Madison Landlord Council

How to Find Your Landlord (for free)

A proposal for a citywide landlord licensing/registration scheme is under consideration by the Madison Common Council. The premise is that licensing landlords and creating a registry are needed to find the names of landlords and that city involvement in necessary.

The Madison LLC notes that the city certainly seems to be able to find those names for property taxes without a lick of trouble and that the current proposal is redundant, will come at taxpayers’ expense, or maybe the thinking is that tenants can cover the costs through increased rents.

In fact, the public already has access to who owns or manages any property in the City of Madison and the information is readily available to tenants who don't already know who their landlord is. This information is commonly used by landlords to check housing references on tenant applicants.

7 Ways To Find Your Landlord (for Free):

Lease. 32.08(1a)(1b) / 134.04(1) of the Madison General Ordinances requires that a lease agreement must disclose the name, address and phone number of the person authorized to collect rent and maintain the premises, and someone in Wisconsin authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.
Sign on building. The highly-effective advertising tool includes the name and contact info for the property owner or manager.
Rent Payments. Where are rent payments made and to whom? Rent is paid directly to the owner or a property manager. Management companies have the owner’s information.
Assessors Office. On-line at http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/assessor/index.html, by phone at 266-4531, or in-person at the City County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Room 101, the City of Madison Assessor’s Office has the name and address of where real estate tax bills are sent.
Building Inspection Unit. BIU maintains a database of all rental properties within the City of Madison. BIU and the Assessor’s Office share data.
Register of Deeds. All real estate transactions are registered with the Register of Deeds. Copies of original sales and mortgage documents are available for public viewing at Room 110, City County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd.
Corporate Registration Information System (CRIS). CRIS lists ownership and contact information about Corporations, Limited Liability Companies (LLC) and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) and their registered agents. Go to the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions website . This is the easiest way to search for Wisconsin LLC, LLP, and Corporate information. Business entities registered out of state will appear in the database.

Landlords and tenants need to have contact information about each other. That is required by Madison Ordinance, state statute and state administrative law.

Landlord licensing or registrations schemes for identifying landlords is needless, expensive legislation. Access to this information already exists in the public domain and on rental contracts.

******According to ATCP 134 "landlord" means the owner or lessor of a dwelling unit under any rental agreement, and any agent acting on the owner's or lessors behalf.