Right to Remain: Tenants should be protected from displacement caused by speculative development, unjust evictions, or excessive rent increases.

Right to Safe Housing. All residents deserve housing that meets clear health and safety standards, with strong enforcement mechanisms to ensure landlords maintain their properties.

Right to Fair Leases. Lease agreements should be transparent, fair, and free from exploitative clauses that undermine tenant rights.

Right to Rent Control. Policies should limit extreme rent increases so tenants can remain in their homes and communities.

Right to Privacy. Tenants deserve clear protections against intrusive or excessive landlord entry and surveillance.

The Right to Remain Act

• Prohibit winter evictions between November 1 and March 31, except for emergency cases.

• Require landlords to make reasonable efforts to contact tenants about nonpayment prior to filing for eviction. 

• Expand notice to vacate period from 5 days to 14 days; restore broader “right to cure” protections repealed by Act 76. Extend the eviction process for non-payment from 5 to 60 days to give tenants time to cure arrears. 

The Right to Repairs Act

• Strengthen housing code enforcement; impose penalties for delays in essential repairs; expand eligibility for rent abatement under MGO § 32.04(2).

• Require landlords to complete repairs of immediately hazardous conditions within 48 hours of receiving written notice.

• Restrict property acquisition by landlords with a documented pattern of serious code violations.

The Right to Fair Leases Act

• Promote availability of multi-year leases.

• Reinstate a limit on security deposits to one month’s rent; cap pet deposits (repealing Act 143 and aligning with pre-2011 law).

• Require landlords to carry insurance covering losses from fire, water, and pest infestations, and disclose coverage to tenants.

Right to Rent Control

• Establish a Rent Advisory Board to set annual rent increase limits based on CPI, local housing cost burden, and maintenance data.

• Prohibit rent increases when a unit is in violation of basic habitability standards.

• Repeal Act 143 provision allowing landlords to shift legal fees onto tenants; restore tenant protections.

Right to Privacy The right to live in their rental unit without interference, and the right to control how their personal information is used and disclosed

This looks like:

• Seal eviction records if the tenant pays rent or vacates before a formal court filing, following the Minnesota model.

• Expand landlord entry notice requirement to 24 hours; prohibit entry without tenant consent except in emergencies; violators subject to double damages.

• Prohibit water and power shutoffs without 48-hour written notice.

Right to Equal Protection Under Law:

• Extend parity between tenant protections at city and county levels (e.g., coordinated enforcement, mutual recognition of housing standards).

• Distribute a tenant rights information leaflet with every lease agreement (administered by DCR or Housing Division).

• License all landlords and property managers operating residential rental housing in Madison. 

Rights of the Elderly and Disabled:

• Implement improved enforcement mechanisms and standards for investigating disability discrimination. 

• Prohibit or limit utility disconnections for elderly, disabled, or low-income households, especially during winter months (cf. Wis. Admin. Code PSC § 113.0301). 

• Require accessibility considerations for disabled persons in all new residential construction and renovations. 

Right to Rent History:

• Create a publicly searchable landlord registry including ownership information and compliance history.

• Make all civil records related to housing and building code violations publicly available online.

• Require landlords to disclose unresolved issues and code violations in the rental unit (repeal Act 76 restrictions). 

Rights of Current Residents: 

• Prohibit retaliatory or defamatory references from landlords without substantiated cause; prohibit reference blacklisting.

• Require lease renewal notice at least 90 days before expiration; otherwise, tenant entitled to 10% of annual rent in credit or refund.

• Mandate that tenants be given 30 days to consider rent increase offers; ban coercive early lease signing practices; landlords must respond to renewal inquiries within 30 days.