Rent-to-own company banned from leasing in Wisconsin

Vision Property Management LLC, the controversial national rent-to-own company, is banned from renting out property in Wisconsin and must allow tenants to break their leases and seek financial damages from the South Carolina firm, a Milwaukee County circuit judge ordered Tuesday.

The temporary injunction was issued in response to a suit filed in June by the state Department of Justice seeking to shut down the company’s rent-to-own operation in Wisconsin. The company’s operation here has included about 200 properties.

“Companies that deceive Wisconsin consumers are not welcome in our state,” Attorney General Brad Schimel said in a statement after Judge Rebecca Dallet issued the injunction.

In her order, Dallet, who is running for state Supreme Court, approved the bulk of the state’s request for an injunction against Vision, a company that has been the subject of lawsuits, criticism by politicians — including U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) — and media reports examining its practices. Founded in 2004, the company owns about 5,700 properties in 40 states, according to a December letter to the DOJ from attorneys representing Vision Property.

Locally the company this year came under sharp criticism after it attempted to evict a Milwaukee man from a property it did not own.

Among other things, Vision has been accused of issuing rent-to-own deals on decrepit properties and sticking the costs of repairs and back taxes on the tenants. If the tenants fail to make the repairs and pay the taxes during a set time period, Vision “evicts the tenant and repeats the cycle by renting the uninhabitable property to yet another Wisconsin consumer,” Schimel’s office charged in its litigation.

Dallet’s order denied the state’s request to order that Vision make its rental properties “habitable” as defined by state law. She did, however, give tenants the right to break their leases and seek financial payments for their losses.