Wisconsin HOA Assessment Limits

Overview: How assessment authority and limits work in Wisconsin

Wisconsin sets no statutory ceiling on assessment increases and gives owners no vote to ratify or veto a board-adopted budget. Condominium associations operate under the Wisconsin Condominium Ownership Act, Chapter 703 of the Wisconsin Statutes, where the board of directors holds the power to adopt budgets and levy assessments for common expenses, subject to the recorded declaration.¹ Regular increases take effect through board adoption of the annual budget required by Wis. Stat. § 703.161 — no percentage cap applies, and no owner-ratification step exists.² Special assessments are authorized and limited by the declaration and bylaws; all assessments become a lien on the unit under Wis. Stat. § 703.165, a lien prior to all other liens except, among others, a first mortgage recorded before the assessment.³ On the national assessment-limit spectrum, Wisconsin sits among the declaration-driven states — distinct from statutory-cap states such as California and from ratification-mechanism states that enacted versions of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. The sections below set out the assessment framework, the procedures that apply in practice, and the recent legislative and judicial activity bearing on Wisconsin assessments.

The assessment framework

Authority to levy and allocate assessments

Condominiums. The Wisconsin Condominium Ownership Act makes every condominium association a legal entity for all purposes, and, except for matters the chapter, the declaration, or the bylaws reserve to the members, the board of directors makes all policy and operational decisions.⁴ Among the association's enumerated powers is the authority to adopt budgets for revenues, expenditures, and reserves and to levy and collect assessments for common expenses from unit owners.⁵ The conditional powers in § 703.15(3)(b) are exercised "subject to any restrictions and limitations specified by the declaration," which confirms the declaration's controlling role.⁶ Section 703.161 requires any association for a condominium that includes at least one residential unit to adopt annually and distribute to all unit owners an annual budget stating anticipated common expenses, reserve allocations, and the aggregate assessment to be levied.⁷ The association allocates common expenses according to each unit's percentage interest in the common elements, or as the declaration otherwise provides.⁸

HOAs. Wisconsin has no comprehensive statute for non-condominium homeowners associations. A planned-community HOA draws its assessment authority from its recorded covenants — the declaration of conditions, covenants, and restrictions — and from its corporate power as a nonstock, nonprofit corporation under Chapter 181 of the Wisconsin Statutes.⁹ A qualifying nonprofit membership corporation that maintains common properties may also use the maintenance-lien procedure in Wis. Stat. § 779.70, under which the governing board adopts an annual budget and levies a maintenance assessment.¹⁰

In both settings, the governing board sets the assessment through the budget, and the recorded instrument — the condominium declaration or the HOA covenants — controls the allocation formula.

Limits on regular assessment increases

Wisconsin imposes no percentage cap on regular assessment increases and provides no budget-ratification or owner-veto step. Neither Chapter 703 nor any other Wisconsin statute limits the year-over-year increase in regular condominium assessments by a fixed percentage, and § 703.161 requires the board to adopt and distribute the annual budget without conditioning that budget or the resulting assessment on a unit-owner vote.¹¹ The practical limit comes from the recorded declaration and the bylaws.

The declaration and bylaws typically define how increases are governed: they may grant the board authority to set assessments by resolution, or they may impose a member-approval threshold or a cap on increases above a stated amount or percentage. Where the recorded documents contain such a threshold, it controls, because the association's operational decisions are made except for matters the chapter, the declaration, or the bylaws reserve to association members or unit owners.¹² The Wisconsin Court of Appeals confirmed in December 2025 that whether an assessment-funded project requires an owner vote turns on the language of the recorded instruments, not on a statutory cap.¹³

A board that levies an assessment outside the authority the declaration grants, or that disregards a member-approval threshold in the recorded documents, exposes the increase to challenge. Failure to comply with the bylaws, rules, covenants, conditions, or restrictions is grounds for an action by the association or, in a proper case, by an aggrieved unit owner under Wis. Stat. § 703.10.¹⁴ The remedy comes from the documents and the statute — not from a percentage ceiling that Wisconsin does not supply.

Special assessments, the lien, and foreclosure

Special assessments are authorized and limited the same way regular assessments are: by the declaration and the bylaws. Section 703.165 expressly defines "assessments" to include both regular and special assessments for common expenses, along with charges, fines, and assessments for damage or penalties.¹⁵ The statute supplies the lien and collection machinery; the authority to impose a special assessment, and any owner-approval threshold, comes from the recorded instruments.

All assessments, until paid, together with interest and actual costs of collection, constitute a lien on the unit when the association files a statement of lien within two years after the assessment becomes due.¹⁶ The lien is prior to all other liens except, among others, liens for general and special taxes, construction liens filed before the assessment, and all sums unpaid on a first mortgage recorded prior to the making of the assessment.¹⁷ Wisconsin does not grant a super-priority lien over a prior first mortgage; the Court of Appeals has read the exception to mean that "a" first mortgage recorded before the assessment is the only mortgage lien superior to the condominium lien.¹⁸ The association may enforce and foreclose the lien in the same manner as a mortgage on real property, recover costs and actual attorney fees, and must bring the action within three years after the lien is recorded.¹⁹ The 12-month redemption period applicable to mortgage foreclosures applies to these foreclosures as well.²⁰

For non-condominium HOAs, lien rights depend on the recorded covenants; a qualifying nonprofit membership corporation may instead record a maintenance lien under § 779.70 and foreclose it in circuit court.²¹

In practice, the association forecloses its lien like a mortgage but collects behind a prior first mortgage: in most distressed-unit scenarios the first mortgage is satisfied first, and the association recovers only from any remaining proceeds.

Assessment limits and procedures in practice

A. Regular assessment increase procedure

Condominiums: The board adopts the annual budget required by § 703.161 and levies assessments for common expenses under § 703.15(3)(a). The board must distribute the budget to all unit owners; there is no statutory percentage cap and no ratification step.²² The notice and effective date for an increase are declaration-defined; the statute separately requires at least 10 days' written notice for association meetings.²³

HOAs (non-condominium): The recorded covenants and the corporation's bylaws under Chapter 181 set the procedure. For a § 779.70 maintenance assessment, the board levies after the membership adopts the annual budget.²⁴

B. Special assessment procedure

Condominiums: Authorized and limited by the declaration and bylaws; § 703.165 supplies the lien but sets no statutory approval threshold.²⁵

HOAs (non-condominium): Per the recorded covenants; under § 779.70, "the governing board of a corporation may call a special meeting upon at least 5 days' written notice for the purpose of making a special assessment ... and a majority of members entitled to vote who are present at the special meeting shall determine a question."²⁶

C. Caps, ceilings, and override mechanisms

Condominiums: Wisconsin supplies no percentage cap and no owner-ratification or veto mechanism; any cap or member-approval threshold is declaration-defined.²⁷

HOAs (non-condominium): For § 779.70 nonprofit membership corporations, the board "may levy an assessment not in excess of 8 mills on each dollar of assessed valuation," but "the limitation of 8 mills on each dollar of assessed valuation shall not apply in any case in which the property owners or their predecessors in title have, by written contract, or by the terms of their deeds of conveyance, assumed and agreed to pay the costs of maintaining those properties," as typical HOA covenants provide.²⁸

D. Notice, documentation, and disclosure tied to assessments

Condominiums: Section 703.161 requires the annual distribution of the budget to all unit owners.²⁹ Section 703.20 entitles a unit owner to inspect and copy association records created within the past six years on at least 10 business days' written notice and provides for owner-requested financial audits.³⁰ On resale, § 703.33 requires the association to furnish disclosure information, and § 703.165(4) entitles a grantee to a statement of unpaid assessments within 10 business days.³¹

HOAs (non-condominium): Notice and disclosure follow the recorded covenants and Chapter 181; § 779.70 requires the corporation to notify each assessed owner of the assessment amount and due date.³²

Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Wisconsin's recent legislative record on condominium governance reflects an incremental approach. The most significant change in the past several years strengthened owner access to association financial records without touching how assessments are set or limited.

No bill enacted in the past 24 months changed Chapter 703's assessment, lien, or records provisions.

B. Recent appellate rulings

Wisconsin's courts are holding associations to their own documents. One ruling from late 2025 makes the point directly: whether a major project requires an owner vote depends entirely on how the bylaws classify the work — not on the price tag.

Research located no other Wisconsin Court of Appeals or Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months addressing the validity of an assessment increase or special assessment or the priority of the assessment lien under § 703.165(5)(b). Older authority remains instructive, including U.S. Bank, N.A. v. Landa, 2011 WI App 135, on first-mortgage lien priority.

C. Active legislative debates

No pending Wisconsin bill proposes a percentage cap on assessments, a budget-ratification mechanism, or a super-priority assessment lien; recent condominium legislation (2021 Wisconsin Act 168 and 2025 Wisconsin Act 129) made technical and document-related changes rather than altering assessment limits.³⁵

National positioning and related coverage

Wisconsin sits in the declaration-driven group on the national assessment-limit spectrum. The first group — statutory-cap states led by California — bars the board, "[n]otwithstanding more restrictive limitations placed on the board by the governing documents," from imposing "a regular assessment that is more than 20 percent greater than the regular assessment for the association's preceding fiscal year or impose special assessments which in the aggregate exceed 5 percent of the budgeted gross expenses of the association for that fiscal year without the approval of a majority of a quorum of members" (Cal. Civ. Code § 5605(b)).³⁶ The second group — ratification-mechanism states that adopted versions of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia) — controls increases through an owner veto on the adopted budget, many paired with a super-priority assessment lien. The third group — declaration-driven states such as Wisconsin, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia — sets limits through the recorded declaration while the statute supplies no cap; Wisconsin's condominium lien remains subordinate to a prior first mortgage. For a multi-state operator entering Wisconsin, the limit is read out of the declaration, there is no statutory ratification step, and the association collects behind a prior first mortgage. Wisconsin has a detailed condominium statute in Chapter 703 but no comprehensive framework for non-condominium HOAs.

1. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.15, Association of unit owners ↩
2. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.161, Annual budget ↩
3. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.165, Lien for unpaid common expenses, unpaid damages, and unpaid penalties ↩
4. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.15, Association of unit owners ↩
5. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.15, Association of unit owners ↩
6. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.15, Association of unit owners ↩
7. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.161, Annual budget ↩
8. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.16, Common expenses and common surpluses ↩
9. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. ch. 181, Nonstock corporations ↩
10. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 779.70, Maintenance liens ↩
11. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.161, Annual budget ↩
12. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.15, Association of unit owners ↩
13. Keith L. Naeve Family Trust v. Spring Creek Condominium Homes Ass'n, Inc., No. 2024AP2458 (Wis. Ct. App. Dec. 17, 2025) ↩
14. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.10, Bylaws ↩
15. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.165, Lien for unpaid common expenses, unpaid damages, and unpaid penalties ↩
16. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.165, Lien for unpaid common expenses, unpaid damages, and unpaid penalties ↩
17. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.165, Lien for unpaid common expenses, unpaid damages, and unpaid penalties ↩
18. U.S. Bank, N.A. v. Landa, 2011 WI App 135 (Wis. Ct. App. 2011) ↩
19. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.165, Lien for unpaid common expenses, unpaid damages, and unpaid penalties ↩
20. Geneva Nat'l Community Ass'n v. Friedman, 228 Wis. 2d 572 (Wis. Ct. App. 1999) ↩
21. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 779.70, Maintenance liens ↩
22. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.161, Annual budget ↩
23. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.15, Association of unit owners ↩
24. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 779.70, Maintenance liens ↩
25. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.165, Lien for unpaid common expenses, unpaid damages, and unpaid penalties ↩
26. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 779.70, Maintenance liens ↩
27. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.15, Association of unit owners ↩
28. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 779.70, Maintenance liens ↩
29. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.161, Annual budget ↩
30. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.20, Association records; inspection by unit owners; financial audits ↩
31. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 703.33, Disclosure requirements in connection with sale of unit ↩
32. Wisconsin Legislature, Wis. Stat. § 779.70, Maintenance liens ↩
33. 2021 Wis. Act 166 ↩
34. Keith L. Naeve Family Trust v. Spring Creek Condominium Homes Ass'n, Inc., No. 2024AP2458 (Wis. Ct. App. Dec. 17, 2025) ↩
35. 2021 Wis. Act 168 ↩
36. Cal. Civ. Code § 5605 ↩