Florida HOA Solar Rights

Section 1 — Overview: Solar rights for HOAs in Florida

The headline fact for any Florida community association: a covenant, deed restriction, or declaration provision that prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting solar collectors cannot be enforced. Florida Statute § 163.04 states that such an instrument "may not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors," and that a property owner "may not be denied permission to install solar collectors or other energy devices" by any entity granted approval authority in a governing document.¹ The single power the statute leaves to an approving entity is a location power: it "may determine the specific location where solar collectors may be installed on the roof within an orientation to the south or within 45° east or west of due south if such determination does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors."¹

Structurally, the provision stands out. It sits in Chapter 163, Intergovernmental Programs, rather than in the Condominium Act (Chapter 718), the Cooperative Act (Chapter 719), or the Homeowners' Association Act (Chapter 720).² Because of that placement, and its broad reference to any "deed restriction, covenant, declaration, or similar binding agreement," the protection applies across community types. The statute reaches broader than solar, too — it protects clotheslines and other energy devices based on renewable resources, though this page addresses solar specifically. The solar-rights analysis stays separate from Florida's post-Surfside structural-safety regime (milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies) and from utility net-metering policy, neither of which enlarges an association's authority to restrict solar. Nationally, Florida ranks among the strong-protection states, alongside California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Texas. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the specific powers an association keeps and loses, recent legislative and judicial activity, and Florida's national position.

Section 2 — The statutory framework

2A. The core solar statute: Fla. Stat. § 163.04

Section 163.04 organizes into four subsections. Subsection (1) bars a governing body from adopting any ordinance that prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting the installation of solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources.¹ Subsection (2) is the operative provision for community associations: a deed restriction, covenant, declaration, or similar binding agreement "may not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting" those devices from being installed on buildings on the covered lots or parcels, and a property owner "may not be denied permission to install solar collectors or other energy devices" by any entity granted the power to approve, forbid, control, or direct alteration of property.¹ The same subsection contains the only carve-out: the approving entity "may determine the specific location where solar collectors may be installed on the roof within an orientation to the south or within 45° east or west of due south if such determination does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors."¹

The statute doesn't contain a standalone "void and unenforceable" clause. Instead, its enforcement structure works through the express prohibition in subsections (1) and (2), a prevailing-party fee provision, and a legislative-intent statement. Subsection (3) provides that "in any litigation arising under the provisions of this section, the prevailing party shall be entitled to costs and reasonable attorney's fees."¹ Subsection (4) states the legislative intent to encourage renewable resources and provides that the section "shall not apply to patio railings in condominiums, cooperatives, or apartments."¹ The practical consequence: a covenant purporting to ban solar collectors is unenforceable to that extent, because the statute expressly forbids both the prohibition and any denial of permission to install. The statute's history line shows its last amendments took effect in 2008, so the text has stayed stable for well over a decade.²

2B. Cross-community-type application and the role of the community acts

Because § 163.04 sits in Chapter 163 and speaks to any "deed restriction, covenant, declaration, or similar binding agreement," it reaches condominiums governed by Chapter 718, cooperatives governed by Chapter 719, and homeowners' associations governed by Chapter 720 alike.¹ The community acts supply the machinery of architectural review and alteration approval, but § 163.04 confines whatever architectural authority those documents grant, so that for solar collectors, the authority shrinks down to the location carve-out. An approving body operating under a Chapter 718 declaration or a Chapter 720 declaration may still process an application, but it cannot deny permission to install and cannot use aesthetic authority to prohibit the device.

Precedence runs in the statute's favor. Subsection (1) opens with "Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or other provision of general or special law," and subsection (2) overrides conflicting declaration provisions, so § 163.04 controls over a governing document regardless of which community act otherwise applies.¹ The condominium context has one wrinkle: § 163.04(2) protects installation "with respect to residential dwellings and within the boundaries of a condominium unit," and because a condominium roof typically counts as a common element outside the unit boundary, an individual unit owner generally can't claim a § 163.04 right to place panels on the common roof.¹ Separately, § 718.113(7) authorizes a condominium board to install solar collectors and other renewable-energy devices on the common elements or association property for the benefit of unit owners without a unit-owner vote.³ Florida is not a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) state; it runs its own chapters (718, 719, and 720), and the solar protection is a Florida-specific statute, not an imported model-act feature.⁴

2C. The reasonable-restriction boundary and the adjacent-regime boundaries

What an association may still do stays limited to the location power. It may specify a south-facing roof location within the statutory window — an orientation to the south or within 45 degrees east or west of due south — provided the chosen location doesn't impair the effective operation of the collectors.¹ What it may not do is prohibit the device, deny permission to install, or specify a location that impairs effective operation. A placement demand that pushes panels onto a shaded or poorly oriented roof face crosses from a permissible location determination into an impermissible effective prohibition.¹

Two adjacent regimes stay outside this analysis. Florida's post-Surfside structural-safety reforms, created by Senate Bill 4-D, signed into law May 26, 2022 in response to the June 24, 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, and its successor legislation, include milestone structural inspections codified at Fla. Stat. § 553.899 and structural integrity reserve studies under § 718.112(2)(g). Those provisions concern building safety and reserves and don't enlarge an association's authority to restrict solar, even when roof work coincides with a structural project.⁵ Utility net metering, which governs the customer-utility relationship, is likewise a separate regime that doesn't bear on association authority. The residual role for an association stays procedural: architectural review that documents the installation and confirms it falls within the statute, plus ordinary corporate governance under the applicable act.

Section 3 — What a Florida association can and cannot do regarding solar

A. What an association cannot do

An association may not prohibit or effectively prohibit a solar collector, may not deny permission to install, and may not specify a location that impairs the collector's effective operation. Each limit comes directly from § 163.04(2) and applies to both condominiums and homeowners' associations.¹ These prohibitions stand as mandatory statutory constraints, not default rules that a declaration can override.

B. What an association may do

An association may determine the specific roof location for panels within an orientation to the south or within 45 degrees east or west of due south, but only if the determination "does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors" — the precise standard in § 163.04(2).¹ This location power applies to both condominiums and homeowners' associations, and it's the only affirmative authority the statute preserves.

C. Approval and architectural review

Section 163.04 limits architectural-review power under both Chapter 718 and Chapter 720: a board or architectural review committee may require an application but cannot deny permission to install a qualifying device.¹ An association may reasonably require documentation showing dimensions, layout, mounting method, and orientation, so it can confirm the installation qualifies under the statute and situate it within the south-facing window. That documentation authority stays consistent with the statute's location carve-out but can't be used to defeat the installation.¹

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

An unlawful prohibition is unenforceable, and the prevailing party in litigation under the section is entitled to costs and reasonable attorney's fees under § 163.04(3).¹ The pre-litigation path differs by community type. For a Chapter 718 condominium, certain disputes over board authority run through mandatory nonbinding arbitration administered by the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes within the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, with presuit mediation available in lieu of arbitration under § 718.1255(5).⁶ For a Chapter 720 homeowners' association, the owner and association must pursue statutory presuit mediation under § 720.311 before filing suit on covered disputes.⁷ Trial-level matters proceed in the Florida Circuit Courts, with smaller matters in County Courts, with appeals to the appropriate District Court of Appeal — Florida now has six districts, the Sixth having opened January 1, 2023 — and discretionary review by the Florida Supreme Court.⁸ Community association managers who handle these disputes for compensation must be licensed under Chapter 468, Part VIII.⁹

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Based on the statute's official history line and a review of the Florida Legislature's bill records, no bill enacted or introduced over the past 24 months amends § 163.04 as it bears on community-association authority over an owner's solar system. The section's most recent amendments took effect in 2008, and the 2024 and 2025 published texts read identically.² The last legislative attempt to change § 163.04 in this context came in 2022's renewable-energy-generation legislation. The vehicle that reached the Governor, HB 741, was vetoed by Governor Ron DeSantis on April 27, 2022 — his veto letter cited inflation, stating that "the state of Florida should not contribute to the financial crunch that our citizens are experiencing" — while the Senate companion, SB 1024, was laid on the table on March 4, 2022 per the Florida Senate bill history.¹⁰ That measure was principally a net-metering bill and falls outside both the solar-rights subject and the 24-month window; it's noted here only to confirm the statute's stability.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No Florida District Court of Appeal or Florida Supreme Court published opinion in the past 36 months interprets § 163.04 in the community-association solar context. The appellate authority most often cited for the statute remains City of Ormond Beach v. Del Marco, 426 So. 2d 1029 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983), a pre-2023 decision addressing a renewable-energy device. It holds that § 163.04 removes any hardship requirement but doesn't let an owner ignore neutral, generally applicable setback and height rules.¹¹ No newer published decision has displaced it.

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal to amend § 163.04 or its location carve-out is pending in a form that would change community-association authority over an owner's solar system. Recent Florida solar legislation has instead addressed utility-scale solar-facility siting and decommissioning under separate statutes — 2025 SB 1304, amending § 163.3205 and § 163.3208, for example — which govern land-use approval of production facilities and don't bear on HOA or condominium solar authority.²

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

Florida sits in the strongest of three broad categories of state solar-rights law. The first category, strong-protection states, void or sharply limit association solar restrictions by statute. It includes Florida (Fla. Stat. § 163.04), California (Cal. Civ. Code § 714), Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1816 and § 33-1268), Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-30-168), Nevada (Nev. Rev. Stat. § 278.0208, which makes void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, or condition that prohibits or unreasonably restricts an owner from using a solar-energy system), and Texas (Tex. Prop. Code § 202.010).¹² The second category, solar-easement-only states, enables owners to negotiate voluntary easements for sunlight access but doesn't override an association's restrictions. The third category, no-protection states, leaves the declaration in full control, so an association may ban solar outright. Florida's distinctive features: its protection is a cross-community-type statute located outside the HOA and condominium acts, and it pairs a near-total ban on prohibition with a single, defined south-facing location carve-out. For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is direct: a Florida association cannot prohibit solar and may only specify a south-facing roof location that doesn't impair operation.

HOA Weekly's Florida Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the Florida Legislature and Florida courts act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule (47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, which covers television antennas, satellite dishes, and fixed wireless devices) extends to rooftop solar, so Florida's state statute controls here.¹³

1. Fla. Stat. § 163.04, Energy devices based on renewable resources (2025), Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature (Online Sunshine) ↩
2. Fla. Stat. § 163.04 (2024 Florida Statutes), The Florida Senate (history line: s. 8, ch. 80-163; s. 1, ch. 92-89; s. 14, ch. 93-249; s. 1, ch. 2008-191; s. 3, ch. 2008-227) ↩
3. Fla. Stat. § 718.113(7), Maintenance; limitation upon improvement (2024 Florida Statutes), The Florida Senate ↩
4. Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes, Jurisdiction Regarding the Condominium & Cooperative Acts (Chapters 718 and 719), MyFloridaLicense.com (DBPR) ↩
5. Fla. Stat. § 553.899, Mandatory structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings (milestone inspections), Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature (adjacent regime; not solar law) ↩
6. Fla. Stat. § 718.1255, Alternative dispute resolution (2025), Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature ↩
7. Fla. Stat. § 720.311, Dispute resolution (2025), Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature ↩
8. Florida Sixth District Court of Appeal (operational January 1, 2023), Florida State Courts System ↩
9. Fla. Stat. ch. 468, Part VIII, Community Association Management (ss. 468.431-468.438) (2025 Florida Statutes), The Florida Senate ↩
10. CS/SB 1024 (2022), Renewable Energy Generation, bill history (companion HB 741 vetoed by the Governor), The Florida Senate ↩
11. City of Ormond Beach v. Del Marco, 426 So. 2d 1029 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983) (standard citation for editor verification; statute text at The Florida Senate) ↩
12. Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, "Solar Rights" Laws in Arizona, California, Florida (2021-R-0185), summarizing Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1816, Cal. Civ. Code § 714, and Fla. Stat. § 163.04 ↩
13. 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 (OTARD Rule), U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov) ↩