Wisconsin HOA Solar Rights

Section 1 — Overview: Solar rights for HOAs in Wisconsin

Wisconsin limits covenant and deed restrictions on residential solar energy systems through Wis. Stat. § 236.292(2), which declares void "all restrictions on platted land that prevent or unduly restrict the construction and operation of solar energy systems."¹ A separate statute, Wis. Stat. § 66.0401, constrains only political subdivisions — cities, villages, towns, and counties — not private associations, so the operative rule for association covenants is § 236.292(2).² The protection runs strong but not absolute: § 236.292(2) voids only restrictions that "prevent or unduly restrict" a system, leaving room for conditions that fall short of that threshold.¹ Distinctively, neither operative provision sits in the Condominium Ownership Act; the covenant-voiding rule lives in Chapter 236, platting lands, and the municipal-restriction limit in Chapter 66, general municipality law, so each reaches restrictions as a cross-cutting matter regardless of community type.¹ Condominiums answer to the Condominium Ownership Act, Chapter 703, while planned communities operate under recorded declarations, the Nonstock Corporation Act, Chapter 181, and common law.³ These features place Wisconsin among the protection states whose statutes void association solar restrictions rather than merely enabling voluntary easements. The sections that follow detail the statutory framework, the operational boundary on association authority, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2 — The statutory framework

2A. The solar statute and its reach

Two Wisconsin statutes bear on solar restrictions, and separating them is essential. Wis. Stat. § 66.0401(1m) provides that no political subdivision may place any restriction on the installation or use of a solar energy system unless the restriction serves to preserve or protect public health or safety, doesn't significantly increase the cost of the system or significantly decrease its efficiency, or allows for an alternative system of comparable cost and efficiency.² The statute defines "political subdivision" as a city, village, town, or county, so its three-part standard governs municipal ordinances and zoning, not association covenants.² It sits in Chapter 66, general municipality law, a cross-cutting placement outside the Condominium Ownership Act.²

The provision that reaches private and covenant restrictions is Wis. Stat. § 236.292(2), titled "Certain restrictions void," in Chapter 236, platting lands. It states that "all restrictions on platted land that prevent or unduly restrict the construction and operation of solar energy systems ... are void."¹ This stands as the operative rule for homeowners association covenants, deed restrictions, and similar private land-use controls recorded against platted lots.¹ The standard differs from the municipal test: a private restriction is void if it "prevents or unduly restricts" a system, language that voids outright bans and covenants that make solar impractical, but doesn't void every condition an association might impose.¹ "Solar energy system" for both statutes means equipment that directly converts and then transfers or stores solar energy into usable thermal or electrical energy, as defined in Wis. Stat. § 13.48(2)(h)1.g.⁴ The protection isn't absolute; conditions that neither prevent nor unduly restrict a system remain enforceable.¹ Both statutes address solar energy systems and wind energy systems; this page addresses solar only.

2B. The framework

Wisconsin regulates community associations through separate regimes rather than a single common-interest statute. Condominiums answer to the Condominium Ownership Act, Wis. Stat. Chapter 703, which sets rules for declarations, bylaws, association powers, and unit-owner obligations.³ Planned communities have no comprehensive planned-community statute comparable to the condominium act. They answer primarily to their recorded declarations, covenants, conditions, and restrictions, the Wisconsin Nonstock Corporation Act, Wis. Stat. Chapter 181, under which most associations organize, and common law.⁵ Since 2021 Wisconsin Act 199, planned-community associations also answer to Wis. Stat. § 710.18, which requires recording of covenants, annual notice filings with the Department of Financial Institutions, meeting notice, and capped payoff-statement fees; that statute addresses transparency, not solar.⁶ Wisconsin hasn't adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so UCIOA features shouldn't be assumed.³ Wisconsin also has no dedicated HOA regulator and doesn't require community association manager licensing; management activities that constitute real estate brokerage get licensed by the Department of Safety and Professional Services under Wis. Stat. Chapter 452.⁷

Section 236.292(2) overlays this framework as a cross-cutting rule: it voids solar restrictions on platted land regardless of whether the association is a condominium or a planned community, because it operates on the recorded restriction itself rather than on any association form.¹ Municipal restrictions on the same systems stay separately constrained by § 66.0401, so an owner may face both a covenant layer and a zoning layer, each with its own standard.² One limit on reach warrants attention: Chapter 236 governs "platted land," and Wisconsin courts have held that a condominium declaration is not a division of land under Chapter 236.⁸ The application of § 236.292(2) to typical planned-community subdivision covenants recorded on platted lots runs direct; its application to condominium declarations stays less settled, and no Wisconsin appellate court has resolved the question.¹

2C. The permitted-restriction boundary and the role of governing documents

An association may adopt and enforce solar conditions that don't prevent or unduly restrict a system.¹ It may not enforce a covenant that bans rooftop solar, or one that so limits placement, size, or configuration that installation becomes impractical or uneconomic, because § 236.292(2) renders such restrictions void by operation of law.¹ The order of precedence follows from the statute's text: to the extent a recorded covenant conflicts with § 236.292(2), the covenant is void within that scope, while conditions that survive the "prevent or unduly restrict" test remain enforceable.¹ The statute supplies no fee-shifting or administrative-remedy provision, so disputes get resolved as covenant-enforcement or declaratory-judgment matters in circuit court.¹

Architectural and design review retains a residual role. An association may require an owner to submit a solar installation for review, and may apply conditions on matters such as mounting method, conduit routing, or color, provided the conditions don't cross into preventing or unduly restricting the system.¹ Because no Wisconsin appellate decision construes § 236.292(2), the boundary between a permissible design condition and a void restriction is defined by the statutory text rather than by case law, which counsels associations to document that any condition leaves a comparable, cost-effective installation available.¹

Section 3 — What a Wisconsin association can and cannot do regarding solar

A. What an association cannot do

An association may not prohibit a residential solar energy system, or enforce a covenant that prevents or unduly restricts one, on platted land; such restrictions are void under Wis. Stat. § 236.292(2), a mandatory rule reaching platted planned-community lots.¹ It may not rely on a recorded declaration alone to override the statute, because the statute voids the conflicting covenant rather than deferring to it.¹ For a condominium, the roof is typically a common element and the reach of § 236.292(2) to condominium declarations stays unsettled, so board authority over common-element installations turns on Chapter 703 and the declaration as well as the statute.⁸

B. What an association may do

An association may impose conditions that don't prevent or unduly restrict a system, such as design or placement conditions that still allow a comparable, cost-effective, efficient installation — a discretionary authority under § 236.292(2) for covered associations.¹ For the separate municipal layer, § 66.0401(1m) permits a political subdivision to restrict a system only where the restriction protects public health or safety, doesn't significantly increase cost or decrease efficiency, or allows an alternative of comparable cost and efficiency; associations should recognize this as a distinct standard applicable to local government, not to the association itself, mandatory on local government under § 66.0401.²

C. The permitted-restriction analysis and approval process

When an owner submits a solar request, the association applies its architectural-review procedure under the governing documents, then measures any proposed condition against the statutory test: a condition that prevents or unduly restricts the system is void, while one that leaves a comparable installation available is enforceable — a review that may be mandatory under the declaration, grounded in the governing documents plus § 236.292(2).¹ Wisconsin imposes no statutory approval deadline or deemed-approval rule for association solar review, unlike protection states such as Colorado, which deems an application approved if it isn't denied or returned within 60 days; in Wisconsin the timing of review is governed by the declaration.⁹

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

Disputes proceed in the Wisconsin Circuit Court, the trial court of general jurisdiction, typically as a covenant-enforcement action or a suit for declaratory or injunctive relief.¹⁰ Appeals go to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, organized into four districts — District I in Milwaukee, District II in Waukesha, District III in Wausau, and District IV in Madison — with discretionary review by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.¹¹ Section 236.292(2) contains no fee-shifting provision; a separate statute, Wis. Stat. § 700.41, allows damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney fees, but only against a neighbor who obstructs an existing collector's access to sunlight, not against an association enforcing a covenant — a narrow remedy that doesn't reach associations.¹²

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

No bill introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature within the past 24 months amends Wis. Stat. § 236.292 or otherwise changes a community association's authority over an owner's solar energy system.¹ Bills active in the 2025-2026 session that touch § 66.0401, including 2025 Assembly Bill 493 and 2025 Senate Bill 559, covering community solar programs, and 2025 Senate Bill 3, covering local approval of large wind and solar projects, address municipal and utility-side regulation, not association authority, and fall outside the scope of this page.² Section 236.292 hasn't been amended since 1999.¹

4B. Recent appellate rulings

No Wisconsin Court of Appeals or Wisconsin Supreme Court decision within the past 36 months interprets Wis. Stat. § 236.292 as applied to solar energy systems or association solar authority.¹ The statute carries no annotated appellate citations construing its solar provision, and community-association counsel confirm the absence of case law on the question.¹

4C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal to amend Wis. Stat. § 236.292 as it applies to association solar authority is pending; current solar-related legislative attention centers on community solar programs and large-project siting, which concern municipal and utility-side regulation.²

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

Wisconsin falls into the first of three broad categories of state solar-rights law. The first comprises strong-protection states whose statutes void or limit association solar restrictions, including California, Cal. Civ. Code § 714; Florida, Fla. Stat. § 163.04; Arizona, Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1816; Colorado, Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-30-168; Nevada, Nev. Rev. Stat. § 111.239; and Texas, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.010.^13,14,15 The second comprises solar-easement-only states, which enable voluntary easements between neighbors but don't override association restrictions. The third comprises no-protection states, where the recorded declaration fully controls. Wisconsin belongs in the first category because § 236.292(2) voids covenant restrictions that prevent or unduly restrict a solar energy system.¹ Its distinctive feature runs structural: rather than a single dedicated solar-rights act, Wisconsin pairs a cross-cutting covenant-voiding provision in the platting-lands chapter, § 236.292, with a municipal-restriction limit in the general-municipality chapter, § 66.0401, neither located in the association statutes.¹ For multi-state operators, the practical implication is that a Wisconsin covenant ban is unenforceable by operation of law, but the enforceable boundary is set by statutory text rather than the numeric thresholds and deadlines used elsewhere, such as California's cap on restrictions that add more than $1,000 to system cost or cut efficiency by more than 10 percent, or Colorado's parallel 10-percent cost-and-efficiency limits and 60-day deemed-approval rule.^16,13,9

HOA Weekly's Wisconsin Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the Wisconsin Legislature and Wisconsin courts act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, extends to rooftop solar, so Wisconsin's state statutes control here.

Footnotes

1. Wis. Stat. § 236.292, Certain restrictions void ↩
2. Wis. Stat. § 66.0401, Regulation relating to solar and wind energy systems ↩
3. Wis. Stat. Chapter 703, Condominium Ownership Act ↩
4. Wis. Stat. § 13.48(2)(h)1.g., definition of solar energy system ↩
5. Wis. Stat. Chapter 181, Nonstock Corporations ↩
6. Wis. Stat. § 710.18, Homeowners' associations; regulation (2021 Wis. Act 199) ↩
7. Wis. Stat. Chapter 452, Real Estate Practice (Department of Safety and Professional Services) ↩
8. Wis. Stat. Chapter 236 annotation, FAS, LLC v. Town of Bass Lake, 2007 WI 73, 301 Wis. 2d 321 (condominium declaration is not a division of land under ch. 236) ↩
9. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-30-168 (reasonable-restriction limits and 60-day deemed-approval rule) ↩
10. Wisconsin Court System, Circuit courts (general jurisdiction) ↩
11. Wisconsin Court System, Court of Appeals (four districts) ↩
12. Wis. Stat. § 700.41, Solar and wind access ↩
13. California Civil Code § 714 (including § 714(d)(1)(B): "significantly" defined as cost exceeding $1,000 or efficiency decrease exceeding 10 percent) ↩
14. Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, "Solar Rights Laws in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York," 2021-R-0185 ↩
15. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 111.239, voiding covenants that prohibit or unreasonably restrict solar energy systems (state solar-access law summary) ↩
16. Texas Property Code § 202.010, Regulation of Solar Energy Devices ↩