Wisconsin Flag Display Rights in Condos and HOAs

For condominiums the operative provision is Wis. Stat. § 703.105, created by 2003 Wis. Act 161 and expanded by 2005 Wis. Act 303. Subsection (1) reaches four different documents at once: no bylaw, no rule adopted under a bylaw, no provision in the declaration, and no clause in the deed to the unit may prohibit a unit owner from respectfully displaying the United States flag. Because the ban runs to the declaration and the deed, a Wisconsin condominium cannot cure the problem by moving a flag prohibition out of the rulebook and into the recorded instruments. Subsection (1m) adds a parallel protection for a sign that supports or opposes a candidate for public office or a referendum question, which the statute ties to display in the owner's condominium.

What the association keeps is set out in § 703.105(2): notwithstanding subs. (1) and (1m), bylaws or rules may be adopted that regulate the size and location of signs, flags and flagpoles. Wisconsin puts no number in that subsection. There is no statutory maximum pole height, no maximum flag dimension, no cap on the number of flags, and no deadline by which a board must answer an application. A condominium board may therefore adopt a rule that a flagpole be no more than a stated height, or that flags be mounted on a bracket at the unit rather than set freestanding in a common element, provided the rule genuinely regulates size and location instead of operating as a ban. The word "respectfully" in sub. (1) is the matching limit on the owner: a display that is not respectful falls outside the statutory protection.

Owners of lots in a covenanted subdivision are not covered by ch. 703 at all, because the Condominium Ownership Act reaches only property submitted to that chapter. They are covered instead by Wis. Stat. § 710.17, created by 2017 Wis. Act 67. Section 710.17(1)(b) defines a member of a homeowners' association as a person that owns residential property within a subdivision, development, or other similar area that is subject to any policy or restriction adopted by a homeowners' association. Section 710.17(2)(a) then bars the association from adopting or enforcing a covenant, condition, or restriction, or entering into an agreement, that restricts or prevents such a member from displaying the flag of the United States on property in which the member has an ownership interest. Section 710.17(2)(b) extends the same rule to a housing cooperative incorporated under ch. 185 or organized under ch. 193, for property to which the member has a right to exclusive possession or use, which is how the statute reaches a co-op balcony or patio the member does not own outright.

The two exceptions in § 710.17(3) are drawn differently from the condominium version. An association or cooperative may require that any display conform with a rule or custom for proper display and use of the flag set forth in 4 USC 5 to 10, the federal flag code, and it may impose a reasonable restriction on the time, place, or manner of displaying the flag that is necessary to protect a substantial interest of the association or cooperative. That second exception is a standard rather than a schedule, so a Wisconsin association defending a flag rule has to be able to name the substantial interest the rule protects.

Neither statute reaches any flag other than the flag of the United States. Wisconsin gives no statutory protection to the state flag, a branch of service flag, a POW/MIA flag, a first responder flag, or a historic flag, and a covenant or bylaw banning those stays enforceable. The mismatch runs the other way on signs: a condominium owner has an express political sign right under § 703.105(1m), while § 710.17 says nothing about signs, so a subdivision covenant against yard signs is not touched by the flag statute.

17 carries a fine, a forfeiture, or a state enforcement agency. A prohibited flag rule is simply unenforceable, and the dispute is settled between the owner and the association. In a condominium, an association that fines an owner over a flag relies on Wis. 105(1) voids has nothing under it. Before either side files in circuit court, Wis. 245 requires a written notice of claim setting out the dispute, its legal basis, and a proposed resolution, and the recipient has 10 business days to demand a direct negotiation conference that must be held within 30 days; the association must attend if the unit owner asks for it, and the applicable statute of limitations is tolled while the process runs.

In a covenanted subdivision the practical lever is Wis. 18(3)(f): an association that has not filed or renewed its public notice with the Department of Financial Institutions may not charge a late fee or other fine at all, and any prohibited action taken during the noncompliance period is void and unenforceable.