No bed bug statute, but pest infestation is named directly in the landlord-tenant statute — and it is written as a landlord duty with a tenant-fault exception, so the landlord pays unless THEY prove you caused it. With bed bugs that is famously hard to prove. Two remedies run in parallel and you should use both. The habitability statute gives you the right to leave if the place becomes untenantable, or to stay and have rent abate in proportion to what you have lost — but it creates no private cause of action. The damages come from the other track, and it is the strongest in this whole database: rental practice violations are enforced as consumer protection law, and a tenant who suffers a monetary loss may sue directly and recover TWICE the loss plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees. Double damages changes the economics of the whole dispute.
Who pays for treatment
Landlord, unless it proves tenant acts or inaction
Landlord response deadline
Reasonable time after written notice
Disclosure before lease
No
What the law actually says
Wis. Stat. § 704.07(3)(a) — 'If the premises are damaged, including by an infestation of insects or other pests, due to the acts or inaction of the tenant, the landlord may elect to allow the tenant to remediate or repair the damage and restore the appearance of the premises by redecorating. However, the landlord may elect to undertake the remediation, repair, or redecoration, and in such case, the tenant must reimburse the landlord for the reasonable cost thereof.' The burden sits on the landlord to establish tenant acts or inaction; absent that, § 704.07(2) puts repairs needed to comply with local housing codes and to keep the premises safe on the landlord. Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 134 (residential rental practices), adopted under § 100.20(2) and administered by DATCP: § 134.04(1) landlord must give the name and address of a person readily contactable about maintenance (unless owner-occupied with no more than 4 units); § 134.07 promises to repair; § 134.08 prohibited rental agreement provisions — an agreement containing them is VOID; § 134.09 prohibited practices, with § 134.09(5) barring retaliatory eviction for reporting a defect; § 134.10 effect on local ordinances. THE REMEDY THAT MATTERS: violations of ch. ATCP 134 may be prosecuted under §§ 100.20(6), 100.26(3) or (6), and a person suffering a monetary loss from a violation may sue the violator directly under § 100.20(5) and recover twice the amount of the loss together with costs and reasonable attorney's fees. Report to a local building or health inspector, or file a DATCP landlord/tenant complaint on (800) 422-7128. Best consumer source: the Tenant Resource Center's dedicated bedbugs page, which notes the practical difficulty of proving origin — reactions to bites vary, some people do not react at all, and bugs travel between units in shared buildings. CORRECTION — CLAIM DISPROVED: a commercial site describes § 704.07(4) as a repair-and-deduct capped at one month's rent. It is nothing of the kind. § 704.07(4) is UNTENANTABILITY, and it reads: if the premises become untenantable because of damage by fire, water or other casualty, or because of ANY CONDITION HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH, or if there is a substantial violation of sub. (2) materially affecting the health or safety of the tenant, the tenant may remove from the premises unless the landlord proceeds promptly to repair or eliminate the hazard — or the tenant may remove if the inconvenience by reason of the nature and period of the repair would impose undue hardship. And critically: 'If the tenant remains in possession and the condition materially affects the health or safety of the tenant or substantially affects the use and occupancy of the premises, rent abates to the extent the tenant is deprived of the full normal use of the premises.' So the two Wisconsin routes are LEAVE, or STAY AND ABATE PROPORTIONALLY — there is no statutory repair-and-deduct here at all. A serious infestation is a strong candidate for 'any condition hazardous to health'. HOW THE PIECES FIT: Raymaker v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., 2006 WI App 117, 293 Wis. 2d 392, 718 N.W.2d 154, holds that the legislature intended only to alter the common law rule so landlord and tenant more evenly share the duties of repair, that sub. (4) provides the tenant with the remedy of rent abatement to the extent they are deprived of use, and that THIS SECTION DOES NOT PROVIDE A PRIVATE CAUSE OF ACTION. That is why the ATCP 134 and § 100.20(5) route above matters so much — § 704.07 gives you abatement and the right to leave, while the consumer-protection route is what gives you double damages and fees. Use both. On what counts as a substantial violation, see Boelter v. Tschantz, 2010 WI App 18, 323 Wis. 2d 208, 779 N.W.2d 467. Note also that a Wisconsin landlord is no longer immune from tort liability for failing to exercise reasonable care in maintaining the premises.
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What to do, in order
Photograph everything before you touch it
Live insects, shed skins, dark staining along the mattress seam. Timestamps are the evidence.
Notify the landlord in writing
Email or certified letter, never a phone call alone. Written notice is what starts the clock in every state that has one.
Do not throw out furniture yet
Discarded items can't be inspected, and moving them spreads the infestation down the hallway.
Let the deadline above run
Escalating before it expires generally forfeits the remedy.
Escalate to the housing agency, then to court
An independent inspection report is worth more than your own photographs. Rent withholding rules vary sharply — check the section above before you try it.
Read it yourself
Everything above was written by reading the sections named in the citation, not by summarizing another summary. You should not take our word for it — open the statute and check. Look up the section numbers quoted above.
The state's own legislature or code site. Search it for the section numbers quoted above — they are the whole basis for this page.
Last checked against the Wisconsin code: . Statutes change every legislative session — if you are reading this long after that date, open the cited sections yourself before relying on them.
Not legal advice. This is a plain-language reference to publicly available statutes, verified against the Wisconsin code. Liability turns on your lease, your local ordinance and your specific facts. Talk to a tenant attorney or legal aid before withholding rent or filing anything.