The parents of slain University of Wisconsin junior Brittany Zimmermann have filed a lawsuit against Wisconsin Management, Inc. due to inadequate locks and doors at the apartment in which she was killed last April.

Zimmermann’s parents had filed a federal lawsuit against Dane County and the 911 Center earlier this year but dropped the case at the end of June with the agreement to file again in state court.

The current suit lists Wisconsin Management, Inc. and its insurer, General Casualty, according to circuit court records.

Jean Zimmermann, Brittany’s mother, said Brittany’s fianc?, Jordan Gonnering, had complained to the landlord about the lack of sturdy locks and doors.

“The apartment was not up to city code,” Jean Zimmermann said. “This is an effort to make housing safer for college students, not only in Madison, but across the country.”

The lawsuit says Brittany Zimmermann was home at the time of her murder because Wisconsin Management was sending an interested leaser to look at the apartment, The Capital Times reported.

Zimmermann’s mother said the issue is that Wisconsin Management claims they had not sent a leaser that day, though Gonnering says otherwise.

Madison Police Department confirmed there was forced entry into the apartment on the day of Zimmermann’s murder.

Jean Zimmermann said the family brought the lawsuit against the company because they hope to make student housing safer.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he had conversations with Gonnering and the Zimmermann family regarding the lack of adequate security in the house.

“I recall in a conversation I had with Brittany’s fianc?, Jordan, he told me he was concerned … that the house was not properly maintained, the landlord was not doing what he should,” Verveer said.

Verveer also recalled Gonnering telling him that he and Zimmermann had a conversation about safety after the stabbing of Joel Marino occurred late January just blocks from their apartment at 517 W. Doty St.

Madison has an ordinance requiring landlords to have locks on all first-floor windows and deadbolt locks on the doors to all common areas, including shared laundry rooms.

“The city has some very strong housing codes as it relates to security,” Verveer said. The ordinance, which Verveer spearheaded, was a response to a sexual assault that occurred near Camp Randall a few years ago, he added.

The suit asks for “unspecified compensatory and punitive damages,” The Capital Times reported.

Verveer said the feeling he got from both Gonnering and Zimmermann’s family was that they are more concerned with making sure this won’t happen again to other students. He said he assumes any money won in the lawsuit would go toward the Brittany Zimmermann scholarship fund.

The lawsuit is being assigned to a new judge, due to the current judge’s conflict of interests.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge William Hanrahan said he could not make any rulings because his brother, Thomas Hanrahan, is the record custodian for Dane County emergency communications, The Capital Times reported.

Dane County emergency communications handles all the 911 Dispatch Center’s records, which would include the mishandled call from Zimmermann on the day of her murder.