Alabama HOA Water Conservation

Section 1: Overview — How water conservation interacts with HOA authority in Alabama

Search Alabama law, and you won't find a statute limiting an HOA's authority over water-efficient landscaping — nor one requiring an HOA to allow drought-tolerant plantings, xeriscape, artificial turf, native plants, rainwater harvesting, or graywater reuse.¹ Title 35, covering property — including both condominium acts and the Alabama Homeowners' Association Act — and Title 9, covering water resources, contain no such provision.¹⁰ Control rests instead with the recorded declaration, the association's architectural-control process, the applicable condominium act for condominiums, the Homeowners' Association Act and Title 10A corporate formalities for planned-community associations, and the rules of the local water system.²

There's a reason Alabama sits where it does. It's a humid Southeastern state with periodic, not chronic, drought, and its legislature has never enacted the drought-driven landscaping protections that took hold out West — it has notably declined to adopt anything resembling neighboring Florida's Florida-friendly-landscaping statute.¹⁶ State water-resource law, administered by the Alabama Office of Water Resources, decides who may withdraw water and how much. It does not decide whether an HOA may regulate a homeowner's landscaping, and the two questions should never get conflated.¹¹

Set against the rest of the country, Alabama falls into the large group of silent, CC&R-governed states — distinct from drought-statute states such as California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, and Florida.¹⁶ What follows sets out the statutory framework in full, locates where any water rule actually lives, and covers the limited recent activity on the topic.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. Statutory limits on HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping

Search the Alabama Code, and no provision restricts an HOA's authority over drought-tolerant or xeriscape landscaping, native or low-water plantings, artificial turf, or water-efficient irrigation. The Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991, Ala. Code § 35-8A-101 et seq., carves out nothing for landscaping or water conservation — its treatment of owner alterations and association powers stays silent on drought-tolerant landscaping.¹⁷ Its predecessor, the Alabama Condominium Ownership Act, Ala. Code § 35-8-1 et seq., which governs condominiums built before January 1, 1991, contains no such provision either.¹⁸ And the Alabama Homeowners' Association Act, Ala. Code § 35-20-1 et seq., which governs planned-community associations formed on or after January 1, 2016, covers corporate formation, board powers, assessments, liens, and records — but no water-conservation or landscaping protection.¹⁰ These are exactly the chapters where such a provision would live, if Alabama had written one.

That absence stands out more clearly next to states that have legislated. Florida bars both associations and local governments from prohibiting Florida-friendly landscaping, under Fla. Stat. § 373.185.¹⁹ California voids and renders unenforceable any governing-document provision that "prohibits the use of low-water-using plants, including to replace existing turf," protects synthetic turf that resembles grass, and bars fining an owner for cutting back watering during a declared drought emergency, under Cal. Civ. Code § 4735.²⁰ Texas tells a property owners' association it "may not include or enforce a provision in a dedicatory instrument that prohibits or restricts a property owner from ... using drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf," and voids any provision that tries, under Tex. Prop. Code § 202.007; a 2025 amendment added § 202.008, barring fines for brown turf during city watering restrictions.²¹ Alabama has adopted nothing like it. Florida is the natural comparison, given the shared border and climate, and Alabama simply hasn't followed its neighbor. For an Alabama association, the authority to require or restrict landscaping comes from the recorded declaration — not from any state water-conservation statute.

2B. Related water law, drought response, rainwater and graywater

Alabama runs on a regulated-riparian system. Its water-use framework — the Alabama Water Resources Act, Ala. Code § 9-10B, administered by the Alabama Office of Water Resources within ADECA — governs the withdrawal and diversion of surface water and groundwater, including certificate-of-use and capacity-stress-area rules for larger users.¹³ Treat this as background, not HOA law. It settles who may take water and how much. It says nothing about whether an HOA may regulate an owner's landscaping.

State drought response runs through the Alabama Office of Water Resources, the Alabama Drought Assessment and Planning Team, and the Alabama Drought Management Plan, last revised in November 2024 under the Alabama Drought Planning and Response Act, effective since April 9, 2014.²² A state drought declaration alerts water users and triggers local water-system contingency planning. It does not reach into private HOA landscaping enforcement, and it does not suspend HOA covenants.⁷ Search for an Alabama statute addressing rainwater harvesting or graywater reuse as it touches HOAs, and none turns up. The state treats rainwater harvesting as generally lawful,⁵ and it routes graywater disposal through Alabama Department of Public Health onsite-sewage and plumbing rules — neither of which limits HOA authority.⁶

2C. Where water-conservation rules actually live in Alabama

For an Alabama community, any water-related landscaping rule traces first to the recorded declaration and the association's architectural-control provisions. Those documents — not a state water-conservation statute — decide whether an owner may swap turf for drought-tolerant plantings, install artificial turf, or add a rain barrel.²

For condominiums, the applicable condominium act supplies the general governance framework — the Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991 for condominiums built on or after January 1, 1991, and the predecessor Alabama Condominium Ownership Act for those built earlier.¹⁷ For planned communities, the Homeowners' Association Act supplies corporate and procedural rules for associations formed on or after January 1, 2016, with the Alabama Business and Nonprofit Entity Code, Title 10A, supplying corporate formalities; associations formed earlier lean on their CC&Rs and Title 10A instead.²³ None of it touches water conservation.

The practical, owner-facing water rule almost always comes from the local water system. Outdoor-watering restrictions during dry periods, conservation requests, and any rebates all operate under utility drought-management plans — the five-stage plan the Birmingham Water Works runs is one example, its Stage 4 "Extreme Drought Emergency" adding surcharges for excessive residential use, and its top stage having municipalities declare an "Exceptional Drought Emergency" that bans all non-essential outdoor water use — and the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System and other systems run comparable plans.¹² These operate independently of the HOA framework entirely. A manager searching for "Alabama HOA water conservation law" will find the operative rules sitting in the declaration and in the local water system's plan — not in any HOA-specific water statute.

Section 3: What the framework requires of HOAs

A. Landscaping approval and architectural review

An Alabama association's authority to require landscaping approval derives from its recorded declaration and architectural-control provisions, not from any statute. For planned communities, that authority is contractual, and the corporate procedure behind it runs through Title 10A and the Homeowners' Association Act — none of it statutory water regulation.² For condominiums, the condominium act frames owner alterations and association powers without itself granting or limiting landscaping authority on water grounds: § 35-8A applies to condominiums built after 1991, with parallel treatment for older condominiums under § 35-8, and the declaration may vary either.¹⁷

B. Drought response and watering restrictions

Mandatory outdoor-watering limits reach owners through the local water system's drought plan, not through the HOA — and where a utility imposes a mandatory restriction, that order takes precedence over any conflicting HOA watering requirement.¹² The state drought declaration the Alabama Office of Water Resources issues is a water-management action, not an HOA obligation, and it does not suspend HOA enforcement.¹¹

C. Rule adoption and disclosure

Planned-community associations formed on or after January 1, 2016 must organize as nonprofit corporations and file governing documents with the Secretary of State, under § 35-20-5 — a rule for planned communities, not condominiums.²³ Board rulemaking and penalty authority reaches only as far as the declaration and governing documents authorize, under § 35-20-11 for planned communities and § 35-8A-302 for condominiums built after 1991.²⁴

D. Enforcement limits and conflicts

Where a declaration demands a green lawn while a local water system restricts outdoor watering during a dry spell, that tension plays out as a contract-versus-local-rule question, resolved under general law rather than any water-conservation statute.¹² Alabama courts apply equitable limits to covenant enforcement, including a relative-hardship analysis that can constrain an association's remedy even after a breach is established.⁹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills (past 24 months)

No Alabama bill from the 2025 or 2026 Regular Sessions addresses HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping, drought enforcement, rainwater, or graywater. Two 2026 bills touched association and homeowner matters without touching water conservation — HB 260, on condominium consents, waivers, arbitration and mediation, and SB 246, on consumer protection against unsolicited real-estate offers and unfair service contracts — and neither one passed.¹⁴ No qualifying water-conservation bill turned up at all.

B. Recent appellate rulings (past 36 months)

One recent ruling does bear on HOA landscaping and architectural enforcement more broadly, though not on water conservation specifically.

C. Active legislative debates

No active Alabama proposal would change how the state treats HOA water-conservation landscaping. Trial-level disputes proceed through the Alabama Circuit Courts, with civil appeals going to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals and discretionary review sitting with the Alabama Supreme Court. Alabama has no dedicated HOA regulator; the Alabama Real Estate Commission oversees real estate licensing, which can reach community association managers.²⁵

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Line up the states on water conservation specifically, and three groups emerge — a different clustering than the one you'd get looking at governing statutes generally. The first group has statutes limiting HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping, concentrated in drought-exposed jurisdictions like California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, and Utah. The second has partial or emerging provisions. The third is the silent, CC&R-governed group, which takes in most Southeastern states, Alabama included.¹⁶ Alabama sits firmly in that third group. For a firm operating across state lines, the practical point is simple: don't assume Florida's Florida-friendly-landscaping rules cross the border into Alabama, where landscaping authority is purely a matter of the declaration.¹⁹ And nothing in the legislature suggests that's about to change.¹⁴

HOA Weekly's Alabama water-conservation coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the courts act. For Alabama communities, the practically controlling water rules are the recorded declaration and the local water system. Federal frameworks apply to Alabama associations regardless of state law — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act among them.

Footnotes

1. Ala. Code Title 35 (Property), Chapters 8A, 8, and 20, and Title 9, Chapter 10B (Water Resources) — no provision addressing HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping ↩
2. Ala. Code § 35-20 (Alabama Homeowners' Association Act) — association authority derives from the declaration and governing documents; no landscaping/water carve-out ↩
3. Ala. Code § 35-8A and § 35-20 — no artificial-turf protection against HOA prohibition; governed by CC&Rs ↩
4. Ala. Code § 35-20 and § 35-8A — no native or low-water plant protection; governed by CC&Rs ↩
5. Ala. Code § 35-20-11 — board powers exercised to the extent authorized by the declaration; turf mandates or lawn-removal limits set by CC&Rs, not statute ↩
6. Rainwater Collection Laws by State — Alabama treats rainwater harvesting as a private property right with no state restriction; no HOA carve-out ↩
7. Ala. Admin. Code r. 420-3-1-.64 (Alabama Department of Public Health, Disposal of Graywater) — graywater governed by onsite-sewage rules, not HOA law ↩
8. ADECA Office of Water Resources, Drought Declarations — declarations alert water users and trigger local planning; no statutory suspension of HOA covenant enforcement ↩
9. Englund v. Dauphin Island Property Owners Ass'n, Nos. SC-2024-0414, SC-2024-0437 (Ala. Aug. 29, 2025) — relative-hardship limit on covenant injunctions ↩
10. Ala. Code § 35-8A, § 35-8, and § 35-20 — condominium acts and HOA Act do not address water use ↩
11. ADECA Office of Water Resources — administers water-use reporting and drought planning; a water-management function, not HOA regulation ↩
12. Birmingham Water Works five-stage drought management plan — utility-imposed outdoor-watering restrictions and surcharges (Stage 4 "Extreme Drought Emergency"; top stage bans non-essential outdoor water use) ↩
13. Ala. Code § 9-10B (Alabama Water Resources Act) — regulated-riparian water-use framework; certificate-of-use and capacity-stress-area provisions (background only) ↩
14. Alabama Legislature bill search, 2025 and 2026 Regular Sessions — no bill addressing HOA water-efficient landscaping, drought enforcement, rainwater, or graywater; HB260 and SB246 (2026) did not pass and do not address water conservation ↩
15. Verification date: July 20, 2026 (sources current as of this date) ↩
16. Survey of state HOA water-conservation landscaping statutes (California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Utah); Alabama not among them ↩
17. Ala. Code § 35-8A-102 (Applicability) — Uniform Condominium Act of 1991 applies to condominiums created on or after January 1, 1991; contains no water-conservation provision ↩
18. Ala. Code § 35-8-1 through § 35-8-22 (Alabama Condominium Ownership Act) — governs pre-1991 condominiums; no water-conservation provision ↩
19. Florida's Florida-friendly-landscaping statute (Fla. Stat. § 373.185) — Florida law; Alabama has no equivalent ↩
20. Cal. Civ. Code § 4735(a) — governing-document provision void if it prohibits low-water-using plants or synthetic turf resembling grass; bars fines for reduced watering during a declared drought emergency (California law, not Alabama) ↩
21. Tex. Prop. Code § 202.007 — POA may not prohibit drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf; violating provision is void (Texas law, not Alabama) ↩
22. ADECA, Alabama Drought Management Plan (2024 revision) and Alabama Drought Planning and Response Act (effective April 9, 2014) — establishes ADAPT and drought declarations; a water-management function ↩
23. Ala. Code § 35-20-5 — planned-community associations formed on or after January 1, 2016 organize as nonprofit corporations under Title 10A and file governing documents with the Secretary of State ↩
24. Ala. Code § 35-20-11 (Powers of board) — board acts to the extent authorized by the declaration and governing documents; cf. § 35-8A-302 (powers of unit owners' association) ↩
25. Alabama Real Estate Commission — real estate licensing oversight; no dedicated HOA regulator in Alabama ↩