Owner Could Evict Tenant for Not Paying Operating Expenses

A lease required the tenant to pay rent and its proportionate share of the building's operating expenses each month. Despite getting monthly invoices for its proportionate share of operating expenses, the tenant paid only its monthly rent. The owner sent the tenant a five-day notice to quit or pay the amount due. The tenant sent the owner a check for some, but not all, of the amount due, so the owner sued to evict the tenant. The court dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that eviction wasn't warranted because the tenant had substantially complied with the request for the amount due. The owner appealed.

A Wisconsin appeals court reinstated the lawsuit, ruling that the owner could evict the tenant for failing to pay its proportionate share of operating expenses. The court noted that the lease allowed the owner to simply terminate the tenant's lease for nonpayment of operating expenses, yet the owner gave the tenant a chance to cure (or fix) the default by paying the amount due, which the tenant failed to do. Also, the court said that if the tenant didn't agree with the calculation of its proportionate share of operating expenses, it should have raised that issue with the owner before the payments were due. And the tenant didn't substantially comply with the request for the operating expense payments due because it didn't pay the full amount, the court added [LDC-728 Milwaukee, LLC v. Frauchigers, LLC].