The length of time between an eviction notice being taped to a tenant’s door to a sheriff removing them from their home can vary widely. To analyze how fast evictions move in Dane County, we looked at a random sample of 150 evictions from this year and broke the process down into three parts: the lease termination notice, eviction court, and outcome.

Lease Termination Notice

The start of the eviction process is the lease termination notice. A tenant defaults on rent or otherwise violates the terms of the lease and the landlord issues them a notice. The notice can be curable,
meaning the tenant can fix the lease violation or move out to avoid eviction. Or it can be incurable, meaning the tenant must move out by the expiration of the notice or face an eviction filing. These notices are commonly referred to as “eviction notices” but they are actually notices to terminate the lease if the tenant does not take the action required. A landlord can file for eviction after the notice expires.

The most common lease termination notice is a 5-day curable notice, the minimum amount of notice that must be provided to a tenant under Wisconsin state law. So far this year, 56% of eviction filings started with this type of notice. The next most common notices were:

• 30-day curable notices, which are typically required for subsidized properties, and which accounted for 21% of notices.
• 28-day non-renewal notices, which can be issued at any point to someone with a month-to-month tenancy, and which accounted for 7% of notices.
• A combination of 5-day and 14-day notices, the latter of which can be incurable if the tenant has committed the same lease violation and received a notice for it in the past year, which accounted for 2% of notices.

If a tenant’s lease ends and they stay past the lease expiration, the landlord typically does not have to issue a notice at all and can immediately file for eviction.

The average length of time between a notice being issued to a tenant and an eviction being filed was 33 days in our sample. The average amount of time after the expiration of the notice that landlords waited to file for eviction was 21 days, although multiple landlords filed as soon as 1 day after the notice expired.

Eviction Court

Once a landlord files for an eviction in small claims court, the clerk of court schedules the case for an initial appearance in front of a court commissioner. The average amount of time between filing and initial appearance in our sample was 20 days.

At the initial appearance, the landlord and tenant can meet and see if a settlement agreement can be reached. If not, the case can be rescheduled for another commissioner-level initial hearing or be set for trial. In our sample, the average number of hearings per eviction case, including the initial appearance, was 1.9. Eviction trials, if scheduled, typically occur 3 to 10 days after the initial appearance.

The average eviction court case in our sample lasted 43 days, from filing the summons and complaint to the last court date.

Eviction Outcomes

Although a case may be over, an eviction can hang over a tenant for much longer, depending on the case’s outcome. An eviction case might be dismissed outright, dismissed with a stipulated dismissal agreement, or end in a judgment of eviction.

The most common types of stipulated dismissals require the tenant to make payments, move out, or both. In our sample, the average stipulated dismissal with a move-out date allowed 23 days for tenants to vacate, and the average stipulation with a payment plan stretched for 94 days after the case’s final court date.

For eviction judgments entered in court or after a tenant defaults on a stipulated dismissal, the landlord can immediately receive a writ of restitution and deliver it to the sheriff. The sheriff then executes the writ by forcibly evicting the tenant, or confirming that they have moved out, within 10 days.

Even dismissed eviction filings stay on a tenant’s court record for at least 2 years. An eviction record is publicly accessible and can impede a tenant’s ability to secure housing that is decent, affordable, and safe.

Timeline of the Average Eviction

The typical eviction begins with a 5-day notice, which gives the tenant 5 days to either fix the lease violation or vacate. A landlord can file for eviction immediately after the expiration of the notice. The average length of time between a notice being issued to a tenant and an eviction being filed was 33 days in our sample.

After a landlord files for eviction, the case is scheduled in front of a court commissioner, where the parties can try to reach an agreement. The first hearing was 20 days after filing, on average. If no agreement can be reached, the case is scheduled for a trial in front of a judge, who can award an eviction or dismiss the case. An eviction ends either with a judgment or dismissal. On average, cases lasted 43 days from filing to conclusion. If a judgment is granted, the landlord can notify the sheriff, who has 10 days to forcibly remove the tenant from their home. 

Stipulated dismissals can last for months after the last court date. Payment plans stretched for 94 days after the final court date, on average.