During COVID-19, Madison and Dane County operated under federal CDC and Wisconsin Supreme Court rulings rather than a local moratorium. Today no local moratorium exists, and Wisconsin Act 76 prevents Madison from imposing one independently.
Madison did not adopt its own COVID-era eviction moratorium because Wisconsin Act 76 (2018) reserved that authority to the state. Governor Evers issued Emergency Order 15 in 2020, suspending most evictions for 60 days, and the federal CDC moratorium then governed until the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down in Alabama Association of Realtors v. HHS (2021). Dane County operated rental assistance through the Tenant Resource Center and CDA, distributing federal Emergency Rental Assistance funds. No local moratorium presently exists. Tenants now rely on retaliation defenses, fair housing law, and direct assistance to manage hardship.
There is no current Madison moratorium to violate, but landlord retaliation tied to past assistance applications remains actionable under Wis. Stat. 704.45.
Madison, WI
Madison cannot mandate private landlord-funded relocation payments because of Wisconsin Act 76 (2018). Displacement assistance is instead handled through CDA...
Madison, WI
Madison enforces tenant protections through the Department of Civil Rights and ATCP 134. Landlords may not retaliate against tenants who report code violatio...
See how Madison's eviction moratorium history rules stack up against other locations.
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