Lease Acceleration Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Wisconsin law says, what's specific to Milwaukee - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- § 704.44(3m) makes a residential rental agreement void and unenforceable if it provides for acceleration of rent payments on the tenant's default or breach, or otherwise waives the landlord's obligation to mitigate damages under § 704.29.
- The rule reaches the whole agreement. Section 704.44 opens "Notwithstanding s. 704.02", the section that otherwise lets the rest of a rental agreement survive an invalid provision, and Wisconsin Administrative Code § ATCP 134.08(3) states the same rule in the same words.
- § 704.29 sets the duty. A landlord whose tenant unjustifiably moves out early and stops paying recovers rent and damages except amounts it could mitigate, reduced by the net rent obtainable by reasonable efforts to re-rent.
- The proof is split. The landlord must allege and prove efforts to comply, and the tenant carries the burden of proving those efforts were not reasonable and what reasonable efforts would have brought in.
- Under § 704.28(4)(b) the deposit is due within 21 days after the lease's termination date, or after the new tenant's tenancy begins if the unit is re-rented sooner. Our record finds no Milwaukee ordinance on acceleration or re-renting; read the current Wisconsin text yourself.
Understanding the Lease Acceleration Clause
An acceleration clause is the lease paragraph that turns the rest of your term into one bill. Miss a payment or break a term, and the clause calls every remaining month due at once.
Wisconsin answers that paragraph at the level of the whole lease. Wis. Stat. § 704.44(3m) says a residential rental agreement is void and unenforceable if it provides for acceleration of rent payments on the tenant's default or breach, or otherwise waives the landlord's obligation to mitigate damages.
The section opens by setting aside § 704.02, the severability rule that would otherwise let the rest of a lease stand.
The duty such a clause would sidestep is in § 704.29. It limits a landlord's recovery after an early move-out to what reasonable re-renting could not make up, and it splits the proof between the two sides.
This page reads both sections and the deposit rule that points back to them.
What renters assume
An acceleration paragraph is one clause among many, so if it goes too far a court strikes that line and the rest of the lease carries on.
What is actually true
Wisconsin's statute is written at the level of the agreement. § 704.44(3m) says a residential rental agreement that provides for acceleration of rent on default or breach, or otherwise waives the landlord's duty to mitigate, "is void and unenforceable". The section opens "Notwithstanding s. 704.02", which is the severability rule.
None of the 22 rows in the comparison on this page carries a figure; each is a short label. Milwaukee's reads Mandatory; acceleration voids lease.
Fourteen of the 22 labels open with Mandatory, Milwaukee's among them, beside Austin, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Phoenix, Nashville, Portland, Las Vegas, Washington, Newark, Baltimore and Minneapolis. Miami and Philadelphia read No duty to re-rent, Atlanta reads Likely no duty, Denver and Columbus read No statute; case law, Boston reads No statute; 93A limits, Detroit reads Non-waivable by lease, and Charlotte reads Case law; tenant proves.
Two labels name who carries the proof: Los Angeles reads Mandatory, tenant proves and Newark reads Mandatory, landlord proves. Wisconsin's § 704.29 gives a part to each side, and Milwaukee's label names the consequence for the lease instead.
Plain English Version
In Wisconsin a lease that makes the rest of your rent due at once because you fell behind or broke a term is, by statute, void and unenforceable as a whole. So is a lease that waives the landlord's duty to mitigate.
If you move out early without justification and stop paying, the landlord can still claim rent and damages, but not what reasonable efforts to re-rent could have made up. The landlord has to show it tried.
You have to show the effort was not reasonable and what a reasonable one would have brought in.
Rent Acceleration Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Milwaukee, WI
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
Below is the acceleration paragraph from the Crestview lease as the Montana court reproduced it, short of its closing sentence, which deals with late charges and interest on a sum once it has been accelerated:
If any monthly installment under this agreement is not paid when due and remains unpaid after a date specified by a notice to Tenant, the entire principal rent amount owed for the full lease term shall at once become due and payable at the option of the Landlord and judgment may be had for all said amounts due. The foregoing provision shall not relieve the Landlord of its obligation to mitigate damages. In the event the rental premises is re-rented to another for full value prior to expiration of the lease term, Landlord shall file Notice of Partial Satisfaction of any judgment entered to the extent of the third party rental agreement.
[…]
Quoted from the published opinion in Summers v. Crestview Apartments, 2010 MT 164, 357 Mont. 123, 236 P.3d 586 (No. DA 09-0489). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“any monthly installment under this”
One missed installment is the trigger, and Wisconsin's statute meets the paragraph right there. Under § 704.44(3m), a residential rental agreement that “Provides for an acceleration of rent payments in the event of tenant default or breach of obligations under the rental agreement” is void and unenforceable. Wisconsin Administrative Code § ATCP 134.08(3) states the same rule in the same words.
“payable at the option of the”
The lease hands the landlord an option to use later. Wisconsin's statute asks what the agreement provides. Section 704.44 opens “Notwithstanding s. 704.02”, the section that otherwise lets the rest of a rental agreement survive an invalid provision, and then says an agreement providing for acceleration “is void and unenforceable”. The consequence our record quotes attaches to the agreement as a whole, not to this one sentence.
“said amounts due. The”
“Said amounts” means the whole remaining term, and the sentence that follows promises mitigation in a single line. Wisconsin spells the duty out. § 704.29 lets a landlord whose tenant unjustifiably moves out and stops paying recover rent and damages except amounts it could mitigate. The recovery is reduced by the net rent obtainable by reasonable efforts to re-rent, meaning the steps the landlord would have taken had the unit been vacated in due course.
“event the rental premises is”
Re-renting is where this lease's credit begins, and Wisconsin sets the accounting. Under § 704.29(2) the tenant is credited with rent actually received under a re-rental, minus reasonable expenses including a fair share of remodeling, and the landlord may add reasonable listing and advertising costs. A landlord with other similar units who gets an offer the departing tenant did not find may rent the other unit first.
The Montana Supreme Court struck this paragraph down, and its conclusion is one sentence: “Thus, we conclude that the accelerated rent provision is unconscionable and therefore unenforceable.” The tenants had moved out of their apartment on October 13, 2006, and Crestview answered with a Statement of Deductions from the Security Deposit charging rent through the end of the lease in June - $6,505.75 billed against a $2,170 deposit. Two reasons carried the court. Acceleration undermines the landlord's duty to mitigate and reduces the incentive to re-rent promptly, because a landlord already holding a judgment for the whole term has little reason to fill the unit. And Crestview drafted the lease while these tenants had no meaningful choice and no opportunity to negotiate any of it. The case was reversed and remanded, and two justices wrote separately - their objection being that the majority had gone as far as treating acceleration clauses as unenforceable in themselves. So read the holding narrowly, as the majority wrote it: this provision, in this residential lease, unconscionable and unenforceable. It is a Montana decision and it binds no other state's courts. What travels is the reasoning, and the reasoning is about mitigation - which is exactly the question the statute in your own city's decode answers.
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Wisconsin Law on Lease Acceleration Clause
- The ban voids the whole agreement, not just the clause. Section 704.44 opens "Notwithstanding s. 704.02", the section that otherwise lets the rest of a rental agreement survive an invalid provision, and says a residential rental agreement "is void and unenforceable" if it "Provides for an acceleration of rent payments in the event of tenant default or breach of obligations under the rental agreement, or otherwise waives the landlord's obligation to mitigate damages as provided in s. 704.29." Wisconsin Administrative Code § ATCP 134.08(3) states the same rule in the same words, and § 704.95 says a practice violating § 704.44 may also be an unfair trade practice under § 100.20.
- Section 704.29(2) sets the measure. "Reasonable efforts" are the steps the landlord would have taken to rent the unit had it been vacated in due course, in line with local rental practice for similar properties. The tenant is credited with rent actually received under a re-rental, minus reasonable expenses including a fair share of remodeling, and the landlord may add reasonable listing and advertising costs. A landlord with other similar units who gets an offer the departing tenant did not find may rent the other unit first.
- Some landlord acts do not end the tenant's liability. Under § 704.29(4), entering with or without notice to inspect, repair or show the unit, re-renting it with the rent applied against the original tenant's debt, and the landlord's own use for up to one year with prompt written notice and a credit for its value do not count as accepting a surrender. Under § 704.29(1), the tenant's liability ends early only if the landlord "has expressly agreed to accept a surrender of the premises and end the tenant's liability."
- Mitigation runs through the other early-exit rules too. Rent owed by a survivor who leaves under § 704.16(2) or (2m), and by a deceased tenant's estate under § 704.165(2), is subject to the duty in § 704.29(2). Under § 704.28(1)(b) a landlord may withhold unpaid rent from the security deposit only "subject to s. 704.29", and under § 704.28(4)(b) the deposit is due within 21 days after the lease's termination date, or after the new tenant's tenancy begins if the unit is re-rented sooner. These sections were read from archived copies of the Wisconsin Legislature's pages, so check the current text of § 704.29 and § 704.44 before relying on them.
Sources include Wis. Stat. § 704.44(3m); Wis. Stat. § 704.29; Wis. Admin. Code § ATCP 134.08(3); Wis. Stat. § 704.28(1)(b), (4)(b); Wis. Stat. § 66.0104(2)(a), (c); Milwaukee Code of Ordinances § 106-41 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Wisconsin answers this clause in a list of provisions that void a whole residential lease. Wis. Stat. § 704.44 opens "Notwithstanding s. 704.02", the section that otherwise lets the rest of a rental agreement survive an invalid provision.
It then says a residential rental agreement "is void and unenforceable" if it does any of the things it lists.
Subsection (3m) is the one about acceleration. It reaches an agreement that "Provides for an acceleration of rent payments in the event of tenant default or breach of obligations under the rental agreement, or otherwise waives the landlord's obligation to mitigate damages as provided in s. 704.29." Wisconsin Administrative Code § ATCP 134.08(3) states the same rule in the same words, and § 704.95 says a practice violating § 704.44 may also be an unfair trade practice under § 100.20.
The duty that subsection protects is in § 704.29. When a tenant unjustifiably moves out before the tenancy ends and defaults in rent, the landlord can recover rent and damages except amounts it could mitigate.
Under § 704.29(1), the tenant's liability does not end early unless the landlord "has expressly agreed to accept a surrender of the premises and end the tenant's liability."
§ 704.29(2) sets the measure:
- "Reasonable efforts" are the steps the landlord would have taken to rent the unit had it been vacated in due course, in line with local rental practice for similar properties.
- The tenant is credited with rent actually received under a re-rental, minus reasonable expenses including a fair share of remodeling.
- The landlord may add reasonable listing and advertising costs, and a landlord with other similar units who gets an offer the departing tenant did not find may rent the other unit first.
The section splits the proof. The landlord must allege and prove efforts to comply, and the tenant carries the burden of proving those efforts were not reasonable and what reasonable efforts would have brought in.
Some landlord acts do not end the tenant's liability. Under § 704.29(4), entering with or without notice to inspect, repair or show the unit does not count as accepting a surrender.
Neither does re-renting it with the rent applied against the original tenant's debt, or the landlord's own use for up to one year with prompt written notice and a credit for its value.
The duty runs through the deposit and the other exits too. Under § 704.28(1)(b) a landlord may withhold unpaid rent from the security deposit "subject to s. 704.29".
Under § 704.28(4)(b) the deposit is due within 21 days after the lease's termination date, or after the new tenant's tenancy begins if the unit is re-rented sooner. Rent owed by a survivor under § 704.16(2) or (2m), and by an estate under § 704.165(2), is subject to the same duty.
These sections were read from archived copies of the Wisconsin Legislature's pages, so read the current text of § 704.29 and § 704.44 on docs.legis.wisconsin.gov before relying on them.
Wisconsin Tenant Protections
Wisconsin's protection works on the lease itself. Under § 704.44(3m) a residential rental agreement that provides for acceleration of rent payments on the tenant's default or breach, or otherwise waives the landlord's obligation to mitigate damages, is void and unenforceable.
The section opens by setting aside the severability rule in § 704.02. § ATCP 134.08(3) repeats the rule, and § 704.95 says a practice violating § 704.44 may also be an unfair trade practice under § 100.20.
After an early move-out, § 704.29 limits the landlord to rent and damages it could not mitigate, reduced by the net rent obtainable by reasonable efforts to re-rent. The tenant is credited with rent actually received under a re-rental, minus reasonable expenses including a fair share of remodeling, and the landlord may add reasonable listing and advertising costs.
The landlord must allege and prove its efforts; the tenant must prove they were not reasonable and what reasonable efforts would have brought in.
Under § 704.29(1) the tenant's liability does not end early unless the landlord has expressly agreed to accept a surrender, and the acts listed in § 704.29(4), such as showing or re-renting the unit, are not that acceptance. The deposit follows the same rule: § 704.28(1)(b) makes withholding for unpaid rent subject to § 704.29, and § 704.28(4)(b) sets the return at 21 days after the termination date, or after a new tenant's tenancy begins if that is sooner.
Read the current text of these sections before relying on them.
What's Specific to Milwaukee
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
For this question Milwaukee's own code is not where the answer sits, as far as our record reaches. Our record of the Milwaukee Code of Ordinances was read in the City Clerk's own volumes, from Wayback Machine copies.
Volume 1, the Regulatory Ordinances, is marked complete through Common Council actions of February 11, 2025, and Volume 2, the Building and Zoning Code, through 2025 actions taking effect January 1, 2026.
Both were text-searched in full, and our record finds no Milwaukee ordinance on rent acceleration or on a landlord's duty to re-rent. The rules our record finds for Milwaukee are the state's, in §§ 704.29 and 704.44 and § ATCP 134.08(3).
The city's code is not on Municode, and the city's own site refused our requests, so ordinances adopted after those two volumes were compiled are outside this record.
What the city's code does carry is a rule aimed at a tenant who leaves owing rent. Milwaukee Code § 106-41 makes it an offense, with intent to defraud, to "Intentionally abscond without paying rent" agreed in a written lease.
Prima facie evidence arises where rent due before move-out stays unpaid for 5 days after the tenant vacates and the tenant gives no complete and accurate forwarding address. The forfeiture is $250 to $1,000, and the court may order restitution.
State law also limits what a Wisconsin city may enact on this subject. Wis. Stat. § 66.0104(2)(c) bars an ordinance that limits a residential tenant's responsibility, or a landlord's right to recover, for "any other costs, expenses, fees, payments, or damages for which the tenant is responsible under the rental agreement or applicable law".
We describe § 106-41 as enacted and are not predicting how § 66.0104 would apply to it.
The practical test for a Milwaukee lease is a reading exercise. Find any paragraph that makes the rest of the term due on a missed payment or a breach, and any line saying the landlord has no duty to re-rent.
Both are the kinds of provision § 704.44(3m) names, so note the page and paragraph and keep a copy of the signed lease.
If you leave early, the facts that matter under § 704.29 are the ones you can document. Keep the date you returned the keys, copies of any listing for the unit, and the date a new tenant moved in.
Give the landlord a complete and accurate forwarding address in writing, a fact § 106-41 turns on, and watch for the deposit within the 21 days that § 704.28(4)(b) sets.
Confirm the current Milwaukee code before relying on the absence of a city rule. A Milwaukee tenant lawyer or legal aid office can read your lease against § 704.44 before you agree to any figure.
§ 704.44(3m) says a residential rental agreement that provides for acceleration of rent payments on the tenant's default or breach is void and unenforceable.
The same subsection reaches an agreement that otherwise waives the landlord's obligation to mitigate damages under § 704.29.
Under § 704.29 the landlord must allege and prove its efforts, and the tenant carries the burden of proving they were not reasonable and what reasonable efforts would have brought in.
§ 704.29(2) credits the tenant with rent actually received under a re-rental, minus reasonable expenses including a fair share of remodeling.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Wis. Stat. § 704.44(3m); Wis. Stat. § 704.29; Wis. Admin. Code § ATCP 134.08(3); Wis. Stat. § 704.28(1)(b), (4)(b); Wis. Stat. § 66.0104(2)(a), (c); Milwaukee Code of Ordinances § 106-41, read on web.archive.org. The Wisconsin Legislature's § 704.44 page, updated through 2025 Wisconsin Act 103 and published April 3, 2026, was read from a Wayback Machine copy dated April 13, 2026, and its § 704.29 page, updated through 2025 Wisconsin Act 247 and published August 5, 2026, from a copy dated August 28, 2026; confirm the current text at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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The whole term due on one missed payment
§ 704.44(3m) makes a residential rental agreement void and unenforceable if it provides for acceleration of rent payments on the tenant's default or breach.
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A promise the landlord need not re-rent
The same subsection reaches an agreement that otherwise waives the landlord's obligation to mitigate damages under § 704.29, and § ATCP 134.08(3) repeats the rule.
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A bill with no re-rental credit
§ 704.29(2) credits the tenant with rent actually received under a re-rental, minus reasonable expenses. A bill for the full term that ignores a new tenant's rent reads a different measure.
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The deposit held past 21 days
Under § 704.28(4)(b) the deposit is due within 21 days after the termination date, or after the new tenant's tenancy begins if the unit is re-rented sooner.
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Unpaid rent taken with no account
§ 704.28(1)(b) makes a deposit deduction for unpaid rent subject to § 704.29. Ask in writing what re-renting effort and income sit behind any such figure.
Your Rights as a Milwaukee Tenant
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A lease that cannot accelerate rent
Under § 704.44(3m) a residential rental agreement providing for acceleration of rent payments on default or breach is void and unenforceable.
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A landlord who must mitigate
§ 704.29 limits recovery after an early move-out to rent and damages the landlord could not mitigate, reduced by the net rent obtainable by reasonable efforts to re-rent.
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Credit for a new tenant's rent
§ 704.29(2) credits you with rent actually received under a re-rental, minus reasonable expenses including a fair share of remodeling.
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Your deposit within 21 days
§ 704.28(4)(b) sets the return at 21 days after the termination date, or after the new tenant's tenancy begins if the unit is re-rented sooner.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find the acceleration paragraph
Note the event that triggers it and the figure it demands. Then search the rest of the lease for a line saying the landlord has no duty to re-rent; § 704.44(3m) names both.
Hand back the keys with a dated record
A dated handover note and a photograph of the empty unit fix when the landlord's chance to re-rent began.
Keep evidence of the re-renting
Under § 704.29 the tenant carries the burden of proving the landlord's efforts were not reasonable, so save listings for the unit and note when a new tenant moved in.
Ask for the re-rental account in writing
§ 704.29(2) credits rent actually received under a re-rental, minus reasonable expenses. Ask what the new tenant pays and from when.
Check the code and the statute text today
Our record of the Milwaukee code rests on the Clerk's volumes compiled through February 11, 2025 and January 1, 2026. The Wisconsin sections were read from archived copies, so read their current text on docs.legis.wisconsin.gov.
Get local advice before you agree to a figure
Take the lease, any bill and your evidence to a Milwaukee tenant lawyer or legal aid office, with § 704.44(3m) and the 21-day deposit rule in § 704.28(4)(b) in mind.