The Wisconsin Assembly approved a bill Tuesday to increase landlords’s rights over their tenants, allowing tenants to fix and pay for their own repairs and giving property owners the right to dispose of any items left behind by evicted tenants.

The 57-37 vote fell nearly completely along party lines, with only Rep. Andy Jorgensen, D-Milton, voting against his party and in favor of the bill. The Senate passed the legislation on a party-line vote in September.

However, the Assembly added in additional amendments, such as prohibiting a domestic violence or crime victim from being evicted.

University of Wisconsin professor Mitch –, an expert on Wisconsin rental housing regulations, said the bill would “deregulate” the relationship between landlords and tenants.

“Before deregulation, landlords and their employees could look at the statute, which laid out a 1-2-3 process for what to do when a problem, like property left behind, arose,” he said in an email to The Badger Herald.

Heiner Giese, an attorney with the Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, a group that lobbied in favor of the bill, said the provision allowing landlords to handle their own evictions, rather than having to hire an attorney, would help alleviate tenants’ fears of going up against a landlord.

The bill will return to Senate with changes for final approval.