703.275 Merger or consolidation of condominiums.

(1) Agreement; legal effect. Any 2 or more condominiums, including 2 or more small condominiums or any combination of small condominiums and other condominiums, by agreement of the unit owners as provided in this section, may be merged or consolidated into a single condominium. Unless the agreement otherwise provides, the condominium resulting from a merger or consolidation is, for all purposes, the legal successor of all of the preexisting condominiums and the operations and activities of all associations of the preexisting condominiums shall be merged or consolidated into a single association which shall hold all powers, rights, obligations, assets and liabilities of the preexisting associations. The resultant condominium must bear the name of one of the preexisting condominiums.

(2) Reallocation of interests.

(ac) In this subsection, “allocated interests" means the undivided percentage interest in the common elements, the liability for common expenses, and the number of votes at meetings of the association appurtenant to each unit.

(bc) The merger or consolidation agreement shall provide for the reallocation of the allocated interests among the units of the resultant condominium. The agreement may not change the ratio that exists before the merger or consolidation between the allocated interests of any unit and the allocated interests of any other unit in the same preexisting condominium. The agreement shall state one of the following:

1. The reallocations or the formulas upon which they are based.

2. The percentage of the total of allocated interests of the new condominium which are allocated to all of the units comprising each of the preexisting condominiums.

(3) Agreement; other provisions. The merger or consolidation agreement may contain any provisions consistent with this chapter in addition to those specified in sub. (2).

(4) Votes. The merger or consolidation agreement is effective if the agreement is approved by the unit owners of units to which at least 75 percent of the votes in each preexisting association are allocated. If the declaration of a preexisting association specifies that a percentage greater than 75 percent of the votes in that association is required to approve a merger or consolidation agreement, the greater percentage applies to the vote of that association. A declaration of a preexisting association may specify a smaller percentage and the smaller percentage applies to the vote of that association only if all of the units in the preexisting condominium are restricted exclusively to nonresidential uses.

(5) Recording. Both a restatement of the declaration of the resultant condominium that includes the merger agreement and an addendum to the condominium plat of the resultant condominium shall be recorded as provided in s. 703.07. On the plat of the preexisting condominium, the register of deeds shall reference the document number assigned to the plat of the resultant condominium and, if the plat of the resultant condominium is assigned a volume and page number, the volume and page where the plat of the resultant condominium is recorded and shall note that the preexisting condominium has been merged.

History: 1985 a. 188; 1997 a. 333; 2003 a. 283; 2017 a. 102.

NOTE: 2003 Wis. Act 283, which affected this section, contains extensive explanatory notes.