By: Associated Press//June 5, 2018//
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a family that wants to rent out its house along Hayward Lake in northern Wisconsin, despite complaints from the neighbors.
The neighbors filed a lawsuit in 2016, arguing that using the home as a vacation rental violated a neighborhood covenant that prohibits short-term rentals of property.
The Sawyer County Circuit Court ruled in favor of Lee and Mary Jo Neuschwander, but the ruling was overturned in the state court of appeals.
On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that the neighborhood covenant’s prohibition on “commercial activity” is ambiguous and does not prevent short-term or long-term property rentals.
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley dissented, arguing that renting the house is clearly a prohibited “commercial activity” under the neighborhood covenant.