Wausau committee orders rent abatement after hot-water outage at 615 Whirley Ave.

The Public Health and Safety Committee of the Wausau Common Council on Jan. 27, 2025 ordered a rent abatement for tenants of 615 Whirley Avenue after city inspectors determined the unit lacked hot water and was unfit for human occupancy.

The committee found that the property owner, Anna M. Lopez, doing business as Real Estate Investments, owned the rental on Oct. 18, 2024, and that tenants Angel Holstein and Malik Marks had a lease beginning Dec. 22, 2023. The Inspection and Zoning Division posted the structure as unfit for human occupancy on Oct. 18, 2024 and mailed a code violation notice requiring compliance that same day, the committee said.

In the committee’s findings of fact, a reinspection on Nov. 13, 2024 verified there was still no hot water; an employee of River Valley Plumbing called inspections on Nov. 13 at about 2:09 p.m. to report a water heater had been installed and that hot water should be available in roughly two hours. A tenant verified hot water was available on Nov. 14, 2024. The tenants intermittently vacated the unit from Oct. 18 to Nov. 14, 2024, a period the committee calculated as 26 days. Tenant Malik Marks submitted a rent-abatement form and $25 fee to the city clerk on Nov. 14, 2024.

After reviewing the timeline and evidence at the Jan. 27 hearing, the committee concluded the owner failed to comply with the Oct. 18 and Nov. 5, 2024 notices and awarded rent abatement retroactive to Oct. 18, 2024 through Nov. 13, 2024. The committee’s written order states the award is 75% of the monthly rent, in the amount of $1,058.88, and directs counsel for the committee to provide copies of the findings and determination to the owner, the clerk and the tenants.

The owner asked at the hearing about a rent discount she had already given the tenants, saying, “What will happen with the discount that I already gave them?” A committee member replied, “The dis the amount of rent abatement is not negotiable. So their rent is abated in a in that dollar total,” and clarified the committee was not negotiating private rent adjustments on the committee floor. The committee further explained the abated amount is an award to the tenants and may be realized by refund to the tenant or by the tenant withholding that amount from future rent, per the committee’s determination.

The committee’s record includes the lease monthly rent as $1,600 plus a $50 pet fee, which the transcript records as a total of $1,650. The written award of 75% cited in committee documents is $1,058.88; 75% of $1,650 would be $1,237.50. The committee’s determination as read at the hearing lists $1,058.88 as the award amount. That inconsistency appears in the committee’s hearing text and is recorded here as presented at the Jan. 27 proceeding.

Committee counsel and staff were directed to distribute the written findings to the parties; the committee closed the rent-abatement hearing at the end of the Jan. 27 meeting.

Notes: the hearing was held pursuant to Wausau Municipal Code chapter 16.04.037 (rent abatement).