Chronic Nuisance Information

The City of Milwaukee’s Chronic Nuisance Property Code 80-10-2 was passed in early 2001 to address the negative of this issue on the community. Chronic Nuisance aggravates and pushes away law abiding residences, discourages the reinvestment in the community, and utilizes a lot of police and other City services.

To help control and prevent chronic nuisance in your community, there are resources to assist you in understand how.

• Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) website
• City of Milwaukee Chronic Nuisance Property Code Brochure
• City of Milwaukee Ordinance Chapter 80

Here are also a few helpful tips when reporting a nuisance property:

• Use the Address where the problem is at. (DO NOT use your own address when reporting a nuisance property)
• Associate the nuisance activity to the address. (The person who is the person who lives at the location, or the person who is visiting the location.)
• Explain in detail the nuisance activity. (Loud music is blaring from the vehicle, is disturbing the peace, and is an on-going issue.)

Requirements:

1. Three nuisance type calls for police are required before a Nuisance Letter is sent to the owner of the property.
2. The three calls have to be within, any 30-day period.
3. Only one nuisance call can be used within a 24-hour time frame.

Once the nuisance letter is sent, the property owner is given a 45-day opportunity to subside the nuisance activity. If the nuisance activity continues, a second opportunity is given to the owner to subside the nuisance activity. Continued problems will generate a charging letter, which lead to charges and or POSSIBLE citations to the owner for $3,211.00.

Additional Information:

• Do not assume your neighbor called police.
• Do not announce you are going to call police.
• All calls made to the Milwaukee Police Department are documented.
• You can be anonymous when reporting nuisance activity. Leave a phone number for police to contact should the officer have further questions

Landlord/Tenant Information

Landlords

The Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) offers free classes to train landlords the elementary ways to keep illegal activities out of their property. The classes are held year-round at various locations and times. To gather further information, please visit DNS Landlord Training Program website.

It is recommended that landlords do background checks on tenants prior to forming a lease. A couple helpful sites to assist with conducting a background check:

• CCAP
• Circuit Courts of Wisconsin has public records
• Municipal Court Records
• City of Milwaukee public records of cases involving local ordinance violations
• Milwaukee Police Department’s Open Records Section - see what types of calls for service are happening at potential tenants current property. Requests for police open records can be made through this section.
  Open Records Section is located on the 2nd Floor of District 3 at 2333 N 49th St., and is open Monday – Friday from 9:00am to 2:00pm (Closed Holidays).

Tenants

• DNS Tenant Responsibly Guide / Responsabilda des de Inquilinos
• DNS Apartment Life - Keeping It Legal - brochure for first time and college student renters