2026-09-09 · Connecticut · Legislation

A Connecticut association formed on or before January 1, 2026 can vote itself out of the state's new condominium solar-access law — and it has until January 1, 2028 to do it. After that the opt-out is gone. The law and its escape hatch are Sections 10 and 11 of Public Act 25-73, approved June 23, 2025 and generally effective January 1, 2026.¹

Eight months into the new regime, the deadline is the part boards keep missing. It is a one-time decision with a hard date on it, and it requires a supermajority of the board rather than a vote of the owners.

What the law protects, and what it does not

Section 10 reaches one kind of home only. It defines a “single-family detached unit” as a residential building in a common interest community, cooperatives excluded, “that does not contain units divided by horizontal or vertical boundaries that are comprised by, or are located in, common walls between units.”¹

For those units, and from January 1, 2026:

“any provision of a declaration or the bylaws of an association that prohibits or unreasonably restricts the installation or use of a solar power generating system on the roof of a unit that is a single-family detached unit, or is otherwise in conflict with the provisions of this section, shall be unenforceable.”¹

The act then says the same thing in the negative, to remove any doubt: “This section shall not apply to any unit that has vertical or horizontal boundaries that are comprised by, or are located in, common walls between units.” A stacked flat, a townhouse sharing a party wall, and any unit in a cooperative are outside the statute. Connecticut's solar rights in shared-roof buildings are unchanged.

The approval clock, and the deemed approval

Section 10 builds a timetable into the application process, with silence counting as consent. The board must acknowledge receipt in writing within thirty days, and must approve, deny, or request more information in writing within sixty days of receipt. If it does none of those, the application “shall be deemed approved sixty days after the date of the executive board's receipt.” Where the board requests more information, it is deemed approved thirty days after that information arrives unless denied in writing. And the board “shall not unreasonably withhold approval.”¹

An architectural review process that runs on quarterly meetings will breach these deadlines without anyone deciding anything.

1. Public Act No. 25-73 (Substitute House Bill No. 6957), full enrolled text — §§ 9-11; approved June 23, 2025 ↩
2. HB 6957 bill status and history, Connecticut General Assembly ↩
3. HB 7002 (2025), the standalone solar bill that died on the House calendar — bill status and history ↩
4. 2025 Acts Affecting Housing and Real Estate, OLR Report 2025-R-0113 (July 31, 2025) ↩