Middleton, WI Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

Chapter 23 requires every dwelling unit to contain a kitchen sink, a flush water closet with seat and cover, a lavatory basin, and a bathtub or shower, all properly connected to hot and cold water and an approved sewer system (Section 23.04(2)(a)). Water heating equipment must deliver at least 120 degrees Fahrenheit at every kitchen sink, lavatory, and bathtub (Section 23.04(2)(b)). Habitable rooms need outside windows totaling at least one-tenth of floor area and never less than 12 square feet, with No. 16 wire mesh screens on windows and exterior doors (Section 23.04(2)(f)).

Every residential building must maintain a heating system holding 68 degrees Fahrenheit in habitable rooms when it is negative 20 degrees outside (Section 23.04(2)(i)). Lodging houses, defined as buildings renting to five or more unrelated persons, must carry an annual license from the Building Inspector's office, displayed conspicuously, expiring every July 1 (Section 23.07(3)). The Building Inspector, supervised by the Director of Public Works, investigates complaints and inspects properties, and a seven-member Housing Code Appeals Board, including an architect, a builder, and a structural engineer, hears appeals of the Inspector's decisions and can grant variances by a four-member concurring vote (Section 23.09(5)).

Buildings found unfit for human habitation because of hazardous, unsanitary, or blighting conditions can be placarded and, if repair is unreasonable, ordered razed under Wis. Stat. Section 66.05 (Section 23.08). Retaliatory eviction for reporting Code violations is barred for 90 days after the Building Inspector takes action, and any rental-agreement clause contrary to the Code is void (Section 23.09(10)-(11)).