Complaint Information

Complaints may be filed at any time for valid violations.*  The complaint forms are available below.   They can be mailed, with photos if applicable, to our office or emailed to: zoningdepartment@winnebagocountywi.gov.  

INVESTIGATION PROCESS:

Once a complaint form is received, it is assigned to a staff member for appropriate action. Gaining compliance is achieved through the following process:
  1. ​​​​  Staff member views the property to verify the complaint; 
  2.   If confirmed, a violation letter is sent to the property owner, who is given approximately two weeks to contact the Zoning Department.
  3.   Once contact is made, staff and the property owner work together to bring the property into compliance.  Staff can use their discretion as to timing of compliance.  If 
      cooperation is not received, a citation is issued.  Payment of the citation does not negate the need to bring the proeprty into compliance. 
  4.   If the owner does not respond to the violation letter a citation is issued.  Payment of the citation does not negate the needto bring the property into compliance.  
  5.   If necessary to correct the violation, the matter will be handled through court.  It may take some time for the violation to get resolved; however, this is because of “due process”
      not inefficiency on anyone’s part.
  6.   Staff will view the property following compliance to insure that the matter has been corrected properly.
There are some instances where an alleged violation cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant.  Some reasons for this are:  
  •   inability to prove a violation exists/sufficient evidence; 
  •   the matter was not illegal at the time it happened; 
  •   inability to prosecute due to the nature of the violation; 
  •   not under Winnebago County zoning jurisdiction;
  •   not regulated by the Winnebago County Zoning department;
  •   complaints filed by contentious neighbors may not actually be valid violations of County and State of Wisconsin regulations.

*Note: All complaints are accessible to the public including the complainant's contact information unless the complaint is filed anonymously.   When an anonymous complaint is filed, we are unable to obtain additional information from the complainant if necessary and the complainant can not be informed of outcome of the complaint.

 

COMPLAINT FORM