Appointment Only

Building Inspection is open to the public by appointment only.

For more on appointments and other services, please see the Building Inspection Services page.

Eligible Addresses

An address is eligible for rent abatement when an owner fails to fix code violations by the due date(s). Building Inspection (BI) sets these due dates in the Official Notice. Former tenants are eligible for rent abatement if you lived at the dwelling between now and the first inspection.

If you are eligible, provide us with your rent information within 30 days of the mailed date. Call (608) 266-9017 and ask for the rent abatement (RA) clerk.

Address	Unit	Eligible dates	Alder district
401 N Eau Claire Ave. Madison WI 53705	218	10/08/2024-11/07/2024	11
205 East Bluff Madison WI 53704		10/29/2024-11/28/2024	18
2313 Monterey Dr. Madison WI 53704	B	10/29/2024-11/28/2024	12
4859 Sheboygan Ave. Madison WI 53705	316	10/29/2024-11/28/2024	11

Pre-process details

When inspectors find code violations, they issue an Official Notice. The notice gives the property owner a deadline by which to correct the items. After the deadline, uncorrected items marked with an asterisk are abatable.

Abatement process

If the items are incomplete by the deadline, BI will issue a default RA award to the tenant. If we have complainant information, we will contact the tenant for their rent amount. Otherwise, we will send a letter to the site address asking the tenant to contact us. Tenants must contact us within 30 days of the mail date.

To set the default award amount, we use the rent amount and the highest percentage of the ordinance. The RA default start date is the date of our first inspection. Once we have that information, we will mail the tenant a default award document.

Tenants can petition for abatement to start earlier than our first inspection. You will need to provide evidence at a hearing. In some cases, tenants can ask for a higher award percentage than the ordinance lays out. Tenants may also petition to receive RA for items that were not marked as abateable. A tenant may schedule a hearing within 30 days of the default award mail date.

Tenants cannot collect RA if they caused, or refused reasonable entry to fix, the issues. Housing providers can contest the award amount or its validity by setting up a hearing. They have 30 days from the date of RA notice letter to schedule a hearing.

Housing Providers have 30 days of the default award mail date to contest the award.

MGO Chapter 32.04 has more details.

Retaliation

Tenants have a right to call Building Inspection and collect rent abatement. Housing providers may not retaliate against a tenant for exercising their rights.