A committee froze Wisconsin's condo building code for two years. The Supreme Court unfroze it
A committee froze Wisconsin's condo building code for two years. The Supreme Court unfroze it
2026-09-21 · Wisconsin · Regulation
Wisconsin's commercial building code governs multifamily residential buildings and any development of three or more attached townhouses. A rewritten version was finished in May 2023. A legislative committee blocked it that September. It sat blocked until the Wisconsin Supreme Court held the block unconstitutional, and it finally took effect on September 1, 2025.
The Department of Safety and Professional Services told the story in its own July 30, 2025 press release:1
“A modernized Wisconsin Commercial Building Code will take effect September 1. That's when the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) will publish the new, upgraded code, which establishes standards for commercial buildings in the state, including multi-family residential buildings. Through this update, Wisconsin will move to 2021 International Building Code (IBC) standards with some Wisconsin-specific adjustments.”
And the reason for the delay, in the department's words:
“The Commercial Building Code Council and DSPS submitted a final draft of the new Commercial Building Code to the legislature in May of 2023, but the rule was permanently delayed in September of that year by an indefinite objection of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR). Otherwise, this rule would have taken effect in fall of 2023. The recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in Evers v. Marklein, 2025 WI 36 overturned the September 2023 indefinite objection as unconstitutional, meaning DSPS can now finalize this comprehensive modernization of the Commercial Building Code.”
The cutover dates
“To ease any impact of this update on the building industry, DSPS will also accept plans submitted under the current (2015) code through the month of September. Starting October 1, all commercial building plans submitted to DSPS for approval must meet the standards set in the upgraded code. Any supplemental sub-submissions to DSPS (such as fire suppression/alarm, HVAC, boilers, elevators, refrigeration) must be aligned with the code under which the commercial building plan was approved, regardless of how many months later they follow.”
The published chapters carry the register line “Register August 2025 No. 836.”2
What is in it that reaches condominium buildings
The scope note settles who is covered. A note to s. SPS 362.0100 provides that “Three or more attached townhouses, as referenced in an exception under IBC section 101.2, are included within the scope listed in s. SPS 361.02,” while detached one- and two-family dwellings are regulated separately under chs. SPS 320 to 325.
Balcony sprinklers. Section SPS 362.0903(9) substitutes Wisconsin wording for the IBC provision: “Sprinkler protection complying with NFPA 13 shall be provided for exterior balconies, decks and ground-floor patios of dwelling units where the building is of Type V construction if there is a roof or deck above…” with detailed deflector placement rules for sidewall sprinklers over open wood joist construction.
Balconies and decks are limited common elements in most Wisconsin condominiums, which puts this rule squarely on the association's side of the maintenance line.
Guards. Section SPS 362.1015 requires guards along the open side of walking surfaces including balconies “where the change in elevation is more than 30 inches… to the floor or roof below,” adequate in strength and attachment under IBC section 1607.9.
Accessibility. Section SPS 362.1108(2)(b)1 substitutes for the IBC requirement: “Where there are three or more dwelling units or sleeping units intended to be occupied as a residence in a single structure, every dwelling unit and sleeping unit intended to be occupied as a residence shall be a Type B unit.” A variance route exists under s. SPS 362.1108(3)(a) for site impracticality, processed within 30 business days for a regular petition and 10 for a priority one.
Elevators. Section SPS 362.3002(1) requires at least one elevator for fire department emergency access to all floors served by passenger elevators in a building four or more stories above or below grade plane, and on any floor above or below fire-department vehicle access accommodating Group R-2 occupancy — which covers most condominium buildings. That car must accommodate “an ambulance stretcher 24 inches by 84 inches with not less than 5-inch radius corners, in the horizontal, open position.”
Two sprinkler carve-outs worth knowing precisely
The general rule at s. SPS 362.0903(5)(a) is that an automatic sprinkler system “shall be provided throughout all buildings with a Group R fire area.” Two exceptions follow.
A small multifamily building may use the alternative system if it has no more than four dwelling units, is no more than two stories above grade plane, and “is not served by either a community water system or a municipal water system as defined under s. NR 811.02.” The code's own note explains that any water system serving “10 or more condominium units shall be considered a community water system” unless the owners show fewer than 25 year-round residents — so a condominium of ten or more units generally falls outside the carve-out on that ground alone.
Townhouses may be built without sprinklers where the building meets the IBC definition, does not exceed two stories above grade plane, and each dwelling unit is separated from the others by at least two-hour fire-resistive-rated separation walls.
Buildings more than 60 feet in height must be sprinklered throughout under s. SPS 362.0903(7)(a).
A retroactive provision that reaches existing buildings
Most of this code applies to new construction and plan submittals. One note does not. Under s. SPS 362.0907(2) the code records the statutory smoke-detector duty at § 101.145(4): “The owner of a residential building the initial construction of which is commenced before, on or after May 23, 1978, shall install and maintain a functional smoke detector in the basement and at the head of any stairway on each floor level of the building and shall install a functional smoke detector either in each sleeping room of each unit or elsewhere in the unit within 6 feet of each sleeping area and not in a kitchen.”
Two further provisions are worth flagging. Section SPS 362.0400(2) requires an owner to provide a separate room or designated space for separation and temporary storage of recyclables on the construction of a new building. And s. SPS 362.1608(2)(b) creates a notice duty where new taller construction goes up next door: “Where an existing roof, regardless of the date of its construction, is horizontally within 20 feet of a proposed, taller structure on an adjoining property, the owner of the proposed structure shall notify the adjoining owner of the potential for increased structural loads on the existing roof, due to sliding or drifting of snow.”
What this does not do
It is a construction code, not an inspection regime. It governs what gets built and what gets submitted for plan approval. Wisconsin still has no milestone or structural-integrity inspection requirement for existing condominium buildings — chapter 703 contains no such section, and the two bills that approached the subject in the 2025-26 session both died. Our Wisconsin condo safety inspections page covers that gap.
What to watch next
The constitutional holding is the part with the longer reach. Evers v. Marklein removed a legislative committee's power to block a finished rule indefinitely, which means other stalled Wisconsin administrative rules have a path forward that they did not have in 2024. Separately, the Uniform Dwelling Code — chs. SPS 320 to 325, governing one- and two-family dwellings — is on its own review cycle, and anything adopted there reaches Wisconsin's detached-home associations rather than its condominium buildings.
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