §704.28, and the administrative rule, Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 134, administered by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). The statute sets the substance — what may be withheld and the twenty-one-day deadline — while ATCP 134.06 supplies the procedural detail, including the itemization-specificity requirement that most disputes turn on.

The subsections that matter for itemization

Four provisions do most of the work. Section 704.28(1) lists the permitted deductions — the closed set of amounts a landlord may withhold. Section 704.28(3) forbids withholding for normal wear and tear or for losses the tenant cannot reasonably be held responsible for. Section 704.28(4) imposes the twenty-one-day deadline. And ATCP 134.06(4) is the itemization rule itself: if any portion of a deposit is withheld, the landlord must deliver a written statement accounting for all amounts withheld, describing each item of physical damage or other claim and the amount withheld as reasonable compensation for each.

The pre-move-out inspection practice

Wisconsin does not impose a statutory pre-move-out inspection right of the kind found in California, but ATCP 134 rewards landlords who document condition carefully. The strongest itemizations are built on a signed move-in checklist and a move-out inspection, both paired with date-stamped photographs. When a deduction is challenged, the evidentiary contest is almost always “was this present at move-in?” — and a landlord who can put the move-in and move-out condition side by side wins that contest. Offer the departing tenant a walk-through and record what you both observe; a tenant who signs the move-out inspection has a hard time disputing the itemization later.

Federal anti-discrimination overlay

The itemization is a neutral accounting document, but the federal Fair Housing Act still applies to how deposits are handled across a portfolio. A landlord may not itemize more aggressively, apply stricter cleaning standards, or hold deposits longer for tenants in a protected class. Consistency across every move-out is both good practice and the cleanest defense to a discrimination claim: the same checklist, the same wear-and-tear standard, and the same twenty-one-day timeline for everyone.

When and How to Deliver the Itemization

The twenty-one-day clock

The twenty-one-day clock does not always start on move-out day. Wis. Stat. §704.28(4) and ATCP 134.06(2) set the triggering events: if the tenant vacates on the last day of the rental agreement, the clock starts on that termination date; if the tenant leaves early or is evicted before the term ends, the clock starts on the earlier of the original termination date or the date a new tenant’s tenancy begins; and if the tenant leaves after the termination date, the clock starts when the landlord learns the unit has been vacated. Wisconsin does NOT require the tenant to provide a forwarding address to start the clock — surrender of the premises is enough. Best practice is still to collect a forwarding address at move-out so the statement and any refund reach the tenant on the first attempt.

Method of delivery

Deliver or mail the itemized statement to the tenant’s forwarding address, or to the last known address if no forwarding address was provided. Certified mail with return receipt requested is the best-practice method because it proves both the fact and the date of delivery. First-class mail and personal delivery are permissible, but they leave the landlord without independent proof of timeliness, and in a deposit dispute the burden of showing timely delivery falls on the landlord. Whatever method you choose, keep the receipt or the signed acknowledgment.

Delivery address

If the tenant left no forwarding address, mail to the rental unit itself, marked for forwarding, and to any address the tenant supplied on the application or lease. Sending to the last known address in good faith preserves the landlord’s compliance even if the mail is never claimed; the statute measures the landlord’s act of delivering or mailing, not the tenant’s receipt. Document every address you used.

What to do if you discover damage after delivery

Occasionally a landlord discovers hidden damage — a slow leak behind a cabinet, a subfloor problem beneath carpet — only after the twenty-one-day statement has gone out. Wisconsin does not permit a landlord to reopen the deposit accounting at will after the deadline. If the additional loss is real and documented, the remedy is a separate civil claim against the former tenant, not a supplemental deduction from a deposit that has already been accounted for. Deliver the accurate statement you can support on day twenty-one and pursue any late-discovered damage through the courts, keeping the deposit itemization clean.

Categories of Deductible Expenses Under §704.28(1)

Wis. Stat. §704.28(1) is a closed list. A Wisconsin landlord may withhold only amounts reasonably necessary for the following categories, and nothing else may appear on the itemization:

1. Tenant damage, waste, or neglect beyond normal wear and tear

This is the largest and most litigated category. It covers physical harm to the premises caused by the tenant, the tenant’s guests, or the tenant’s pets, that goes beyond the natural deterioration of ordinary use. A cracked countertop, a burned laminate, a door kicked off its hinges, pet-urine saturation of a carpet pad — all are deductible. The controlling word is “beyond”: the landlord may charge only for the increment past what ordinary use would have produced. If a carpet was already mid-life at move-in, the landlord recovers the depreciated replacement value attributable to the tenant’s damage, not the cost of a brand-new carpet.

2. Unpaid rent the tenant is legally responsible for

Rent that came due and was never paid may be deducted, including rent for a holdover period and, where the lease and Wisconsin law permit, rent for the remainder of a term the tenant abandoned — subject always to the landlord’s duty to mitigate by re-renting. Late fees are deductible only to the extent the lease validly provides for them and they comply with ATCP 134; a late fee that exceeds what the rule allows is itself a prohibited deduction.

3. Unpaid utility charges the tenant owes

Where the tenant was responsible for utilities and left an unpaid balance the landlord must cover, or the landlord becomes directly liable to the utility for the tenant’s service, that amount may be itemized. Document the utility statement and the period it covers; a lump “utilities” line without the underlying bill is exactly the kind of unsupported figure ATCP 134.06(4) is written to catch.

4. Unpaid municipal permit fees and nonstandard-provision amounts

Section 704.28(1) also permits withholding for unpaid municipal permit fees the landlord becomes liable to pay because of the tenant, and for other payments the tenant owes under a nonstandard rental provision that complies with ATCP 134. A nonstandard provision must be separately identified and signed or initialed to be enforceable; a term buried in the boilerplate does not qualify. If a deduction rests on a lease clause, confirm the clause is a valid nonstandard provision before you itemize it.

Wear and Tear Versus Damage — Drawing the Line

Because only tenant-caused damage is deductible, every Wisconsin itemization dispute ultimately turns on the wear-and-tear line. Courts treat “normal wear and tear” as the natural, gradual deterioration of the unit from ordinary use over time. “Damage” is harm beyond ordinary use — the kind a reasonable tenant could have prevented. The move-in and move-out checklist, paired with date-stamped photographs, is the evidentiary spine that separates the two.

Definitions Wisconsin applies

Normal wear and tear is what happens to a unit when a careful tenant simply lives in it: paint fades, carpet compresses along walking paths, cabinet hinges loosen, grout darkens. Damage is what a careful tenant would have avoided: a wine stain ground into a bedroom carpet, a hole punched in drywall, a scorched countertop, a screen door torn off its track. ATCP 134.06(3) draws the line for the landlord by naming two specific charges — routine painting and routine carpet cleaning — that fall on the wear-and-tear side absent unusual tenant abuse.

Borderline cases — and how to resolve them

The hard cases live between the two. A carpet with heavy but not catastrophic soiling; walls with many small nail holes plus a few anchor gouges; a unit left messy but not filthy. Resolve these by asking two questions the courts ask. First, does the condition exceed what a reasonable tenant’s ordinary use over this tenancy’s length would produce? Second, can you document the delta with a move-in baseline? If the answer to either is no, treat the item as wear and tear and leave it off the statement. When in doubt, the conservative itemization is the defensible itemization, because a single prohibited line can convert a lawful partial refund into a double-damages violation.

Documentation that supports a wear-versus-damage finding

The itemization is only as strong as the file behind it. For each contested line, assemble the move-in checklist entry, the move-out checklist entry, date-stamped photographs of both, and the repair receipt or estimate. Photographs should show scale and context, not just a tight crop of the damage. A landlord who walks into small claims court with a side-by-side of move-in and move-out condition, plus a paid invoice, almost always prevails; a landlord with a bare number on a form almost always does not.

Not Deductible (Wear & Tear)	Deductible (Tenant Damage)
Faded paint and minor scuffs	Large holes, unapproved paint colors requiring primer
Carpet worn thin along walking paths	Pet-urine saturation, burns, or large stains
Small nail holes from hanging pictures	Anchor damage, cracked drywall, missing sections
Loose door handles, minor grime	Broken fixtures, missing appliances, deliberate alteration
Routine cleaning to move-in standard	Filth requiring hazmat or extraordinary labor

Receipts, Estimates, and the Landlord’s Own Labor

Wisconsin sets no dollar threshold that switches on a receipt requirement — every amount itemized must be reasonable and supported, whether it is fifteen dollars or fifteen hundred. What matters is that each figure on the statement can be backed by a document if the tenant challenges it. Itemize all deductions, and hold the paper for each.

Receipts — for completed work

For repairs and cleaning already performed before the statement goes out, the supporting document is the paid invoice or receipt. Attach it, or reference it on the line so the tenant can request it. A receipt from a third-party contractor is the strongest form of support because it is an arm’s-length market price; the tenant can hardly argue the landlord inflated a figure the landlord actually paid a plumber.

Estimates — for work not yet performed

When the deadline arrives before the repair is complete, the itemization may rest on a written estimate rather than a receipt. Use a real, dated estimate from a qualified contractor, and note on the statement that the amount is estimated. Once the work is done, retain the final invoice; if the actual cost comes in lower than the estimate, best practice is to refund the difference to the tenant, which both complies with the “reasonable” standard and forecloses a bad-faith argument.

The landlord’s own labor

A landlord who does the repair personally may itemize a reasonable value for the labor plus documented materials, but “reasonable” is judged against market rates, not an aspirational hourly figure. Keep the materials receipts and a contemporaneous note of the hours and the task. A modest, well-documented self-labor charge survives scrutiny; a large, round-number labor charge with no breakdown is the kind of line a court trims and, if it finds the charge was never really incurred, treats as a prohibited deduction.

Practical implications

The practical rule is simple: never put a number on the itemization you could not defend with a document in small claims court. If you cannot produce a receipt, an estimate, or a materials-plus-labor breakdown for a line, leave it off. The cost of an unsupported deduction is not merely losing that line — it is exposing the entire withholding to the §100.20(5) double-damages remedy.

Required Information for a Compliant Statement

A statement that satisfies ATCP 134.06(4) and gives the landlord a clean defense contains the following elements, all of which the generator above produces:

Header information

The landlord’s name and mailing address, the tenant’s name and forwarding address, and the rental property address. These fix who is accounting to whom for which unit and establish where any refund and correspondence should go.

Tenancy and deposit information

The tenancy start and end dates, the date the tenant surrendered possession, the original deposit amount, and any interest or credit added to it. Together these establish the total the landlord holds and the date that started the twenty-one-day clock.

Itemized deductions

A separate line for each claim, with a specific description — what, where, and why — and the dollar amount withheld for that item. This is the heart of the ATCP 134.06(4) obligation, and the part courts scrutinize most closely.

Calculation and result

The total of all deductions, subtracted from the deposit plus interest, yielding the refund balance owed to the tenant or, where deductions exceed the deposit, the amount the tenant still owes. Showing the arithmetic on the face of the statement demonstrates the landlord did the math the rule requires.

Attached documentation and delivery

A reference to the receipts, invoices, estimates, and photographs supporting each line, and a signature block with the statement date and delivery method. The signature and date make the document a formal record; the delivery-method note supports the timeliness defense.

A Worked Wisconsin Itemization — Line by Line

To see how the pieces fit, walk through a concrete example. Suppose a tenant paid a security deposit of one thousand five hundred dollars, lived in the unit for two years, and moved out leaving three documented problems: a fist-sized hole punched in a bedroom wall, a bathroom door scored and gouged by a dog, and two months of unpaid rent following an early departure. The landlord also considers charging for repainting the whole unit and for a routine carpet shampoo.

The first task is to strip out what may not be itemized. The full-unit repaint is prohibited — the tenant occupied the unit for two years, and repainting after ordinary occupancy is normal wear and tear under ATCP 134.06(3); it does not go on the statement. The routine carpet shampoo is likewise prohibited absent unusual damage, so it comes off too, even though the lease contained a “professional carpet cleaning at move-out” clause; that clause is void under ATCP 134. What remains are three defensible lines: the drywall repair, the door repair, and the unpaid rent.

Now itemize with specificity. Line one reads “Drywall patch and paint, bedroom north wall, to repair fist-sized hole — paid invoice from ABC Drywall, two hundred forty dollars.” Line two reads “Replace scored bathroom door damaged by dog — materials receipt plus four hours labor at market rate, one hundred eighty dollars.” Line three reads “Unpaid rent, two months following early move-out, mitigation attempted — ledger attached, one thousand six hundred dollars.” Total itemized deductions come to two thousand twenty dollars.

The arithmetic then runs cleanly: the deposit of one thousand five hundred dollars minus deductions of two thousand twenty dollars leaves a negative balance, so the statement reports that the tenant owes an additional five hundred twenty dollars rather than a refund. Because each surviving line carries a description and a supporting document, and the two prohibited charges were correctly omitted, the itemization is defensible even though it collects nothing back for the tenant — and the landlord has preserved a clean claim for the shortfall. Had the landlord instead left the repaint and carpet-cleaning lines in, those two prohibited entries would have exposed the entire withholding to the §100.20(5) doubling remedy.

Interest, Nonstandard Provisions, and Prepaid Rent

Two Wisconsin-specific wrinkles catch landlords off guard on the itemization. First, “security deposit” under ATCP 134 is defined broadly: it includes any total of security deposit, prepaid rent, and any other amount the tenant paid as security beyond the first period’s rent. If you collected “last month’s rent” up front, that money is generally part of the deposit for accounting purposes and must be reflected on the itemization, not quietly kept. Fold any such amount into the deposit figure so the statement accounts for everything the tenant paid as security.

Second, deductions that rest on a lease term must rest on a valid nonstandard rental provision. Under ATCP 134, a provision that departs from the standard rules — for example, one authorizing a specific deduction — is enforceable only if it is separately identified, given to the tenant in writing, and separately signed or initialed. A charge itemized under a boilerplate clause the tenant never separately acknowledged is not supported by a valid nonstandard provision and is vulnerable to being struck. Before you itemize any lease-based deduction, confirm the underlying clause meets the nonstandard-provision formalities. As for interest, Wisconsin has no statewide requirement that ordinary residential deposits earn interest, but where a local ordinance or the lease requires it, any accrued interest is added to the deposit side of the ledger and reduces the amount the landlord may net against deductions.

Common Landlord Mistakes in Wisconsin

Based on the most-litigated Wisconsin deposit disputes, the following itemization errors recur, and each one can trigger the double-damages remedy under §100.20(5):

• Vague descriptions. “Cleaning — two hundred dollars” or “repairs — four hundred dollars” without a specific description of what was damaged or cleaned fails ATCP 134.06(4) and forfeits that line.
• Deductions for normal wear. Faded paint, minor carpet wear, and small nail holes are the landlord’s cost of doing business, not the tenant’s, and charging them is a prohibited deduction.
• Missing receipts on itemized amounts. Every figure needs a receipt, an estimate, or a documented labor-and-materials breakdown; a bare number invites the tenant to challenge it and the court to strike it.
• Late delivery. A statement mailed on day twenty-two exposes the landlord to doubled damages even if every deduction is otherwise valid.
• Withholding the balance. Never itemize deductions and then fail to return the remaining refund; the balance owed to the tenant must go out with the statement.
• Assuming willfulness is required. Wisconsin doubles damages for negligent violations too — there is no good-faith safe harbor once ATCP 134 is violated.
• Reopening the accounting after the deadline. Late-discovered damage is a separate civil claim, not a supplemental deduction from an already-delivered statement.

Tenant Rights and Wis. Stat. §100.20(5) Damages

When a landlord withholds any portion of the deposit without delivering a compliant itemized statement within twenty-one days, or itemizes a prohibited item, the tenant’s remedy is powerful. Under Wis. Stat. §100.20(5), a tenant who suffers pecuniary loss because of a violation of an order issued under that section — and ATCP 134 is such an order — recovers twice the amount of the pecuniary loss, together with costs, including a reasonable attorney fee. Because attorney fees are recoverable, even small-dollar deposit disputes are economically worth litigating, and Wisconsin legal-aid organizations routinely take them.

Right to an itemized statement within 21 days

The tenant’s core entitlement is procedural: a written statement of claims, delivered within twenty-one days, that accounts for every withheld dollar. If that statement never arrives, or arrives late, the landlord’s right to withhold is compromised regardless of whether the underlying deductions were valid.

Right to specific descriptions and supporting documentation

The tenant is entitled to a description of each item and the amount withheld for it, and can demand the supporting documentation. A tenant who receives a lumped or unsupported statement has a strong footing to challenge the entire withholding.

Statutory double damages under §100.20(5)

The signature remedy is doubling. Consider a concrete example: a landlord holds a deposit of one thousand five hundred dollars and improperly itemizes three hundred dollars for routine carpet cleaning. The tenant’s pecuniary loss is three hundred dollars. Under §100.20(5), the court doubles that to six hundred dollars and adds the tenant’s costs and reasonable attorney fees, which can easily exceed the deposit itself. A careless three-hundred-dollar line becomes a four-figure liability — which is exactly why the arithmetic and the descriptions on this statement must be exact.

Small claims jurisdiction and anti-retaliation

Most Wisconsin deposit disputes are resolved in small claims court, which is designed for self-represented parties and modest sums. Separately, Wisconsin’s anti-retaliation framework forbids a landlord from using the deposit accounting to punish a tenant who exercised a legal right, such as reporting a code violation. An itemization that appears timed or inflated to retaliate compounds the landlord’s exposure.

Attorney’s fees

The fee-shifting provision is what makes the remedy bite. Because §100.20(5) awards a reasonable attorney fee on top of doubled damages, a tenant’s lawyer can be paid even when the deposit at stake is small. The landlord’s protection is procedural precision: deliver a specific, itemized written statement within twenty-one days, itemize only permitted categories, document every line, and deliver by a method that proves timeliness. A landlord who does all four has a complete defense; a landlord who misses any one is exposed even for an honest mistake.

Wisconsin Deposit Itemization Statute Reference Table

Topic	Wisconsin Rule	Primary Citation
Statement deadline	21 days to deliver deposit or a written itemized statement of claims	Wis. Stat. §704.28(4); ATCP 134.06(2)
Clock start	Lease termination or surrender; no forwarding address required to start the clock	Wis. Stat. §704.28(4)
Permitted deductions	Tenant damage/waste/neglect, unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, direct utility debt, municipal permit fees, nonstandard-provision amounts	Wis. Stat. §704.28(1)
Prohibited deductions	Normal wear and tear; routine painting or carpet cleaning absent unusual tenant-caused damage	Wis. Stat. §704.28(3); ATCP 134.06(3)
Itemized-statement content	Must describe each item of physical damage or claim and the amount withheld for each	ATCP 134.06(4)
Penalty for violation	DOUBLE the tenant’s pecuniary loss plus costs and reasonable attorney fees; applies to negligent violations	Wis. Stat. §100.20(5)
Governing agency	Dept. of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection (DATCP)	Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 134

Always confirm the current text of each provision before you deliver an itemization, because DATCP updates the ATCP 134 rules periodically. When in doubt on a specific line item, verify against the codified statute at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov rather than a secondary summary.

Best Practices for a Compliant Wisconsin Itemization

Follow these steps to keep the statement defensible and outside the reach of §100.20(5):

1. Calendar the twenty-one-day deadline the moment you learn the unit is vacant, and target delivery by day eighteen to leave a mail-transit buffer.
2. Itemize with specificity. For each deduction, state the item, the location, the cause, and the amount, and attach the receipt or estimate. The generator above forces a description-plus-amount pair for every line.
3. Itemize only permitted categories. Cross-check every line against Wis. Stat. §704.28(1); if it is not on that list, do not withhold it.
4. Do the math in writing. Show the deposit, any interest, the total deductions, and the resulting balance. The auto-calculating generator computes this and writes the identical figure into the PDF.
5. Deliver by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the tenant’s forwarding address (or last known address), and keep the mailing receipt.
6. Retain everything for at least four years — the signed statement, receipts, invoices, estimates, move-out photos, and the delivery proof. Wisconsin’s written-contract limitations period supports that retention window.

What to Send WITH the Itemization

A complete deposit accounting package typically includes the signed and dated itemized statement generated above; the refund check for the calculated balance, if any; supporting documentation for each line (receipts, invoices, repair estimates, photographs); the move-in and move-out checklist establishing baseline versus end-of-tenancy condition; date-stamped move-out photographs paired with the checklist; and a copy of the lease for reference to any deposit-related nonstandard provisions. Deliver the package by certified mail with return receipt requested and keep copies of everything for at least four years.

Tenant Screening as Prevention

The cleanest move-outs — full refund, minimal deductions, no dispute — come from tenants who were screened thoroughly at the application stage. A clean credit history, verifiable employment, and a clean eviction record are the strongest predictors of a short itemization and a full refund. The tenant screening process includes credit, eviction filings, criminal background, and employment verification — the comprehensive screen that catches red flags before the tenancy begins. The cost of one bad-tenant move-out (lost rent, repairs, and legal exposure under §100.20(5)) routinely dwarfs years of screening fees combined.

Local Wisconsin Jurisdictions

Local ordinances may impose additional procedural requirements beyond Wis. Stat. §704.28:

• Milwaukee — Milwaukee Code of Ordinances
• Madison — Madison General Ordinances
• Green Bay — Green Bay Municipal Code
• Kenosha — Kenosha Code of General Ordinances

Always verify local ordinance compliance before delivering the final itemization. Some Wisconsin jurisdictions impose additional disclosure or interest requirements on top of the statewide rules.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Wisconsin Forms & Resources