254.59
254.59
Human health hazards. 254.59(1)
(1) If a local health officer finds a human health hazard, he or she shall order the abatement or removal of the human health hazard on private premises, within a reasonable time period, and if the owner or occupant fails to comply, the local health officer may enter upon the premises and abate or remove the human health hazard.
254.59(2)
(2) If a human health hazard is found on private property, the local health officer shall notify the owner and the occupant of the property, by registered mail with return receipt requested, of the presence of the human health hazard and order its abatement or removal within 30 days of receipt of the notice. If the human health hazard is not abated or removed by that date, the local health officer shall immediately enter upon the property and abate or remove the human health hazard or may contract to have the work performed. The human health hazard shall be abated in a manner which is approved by the local health officer. The cost of the abatement or removal may be recovered from the person permitting the violation or may be paid by the municipal treasurer and the account, after being paid by the treasurer, shall be filed with the municipal clerk, who shall enter the amount chargeable to the property in the next tax roll in a column headed "For Abatement of a Nuisance" as a special tax on the lands upon which the human health hazard was abated, and the tax shall be collected as are other taxes. In case of railroads or other lands not taxed in the usual way, the amount chargeable shall be certified by the clerk to the secretary of administration who shall add the amount designated in the certificate to the sum due from the company owning, occupying, or controlling the land specified, and the secretary of administration shall collect the amount as prescribed in
subch. I of ch. 76 and return the amount collected to the town, city, or village from which the certificate was received. Anyone maintaining such a human health hazard may also be fined not more than $300 or imprisoned for not more than 90 days or both. The only defenses an owner may have against the collection of a tax under this subsection are that no human health hazard existed on the owner's property, that no human health hazard was corrected on the owner's property, that the procedure outlined in this subsection was not followed or any applicable defense under
s. 74.33.
254.59(4)
(4) In cities under general charter, the local health officer may enter into and examine any place at any time to ascertain health conditions, and anyone refusing to allow entrance at reasonable hours shall be fined not less than $10 nor more than $100. If the local health officer deems it necessary to abate or remove a human health hazard found on private property, the local health officer shall serve notice on the owner or occupant to abate or remove within a reasonable time that is not less than 24 hours; and if he or she fails to comply, or if the human health hazard is on property whose owner is a nonresident, or cannot be found, the local health officer shall cause abatement or removal.
254.59(5)
(5) The cost of abatement or removal of a human health hazard under this section may be at the expense of the municipality and may be collected from the owner or occupant, or person causing, permitting, or maintaining the human health hazard, or may be charged against the premises and, upon certification of the local health officer, assessed as are other special taxes. In cases of railroads or other lands not taxed in the usual way, the amount chargeable shall be certified by the clerk to the secretary of administration who shall add the amount designated in the certificate to the sum due from the company owning, occupying, or controlling the land specified, and the secretary of administration shall collect the amount as prescribed in
subch. I of ch. 76 and return the amount collected to the town, city, or village from which the certificate was received. Anyone maintaining such a human health hazard may also be fined not more than $300 or imprisoned for not more than 90 days or both. The only defenses an owner may have against the collection of a tax under this subsection are that no human health hazard existed on the owner's property, that no human health hazard was corrected on the owner's property, that the procedure outlined in this subsection was not followed, or any applicable defense under
s. 74.33.
254.59(6)
(6) A 1st class city may, but is not required to, follow the provisions of this section. A 1st class city may follow the provisions of its charter.
254.59(7)(a)(a) A county, city, village, or town with a local health department may enact an ordinance concerning abatement or removal of a human health hazard that is at least as restrictive as this section.
254.59(7)(b)
(b) An ordinance enacted under
par. (a) may be enforced in the county, city, village, or town that enacted it.
254.59(7)(c)
(c) This subsection may not be construed to prohibit any agreement under
s. 66.0301 between a county and a city, town, or village that has a local health department, concerning enforcement under this section.
254.593
254.593
Authority of the department and local health departments. The department or a local health department may declare housing that is dilapidated, unsafe or unsanitary to be a human health hazard.
254.593 History
History: 1993 a. 27.
254.595
254.595
Property violating codes or health orders. 254.595(1)(1) If real property is in violation of those provisions of a municipal building code that concern health or safety, the city, village, or town in which the property is located may commence an action to declare the property a nuisance. If real property is in violation of an order or a regulation of the local board of health, the city, village, or town in which the property is located may commence an action to declare the property a human health hazard. A tenant or class of tenants of property that is in violation of the municipal building code or of an order or regulation of the local board of health or any other person or class of persons whose health, safety or property interests are or would be adversely affected by property that is in violation of the municipal building code or of an order or regulation of the local board of health may file a petition with the clerk of the city, village, or town requesting the governing body to commence an action to declare the property a nuisance or human health hazard. If the governing body refuses or fails to commence an action within 20 days after the filing of the petition, a tenant, class of tenants, other person or other class of persons may commence the action directly upon the filing of security for court costs. The court before which the action of the case is commenced shall exercise jurisdiction in rem or quasi in rem over the property and the owner of record of the property, if known, and all other persons of record holding or claiming any interest in the property shall be made parties defendant and service of process may be had upon them as provided by law. Any change of ownership after the commencement of the action shall not affect the jurisdiction of the court over the property. At the time that the action is commenced, the municipality or other parties plaintiff shall file a lis pendens. If the court finds that a violation exists, it shall adjudge the property a nuisance or human health hazard and the entry of judgment shall be a lien upon the premises.
254.595(2)
(2) A property owner or any person of record holding or claiming any interest in the property shall have 60 days after entry of judgment to eliminate the violation. If, within 60 days after entry of judgment under
sub. (1), an owner of the property presents evidence satisfactory to the court, upon hearing, that the violation has been eliminated, the court shall set aside the judgment. It may not be a defense to this action that the owner of record of the property is a different person, partnership or corporate entity than the owner of record of the property on the date that the action was commenced or thereafter if a lis pendens has been filed prior to the change of ownership. No hearing under this subsection may be held until notice has been given to the municipality and all the plaintiffs advising them of their right to appear. If the judgment is not so set aside within 60 days after entry of judgment, the court shall appoint a disinterested person to act as receiver of the property for the purpose of abating the nuisance or human health hazard.
254.595(3)(a)(a) Any receiver appointed under
sub. (2) shall collect all rents and profits accruing from the property, pay all costs of management, including all general and special real estate taxes or assessments and interest payments on first mortgages on the property, and make any repairs necessary to meet the standards required by the building code or the order or regulation of the local board of health. The receiver may, with the approval of the circuit court, borrow money against and encumber the property as security for the money, in the amounts necessary to meet the standards.
254.595(3)(b)
(b) At the request of and with the approval of the owner, the receiver may sell the property at a price equal to at least the appraisal value plus the cost of any repairs made under this section for which the selling owner is or will become liable. The receiver shall apply moneys received from the sale of the property to pay all debts due on the property in the order set by law, and shall pay over any balance with the approval of the court, to the selling owner.
254.595(4)
(4) The receiver appointed under this section shall have a lien, for the expenses necessarily incurred to abate the nuisance or in the execution of the order, upon the premises upon or in respect of which the work required by the order has been done or expenses incurred. The municipality that sought the order declaring the property to be a nuisance or human health hazard may also recover its expenses and the expenses of the receiver under
subs. (3) (a) and
(5), to the extent that the expenses are not reimbursed under
s. 632.103 (2) from funds withheld from an insurance settlement, by maintaining an action against the property owner under
s. 74.53.
254.595(5)
(5) The court shall set the fees and bond of the receiver, and may discharge the receiver when the court deems appropriate.
254.595(6)
(6) Nothing in this section relieves the owner of any property for which a receiver has been appointed from any civil or criminal responsibility or liability otherwise imposed by law, except that the receiver shall be civilly and criminally responsible and liable for all matters and acts directly under his or her authority or performed by him or her or at his or her direction.
254.595(7)
(7) This section shall not apply to owner-occupied one or 2-family dwellings.
254.595(8)
(8) The commencement of an action by a tenant under this section is not just cause for eviction.
254.595 History
History: 1973 c. 306; Sup. Ct. Order, 67 Wis. 2d 585, 762 (1975); Stats. 1975 s. 823.22;
1983 a. 476;
1987 a. 378;
1989 a. 347;
1993 a. 27 s.
493; Stats. 1993 s. 254.595;
2001 a. 86.
254.595 Annotation
In an action alleging a public nuisance, it was sufficient to allege that the defendants knowingly caused the lowering of the ground water table from which the area residents drew water from private wells, which caused numerous citizens great hardship. State v. Michels Pipeline Construction, Inc.
63 Wis. 2d 278,
217 N.W.2d 339,
219 N.W.2d 308 (1974).
LODGING AND FOOD PROTECTION
254.61
254.61
Definitions. In this subchapter:
254.61(1)
(1) "Bed and breakfast establishment" means any place of lodging that satisfies all of the following:
254.61(1)(a)
(a) Provides 8 or fewer rooms for rent to no more than a total of 20 tourists or transients.
254.61(1)(b)
(b) Provides no meals other than breakfast and provides the breakfast only to renters of the place.
254.61(1)(d)
(d) Is occupied by the owner at the time of rental.
254.61(1)(e)
(e) Was originally built and occupied as a single-family residence, or, prior to use as a place of lodging, was converted to use and occupied as a single-family residence.
254.61(2)
(2) "Establishment" means a hotel, tourist rooming house, bed and breakfast establishment, restaurant, temporary restaurant or vending machine commissary.
254.61(3)
(3) "Hotel" means all places wherein sleeping accommodations are offered for pay to transients, in 5 or more rooms, and all places used in connection therewith. "Hotelkeeper", "motelkeeper" and "innkeeper" are synonymous and "inn", "motel" and "hotel" are synonymous.
254.61(3m)
(3m) "Potluck event" means an event to which all of the following apply:
254.61(3m)(a)
(a) Attendees of the event provide food and beverages to be shared with other attendees and consumed at the event.
254.61(3m)(b)
(b) No compensation is provided to any person who conducts or assists in providing the event or who provides food and beverages to be shared at the event, and no compensation is paid by any person for consumption of food or beverages at the event.
254.61(3m)(c)
(c) The event is sponsored by any of the following:
254.61(3m)(c)2.
2. A religious, fraternal, youth, or patriotic organization or service club.
254.61(4)
(4) "Public health and safety" means the highest degree of protection against infection, contagion or disease and freedom from the danger of fire or accident that can be reasonably maintained in the operation of a hotel, restaurant, tourist rooming house, bed and breakfast establishment, vending machine or vending machine commissary.
254.61(5)
(5) "Restaurant" means any building, room or place where meals are prepared or served or sold to transients or the general public, and all places used in connection with it and includes any public or private school lunchroom for which food service is provided by contract. "Meals" does not include soft drinks, ice cream, milk, milk drinks, ices and confections. "Restaurant" does not include:
254.61(5)(a)
(a) Taverns that serve free lunches consisting of popcorn, cheese, crackers, pretzels, cold sausage, cured fish or bread and butter.
254.61(5)(b)
(b) Churches, religious, fraternal, youths' or patriotic organizations, service clubs and civic organizations which occasionally prepare, serve or sell meals to transients or the general public.
254.61(5)(c)
(c) Any public or private school lunchroom for which food service is directly provided by the school, or a private individual selling foods from a movable or temporary stand at public farm sales.
254.61(5)(d)
(d) Any bed and breakfast establishment that serves breakfasts only to its lodgers.
254.61(5)(e)
(e) The serving of food or beverage through a licensed vending machine.
254.61(5)(f)
(f) Any college campus, as defined in
s. 36.05 (6m), institution as defined in
s. 36.51 (1) (b) or technical college that serves meals only to the students enrolled in the college campus, institution or school or to authorized elderly persons under
s. 36.51 or
38.36.
254.61(5)(g)
(g) A concession stand at a locally sponsored sporting event, such as a little league game.
254.61(5m)
(5m) "Temporary restaurant" means a restaurant that operates at a fixed location in conjunction with a single event such as a fair, carnival, circus, public exhibition, anniversary sale or occasional sales promotion.
254.61(5r)
(5r) "Tourist or transient" means a person who travels from place to place away from his or her permanent residence for vacation, pleasure, recreation, culture, business or employment.
254.61(6)
(6) "Tourist rooming house" means any lodging place or tourist cabin or cottage where sleeping accommodations are offered for pay to tourists or transients. "Tourist rooming house" does not include:
254.61(6)(a)
(a) A private boarding or rooming house, ordinarily conducted as such, not accommodating tourists or transients.
254.61(7)
(7) "Vending machine" means any self-service device offered for public use which, upon insertion of a coin or token, or by other means, dispenses unit servings of food or beverage either in bulk or in package, without the necessity of replenishing the device between each vending operation. "Vending machine" does not include a device which dispenses only bottled, prepackaged or canned soft drinks, a one cent vending device, a vending machine dispensing only candy, gum, nuts, nut meats, cookies or crackers or a vending machine dispensing only prepackaged Grade A pasteurized milk or milk products.
254.61(8)
(8) "Vending machine commissary" means any building, room or place where the food, beverage, ingredients, containers, transport equipment or supplies for vending machines are kept, handled, prepared or stored by a vending machine operator. "Vending machine commissary" does not mean any place at which the operator is licensed to manufacture, distribute or sell food products under
ch. 97.
254.61(9)
(9) "Vending machine location" means the room, enclosure, space or area where one or more vending machines are installed and operated.
254.61(10)
(10) "Vending machine operator" means the person maintaining a place of business in the state and responsible for the operation of one or more vending machines.
254.62
254.62
Coordination; certification. 254.62(1)
(1) The department shall enter into memoranda of understanding with other state agencies to establish food protection measures.
254.62(2)
(2) The department shall promulgate rules that establish a food sanitation manager certification program.
254.62(3)
(3) The department shall accept relevant education, training, instruction, or other experience that an applicant has obtained in connection with military service, as defined in
s. 111.32 (12g), to count toward satisfying any education, training, instruction, or other experience requirement in the food sanitation manager certification program established under
sub. (2) if the applicant demonstrates to the satisfaction of the department that the education, training, instruction, or other experience that the applicant obtained in connection with his or her military service is substantially equivalent to the education, training, instruction, or other experience that is required to obtain an initial certificate under the food sanitation manager certification program.
254.62 History
History: 1993 a. 27;
2011 a. 120.
254.63
254.63
Motels. Upon the written request of the hotel operator made on forms furnished by the department, the department may classify a hotel as a "motel", if the operator of the hotel furnishes on-premises parking facilities for the motor vehicles of the hotel guests as a part of the room charge, without extra cost.
254.63 History
History: 1983 a. 203 ss.
3,
5;
1983 a. 538 s.
67;
1993 a. 27 s.
66; Stats. 1993 s. 254.63.
254.64(1)(a)(a) No person may conduct, maintain, manage or operate a hotel, restaurant, temporary restaurant, tourist rooming house, vending machine commissary or vending machine if the person has not been issued an annual permit by the department or by a local health department that is granted agent status under
s. 254.69 (2).
254.64(1)(b)
(b) No person may maintain, manage or operate a bed and breakfast establishment for more than 10 nights in a year without having first obtained an annual permit from the department.
254.64(1)(c)
(c) Except as provided in
s. 250.041, no permit may be issued under this section until all applicable fees have been paid. If the payment is by check or other draft drawn upon an account containing insufficient funds, the permit applicant shall, within 15 days after receipt of notice from the department of the insufficiency, pay by cashier's check or other certified draft, money order or cash the fees, late fees and processing charges that are specified by rules promulgated by the department. If the permit applicant fails to pay all applicable fees, late fees and processing charges within 15 days after the applicant receives notice of the insufficiency, the permit is void. In an appeal concerning voiding of a permit under this paragraph, the burden is on the permit applicant to show that the entire applicable fees, late fees and processing charges have been paid. During any appeal process concerning payment dispute, operation of the establishment in question is deemed to be operation without a permit.
254.64(1)(d)
(d) If a person or establishment licensed under
ch. 97 is incidentally engaged in an activity for which a permit is required under this section, the department may, by rule, exempt the person or establishment from the permit requirement under this section. Rules under this paragraph shall conform to a memorandum of understanding between the department and the department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection.
254.64(1m)
(1m) No county, city, village or town may require any permit of, or impose any permit or inspection fee on, a vending machine operator, vending machine commissary or vending machine permitted under this subchapter.
254.64(1p)
(1p) Except as provided in
s. 250.041, the department may condition the initial issuance, renewal or continued validity of a permit issued under this section on correction by the permittee of a violation of this subchapter, rules promulgated by the department under this subchapter or ordinances or regulations adopted under
s. 254.69 (2) (g), within a specified period of time. If the permittee fails to meet the condition within the specified period of time, the permit is void.
254.64(2)
(2) Except as provided in
sub. (3), a separate permit is required for each establishment.
254.64(3)(a)(a) A bulk milk dispenser may be operated in a restaurant without a vending machine or vending machine operator permit.
254.64(3)(b)
(b) A restaurant may operate as a vending machine commissary without a vending machine commissary permit.
