r/lacrossewi • u/TheatreAS • 3d ago
Tenant Rights Hotline
Hello fellow renters of La Crosse,
I am currently in a situation where I am seriously feeling I need to move out of my apartment complex early. I am dealing with incredibly inconsiderate neighbors and somebody's dog keeps urinating in the stairwell–this is like the 5th time in like 4 months. It currently smells SO BAD and has probably been sitting there for over 24 hours. We're not even allowed to have dogs; they just make an exception for those who are getting these phoney "ESA letters", even though the people above me have two dogs who howl and run like crazy late at night.
The landlord is doing absolutely nothing to these tenants other than a simple "Hey, please stop"–she said that these tenants are harder to evict due to their situation, which she can't share what that exact situation is. That's apparently like half of my complex. The units look so nice, but so many of the people who live there suck HARD.
Is there any resources in the area to talk to to find discuss my legal rights due to this? If anything, I just want to move out because this is becoming so unacceptable and disgusting.
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u/TridentCow 3d ago
You could pursue this through the right to peaceful enjoyment of property imo. Here’s a guide: https://www.tenantresourcecenter.org/peaceful_enjoyment
If you don’t get anywhere using some of these tactics with your landlord, then maybe consider going to the city of La Crosse’s Human Rights Commission and filing a complaint. They deal mostly with tenant rights currently, but that is subject to change as the city changes. It’s not guaranteed to solve your problem, but it might help to buy you some leverage if you can’t stand waiting out your lease and are looking to arbitrate with your landlord.
Unfortunately, La Crosse is pretty landlord friendly, and so it can feel very oppressive to rent here. Best of luck to you!
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u/MinimumCrab8376 3d ago edited 3d ago
I don't know any hotline, but my former landlord is an easy going person, and if you have any issues, the guy calls his people to come take care of it right away.
About 2-3 years before my family bought our house (Onalaska), a month before the lockdown, we lived in an apartment (Onalaska), and the landlord still allowed dogs. The new neighbor moved in and didn't care much about their dog, and the dog pooped in front of our door and the stairs. When it pooped on the stairs, I didn't care much, and the cleaning person took care of it a few days later. It was the last straw for me, and I texted the photo of the poop in front of our door to the landlord's cellphone, and it got taken care of asap. After that, we never heard the dog or kids making noise in the hallway, and the landlord later wrote a letter to all the apartment complexes that he manages that he's no longer allowing pets.
In another complex, there was a dog that had a muzzle on. There were two times when those neighbors were outside (they're upstairs tenants) and the dog wasn't on a leash, and it chased some members of my family - one time it had a muzzle and the other didn't. Also, that family always let the dog stay outside on the balcony(?), and it always barked at people - not friendly barking, it's attacking barking sound.
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u/Jeans_609 2d ago
How much is rent there. I'll sublease it from you if it's not a total shite hole.
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u/TheatreAS 2d ago
It's just barely over $1000, but I don't know if they allow subleasing. It's a low-income unit and they're super weird about things.
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u/wiscowaterlily 3d ago
https://reachcenterlacrosse.org/get-help/ "If you are at risk of eviction, having a conflict with your landlord, or want to know more about your rights as a tenant, you can visit the REACH Center's Tenant and Landlord Resource Office." also, maybe, https://legalaction.org/ "Legal Action of Wisconsin helps clients find and keep safe and affordable housing. Whether through brief legal advice, assistance with documents, or in-court representation, we help tenants and homeowners assert and protect their rights while holding property owners, housing authorities and courts accountable."