Wisconsin HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in Wisconsin?

Yes. A Wisconsin condominium association restricts or prohibits short-term rentals through its declaration and bylaws under the Condominium Ownership Act, and a non-condominium planned community does so through its recorded declaration, and that authority is unaffected by the state statute that limits local-government bans. Condominiums are governed by the Wisconsin Condominium Ownership Act, Wis. Stat. ch. 703,⁶ a bespoke Wisconsin statute rather than the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act; non-condominium planned communities have no comprehensive Wisconsin statute and are governed primarily by their recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions, supported by the Nonprofit Corporation Law (ch. 181) for corporate matters.³ The central Wisconsin point is that Wis. Stat. § 66.1014 limits the authority of local governments to prohibit short-term rentals but does not limit the authority of a community association, so a declaration may restrict short-term rentals even in a city or county that cannot.⁵ Separately, an operator must hold a state tourist-rooming-house license and, where a local ordinance requires it, a local license; those obligations regulate operators and the owner-to-government relationship, not the association.¹⁰ Contested enforcement runs through the Wisconsin Circuit Court, with appeal to the applicable Wisconsin Court of Appeals district and then discretionary review by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.¹⁵ The sections that follow set out the legal framework, the amendment and grandfathering rules, the interaction with the state preemption and the taxes, the operational mechanics of adopting and enforcing a restriction, and the recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The Condominium Ownership Act and CC&R-primary planned communities

Wisconsin uses a split structure. Condominiums are governed by the Condominium Ownership Act, Wis. Stat. ch. 703, first enacted in 1977 and revised substantially in 2004.⁶ It is a bespoke Wisconsin statute; Wisconsin has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, a point the Wisconsin Supreme Court made explicit in Solowicz v. Forward Geneva National, which observed that the term "master-planned community" is derived from UCIOA § 2-123, "inasmuch as Wisconsin has not adopted UCIOA or anything like it."³ Non-condominium planned communities occupy the other track, and there is no comprehensive Wisconsin statute for them. In Solowicz, the court held that Geneva National, a master-planned community of approximately 1,600 acres that includes thirty-two condominiums, is "not subject to ch. 703" and is governed instead by its recorded covenant.³ Such communities are therefore CC&R-primary: the recorded declaration is the controlling instrument, the Nonprofit Corporation Law (ch. 181) supplies corporate governance rules where the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, and common-law contract and property principles fill gaps. For both community types, the source of rental authority is the declaration (and, for condominiums, the bylaws). Chapter 703 does not itself impose or forbid rental restrictions; it authorizes them and sets the procedure for adopting them. The distinction that matters most in practice is between long-term leasing and short-term or transient rentals. A declaration may permit conventional annual leasing while prohibiting transient rentals, or may bar all leasing; the substance is a drafting choice recorded in the governing documents rather than a statutory default.

2B. Restricting rentals, amendments, and grandfathering

An association strengthens or adds a rental restriction by amending its governing documents. For condominiums, § 703.10(3) authorizes use restrictions in the bylaws, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Apple Valley Gardens Ass'n v. MacHutta upheld a bylaw amendment that prohibited unit rentals, holding that nothing in ch. 703 requires every use restriction to appear in the declaration and that such restrictions are valid so long as they do not conflict with the declaration or with state or federal law.² A restriction may instead be placed in the declaration by amendment. Under § 703.09(2), a condominium declaration may be amended with the written consent of at least two-thirds of the aggregate votes, or a greater percentage if the declaration requires it; § 703.093 provides an alternative two-thirds procedure that also requires approval by the unit mortgagees and gives the association 180 days to gather consents.⁸ For planned communities, the declaration's own amendment clause governs the threshold, because no statute supplies one. On grandfathering, Wisconsin is not a UCIOA state and has no statutory owner-protection provision shielding an owner who bought before a rental restriction was adopted, so the question runs through ch. 703, the governing documents, and common law. Section 703.10(1) requires every unit owner to comply with the bylaws and rules "as the bylaws or rules are amended from time to time," and Apple Valley Gardens enforced an amendment against an owner whose unit predated the change.⁹ A Florida-style or California-style statutory grandfathering shield should not be imported into Wisconsin analysis. In practice, whether existing owners or existing leases are exempted turns on the language the association writes into the amendment; the Apple Valley Gardens bylaw itself carried a limited carve-out for a rental agreement in effect on a stated date.² No Wisconsin statute limits an association's authority to restrict rentals, unlike California (Civil Code § 4741) or Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1806.01).

2C. The state STR preemption, licensing, tax, and the layering

Wis. Stat. § 66.1014, enacted in the 2017-19 budget (2017 Wisconsin Act 59), limits local-government authority.⁴ A political subdivision may not enact or enforce an ordinance prohibiting the rental of a residential dwelling for 7 consecutive days or longer, and rentals of fewer than 7 consecutive days may be prohibited. For rentals of more than 6 but fewer than 30 consecutive days, the statute provides that "a political subdivision may limit the total number of days within any consecutive 365-day period that the dwelling may be rented to no fewer than 180 days," but "may not specify the period of time during which the residential dwelling may be rented."⁷ The statute defines a short-term rental as a residential dwelling offered for rent for fewer than 30 consecutive days. Section 66.1014 restrains local governments, not associations; the Wisconsin REALTORS Association summarizes the point directly: "This law does not apply to condominium associations or homeowners associations."⁵ On licensing, an operator who maintains, manages, or operates a short-term rental for more than 10 nights per year must obtain a DATCP tourist-rooming-house license under Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 72 and, if a local ordinance requires it, a local license (§ 66.1014(2)(d)).¹⁰ On tax, Wisconsin has a state sales tax: short-term lodging to transients is subject to the 5 percent state sales tax (§ 77.52)¹¹ and to a municipal room tax of up to 8 percent under § 66.0615, generally on stays of less than one month, with lodging marketplaces such as Airbnb and Vrbo required to collect and remit.¹² The critical layering is this: § 66.1014, the tourist-rooming-house license, the local license, and the taxes all govern the owner-to-government relationship, and none of them grants or removes association authority. A declaration may restrict short-term rentals even where a city or county is barred from doing so. An owner who holds a valid tourist-rooming-house license, complies with § 66.1014, and pays the room tax may still be violating the declaration; conversely, an owner in full compliance with the declaration may still owe the state license and the taxes. The two systems operate independently.

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common mechanism is a minimum-lease-term or transient-rental restriction. Because Wisconsin has no statewide statutory minimum lease term binding associations, the operative number comes from the governing documents. A condominium may adopt such a restriction, or a full rental prohibition, through a bylaw amendment under § 703.10(3), the route the Wisconsin Supreme Court approved in Apple Valley Gardens Ass'n v. MacHutta,² or through a declaration amendment under § 703.09(2), which requires at least two-thirds of the aggregate votes (or a higher percentage set by the declaration).⁸ A planned community relies on its recorded declaration and whatever amendment threshold that instrument specifies. Rental caps expressed as a percentage of units are not addressed by statute for either community type; a condominium cap must rest on the bylaws or declaration under § 703.10(3), and a planned-community cap on the declaration. An association may also impose internal administrative requirements, such as registration of rentals, submission of owner and tenant contact information, and filing of leases, provided the requirement is grounded in the governing documents and applied consistently.

B. Enforcement and the appellate path

Chapter 703 supplies condominium associations with layered remedies. Section 703.10(1) provides that failure to comply with the bylaws, rules, or recorded restrictions is grounds for an action to recover sums due, for damages, or for injunctive relief.¹ Section 703.24(2) makes a violating unit owner liable for any charges, fines, or assessments imposed under the bylaws or rules and subject to a temporary or permanent injunction, and unpaid amounts can be secured by the association's assessment lien under ch. 703.¹⁴ Chapter 703 does not set a specific statutory notice-and-hearing procedure that must precede a fine; that process is governed by the declaration and bylaws, which an association should follow precisely. Before an association files suit against a unit owner in circuit court, § 703.245 requires the parties to attempt dispute resolution through notice and direct negotiation, unless the declaration already provides its own dispute-resolution process or the claim falls within a listed exception such as emergency injunctive relief.¹³ For planned communities, remedies flow from the declaration enforced as restrictive covenants, together with ordinary contract remedies, because no condominium statute applies. A contested enforcement action begins in the Wisconsin Circuit Court, with appeal to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in the district that contains the trial court (District I in Milwaukee, District II in Waukesha, District III in Wausau, or District IV in Madison) and then discretionary review by the Wisconsin Supreme Court (§ 752.11).¹⁵ Association enforcement is separate from any local-government enforcement of a short-term-rental ordinance under § 66.1014; an owner may face both, or either, independently.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past 24 months made a substantive change to condominium rental authority, to § 66.1014, or to the municipal room tax. The one measure that touched both the Condominium Ownership Act and § 66.1014 was a routine correction bill.

The notable recent regulatory development is administrative rather than legislative: DATCP's revised Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 72, governing hotels, motels, and tourist rooming houses, took effect January 25, 2026 (the prior chapter as it existed on January 24, 2026, was repealed and a new chapter created under CR 24-096), updating operational, safety, and licensing requirements for short-term-rental operators.¹⁷

B. Recent rulings

No Wisconsin Court of Appeals or Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months addressed a community association's authority to restrict rentals. The controlling association-authority cases remain Apple Valley Gardens Ass'n v. MacHutta, 2009 WI 28 (condominium bylaw rental prohibition upheld), and Solowicz v. Forward Geneva National, 2010 WI 20 (planned communities not subject to ch. 703). Two 2025 decisions did address § 66.1014, but both concern local-government ordinances and confirm that the preemption runs against local governments, not associations.

C. Active legislative or local debates

Local short-term-rental regulation remains contested in Wisconsin's tourism markets, with the Wisconsin Realtors Association and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty litigating municipal ordinances and county-level regulation active in destinations such as Door County and the northwoods lake counties.²⁰ These disputes concern local-government authority under § 66.1014 and do not alter association authority.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Wisconsin sits in a distinct group. It uses a split structure, a bespoke Condominium Ownership Act for condominiums and a CC&R-primary regime for planned communities, and it is not a UCIOA state. Although Wisconsin preempts local-government short-term-rental bans through § 66.1014, that preemption runs against cities, villages, towns, and counties and leaves association rental authority to the declaration, the opposite of the posture in California and Arizona, which limit HOA rental authority directly by statute. Section 66.1014, the tourist-rooming-house license, and the municipal room tax restrain local governments and owners, not associations. For a multi-state operator entering Wisconsin, the practical implications are three: read § 66.1014 as a limit on local government only, not a grant of any right to rent against a declaration; treat non-condominium associations as governed by their recorded covenants rather than a statute; and expect concentrated activity in large tourism markets such as the Wisconsin Dells, Door County, Lake Geneva, and the northwoods.

HOA Weekly's Wisconsin Short-Term Rentals coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and local governments act. Federal frameworks, including the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD, also apply to Wisconsin associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Wis. Stat. § 703.10 (Bylaws), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
2. Apple Valley Gardens Ass'n, Inc. v. MacHutta, 2009 WI 28, 316 Wis. 2d 85, 763 N.W.2d 126 (Wisconsin Supreme Court) ↩
3. Solowicz v. Forward Geneva National, 2010 WI 20, 323 Wis. 2d 556, 780 N.W.2d 111 (Wisconsin Supreme Court) ↩
4. Wis. Stat. § 66.1014 (Limits on residential dwelling rental prohibited), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
5. Wisconsin REALTORS Association, "Right to Rent Law" ("This law does not apply to condominium associations or homeowners associations") ↩
6. Wis. Stat. ch. 703 (Condominiums / Condominium Ownership Act), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
7. Wis. Stat. § 66.1014(2), Wisconsin Legislature (7-day, 180-day, and fewer-than-30-day thresholds) ↩
8. Wis. Stat. § 703.09(2) (Declaration; amendment) and § 703.093 (Alternative procedure for amending declaration), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
9. Wis. Stat. § 703.10(1) (owner must comply with bylaws "as amended from time to time"), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
10. Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 72 (Hotels, Motels, and Tourist Rooming Houses); Wis. Stat. § 66.1014(2)(d) (state tourist-rooming-house license and local license for operation more than 10 nights/year) ↩
11. Wis. Stat. § 77.52 (Imposition of retail sales tax; 5 percent; furnishing of rooms or lodging to transients), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
12. Wis. Stat. § 66.0615 (Room tax; up to 8 percent; marketplace-provider collection), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
13. Wis. Stat. § 703.245 (Association-unit owner dispute; notice required), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
14. Wis. Stat. § 703.24(2) (Remedies for violations; charges, fines, assessments, and temporary or permanent injunction), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
15. Wis. Stat. § 752.11 (Court of Appeals districts: District I Milwaukee; District II Waukesha; District III Wausau; District IV Madison), Wisconsin Legislature ↩
16. 2025 Wisconsin Act 129 (2025 Assembly Bill 926), Wisconsin Legislature (correction bill; affects §§ 703.095, 703.10, and 66.1014 per statute-history lines) ↩
17. DATCP, Tourist Rooming Houses; revised Wis. Admin. Code ch. ATCP 72 effective January 25, 2026 (CR 24-096) ↩
18. Wisconsin Realtors Ass'n, Inc. v. City of Neenah, 2025 WI App 49, 418 Wis. 2d 78, 25 N.W.3d 663 (No. 2024AP994) (annotation to Wis. Stat. § 66.1014, Wisconsin Legislature) ↩
19. Wildwood Estate, LLC v. Village of Summit, 2025 WI App 47, 418 Wis. 2d 22, 25 N.W.3d 581 (No. 2024AP178) (annotation to Wis. Stat. § 66.1014, Wisconsin Legislature) ↩
20. Boardman Clark, "Short-Term Rental Regulation – Litigation Uncertainty" (WRA and WILL litigation against municipal short-term-rental ordinances) ↩