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Can owner take over Wisconsin association's garage storage area?


Question:

underground-condo-garageWe have a garage that is filled with parking units that have been declared in the condo plat and are owned by the unit owners (condo is 10+ years old now).

The garage also naturally contains common elements. One such common element is large enough to hold a car, but it is completely blocked in by my two parking spots.

To be clear, this common area literally shares a border with both my parking spots and there is no other way to access this common area without walking in one of my parking spaces.

The common element is currently empty, however, in the past, the Association as stored items there. When this has happened, I have had some issues with those items coming into contact with one of my cars when they have been taken to and from the common space.

I wanted to potentially buy this space from the Association, as I think it would have some value to me beyond just not having Association items stored there, however, to amend a condo plat to create a new space would require an association-wide vote of the condo owners and mortgage holders, which is next to impossible.

Are there any other mechanisms that would allow me to take ownership of this space, like an easement, permit or a license? If not, is there any laws limiting the access of common elements when they can only be accessed through my own spaces)?

Anything that would make this common element a limited common element by default due to the ability to access under Wisconsin condo statutes? Any ideas are welcomed!


Answers (4)

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