Hawaii HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in Hawaii

Hawaii stands as a strong-protection state for residential solar rights. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 196-7 makes any covenant, declaration, bylaw, or similar provision that prevents an owner from installing a solar energy device on a single-family residential dwelling or townhouse void and unenforceable.¹ A community association keeps authority to adopt reasonable placement rules, but those rules must facilitate placement, can't render a device more than 25 percent less efficient or raise installation, maintenance, and removal costs by more than 15 percent, and the association may not charge any fee for placement.¹ The statute sets defined process steps rather than a deemed-approval deadline: an owner must register the device with the association within 30 days of installation, and, for a device placed on a common element, must first obtain the association's written consent, which the statute requires the association to grant once the owner agrees in writing to specified conditions.¹

§ 196-7 sits in Chapter 196 (Energy Resources), not in the condominium or planned-community acts, so its protection reaches condominiums governed by Chapter 514B — which now governs all Hawaii condominiums after the 2019 repeal of Chapter 514A — and planned community associations governed by Chapter 421J.^1,2,3 Hawaii's utility-side history, including the closure of net metering to new customers in 2015, reflects Public Utilities Commission policy on the customer-utility relationship, and it doesn't expand or limit association authority over solar.⁴ Hawaii sits alongside California, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Texas as a strong-protection jurisdiction. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. The core solar statute: Haw. Rev. Stat. § 196-7

§ 196-7(a) states that, notwithstanding any law to the contrary, no person shall be prevented "by any covenant, declaration, bylaws, restriction, deed, lease, term, provision, condition, codicil, contract, or similar binding agreement, however worded," from installing a solar energy device on any single-family residential dwelling or townhouse that the person owns, and any provision to the contrary is void and unenforceable.¹ The definition of "private entity" runs broad, capturing any association of homeowners, community association, condominium association, cooperative, or other non-governmental entity whose covenants and bylaws bind the homeowner.¹

§ 196-7(b) sets the reasonable-restriction standard. Every private entity must adopt rules that provide for the placement of solar energy devices, and those rules "shall facilitate the placement of solar energy devices and shall not impose conditions or restrictions that render the device more than twenty-five per cent less efficient or increase the cost of installation, maintenance, and removal of the device by more than fifteen per cent."¹ No private entity may assess or charge any homeowner a fee for placement.¹

The statute prescribes a process rather than a California-style clock that deems an application approved if the association fails to act. Under § 196-7(c), an owner may place a device on a single-family dwelling or townhouse the owner owns, provided the device complies with the association's rules, gets registered with the association within 30 days of installation, and, if placed on a common element or limited common element, has the association's prior consent.¹ The statute states that consent "shall be given" once the owner agrees in writing to comply with the association's design specifications, engage a duly licensed contractor, and provide, within 14 days of approval, a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured.¹ Section 196-7(d) makes the owner and each successive owner responsible for damage arising from a common-element installation and requires that the insurance stay maintained.¹

Scope ties to the device definition. A "solar energy device" is any facility, including a photovoltaic application, applicable to a single-family residential dwelling or townhouse, and it excludes skylights and windows.¹ The core mandate therefore protects single-family dwellings and townhouses directly; a multifamily condominium unit whose roof is a common element gets addressed through the common-element consent mechanism in § 196-7 and, separately, through Chapter 514B.^1,5

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

Because § 196-7 sits in Chapter 196 (Energy Resources) and uses the broad "private entity" definition, it applies across community types rather than to one form of association. It reaches condominium associations and planned community associations alike.¹ This placement parallels Florida, where the residential solar statute sits outside the HOA and condominium acts.

Hawaii condominiums answer to the Condominium Property Act, Chapter 514B, which took effect July 1, 2006. The older act, Chapter 514A, was repealed effective January 1, 2019 by Act 181, Session Laws of Hawaii 2017, originating as SB 292, with Act 223 (2019) later extending safe-harbor provisions through July 1, 2020. Chapter 514B now applies to all condominiums in the State, subject to a proviso protecting a developer's reserved rights.^2,6 Condominium property regimes validly created under Chapter 514A before July 1, 2006 remain valid, but their governance and management run under Chapter 514B.⁶ Planned community associations answer to Chapter 421J.³ Hawaii has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so UCIOA-specific features don't carry over into Hawaii analysis.

The community acts frame architectural and alteration review. Chapter 514B § 514B-140 governs additions to and alterations of a condominium and expressly cross-references the solar statute: it provides that installation of solar energy devices by owners of condominium units "shall be allowed upon written consent of the board," and that installation on single-family residential dwellings or townhouses "shall be allowed pursuant to the provisions in section 196-7."⁵ The order of precedence follows directly: § 196-7 overrides conflicting declaration or bylaw provisions regardless of which act governs the community, because § 196-7 voids any contrary instrument "however worded" and applies "notwithstanding any law to the contrary."¹ An association's design and placement review survives only to the extent it stays within the reasonable-restriction standard.

2C. The reasonable-restriction boundary and the utility-side boundary

An association may adopt placement rules, require compliance with reasonable design specifications, condition common-element placement on written consent and insurance, and require registration of an installed device.^1,5 It may not prohibit installation on a covered dwelling, may not adopt rules that push a device past the 25 percent efficiency or 15 percent cost thresholds, may not charge a placement fee, and may not withhold consent for a common-element device once the owner has agreed in writing to the statutory conditions.¹ Any declaration, bylaw, or rule that crosses these lines is void and unenforceable.¹

Hawaii's net-metering history stays a separate, utility-side matter. Following the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission's October 12, 2015 order, the commission capped Hawaiian Electric's retail-rate net energy metering programs to new customers and replaced them with self-supply and grid-supply export tariffs, with grid-supply export credits set at $0.151 per kilowatt-hour on Oahu, $0.154 on Hawaii Island, and $0.172 on Maui, later consolidated into the utility's successor programs.⁴ That policy governs how a customer interacts with the electric utility and the compensation for exported energy; it doesn't enlarge or shrink a community association's authority over an owner's device. Design committees and architectural review boards retain a residual role limited to reasonable placement and specification review, and associations remain subject to general corporate governance and fiduciary duties in exercising that role.^1,5

Section 3: What a Hawaii association can and cannot do regarding solar

A. What an association cannot do

An association may not prohibit or unreasonably restrict a solar energy device on a single-family dwelling or townhouse the owner owns, and any covenant, declaration, or bylaw doing so is void and unenforceable.¹ It may not adopt placement conditions that render the device more than 25 percent less efficient or increase installation, maintenance, and removal costs by more than 15 percent.¹ It may not charge any fee for placement.¹ For a condominium common-element device, the board may not withhold written consent once the owner meets the statutory conditions.^1,5

B. What an association may do

An association may adopt rules that provide for and facilitate the placement of solar energy devices, and it may require compliance with reasonable design specifications — the duty to adopt facilitating rules stays mandatory.¹ It may require that a common-element or limited-common-element device receive prior written consent, and that the owner engage a duly licensed contractor and maintain insurance naming the association as an additional insured.¹ A condominium board's approval authority for unit-owner devices operates through the written-consent mechanism of § 514B-140.⁵

C. Approval process and timelines

§ 196-7 imposes no deadline that deems an application approved if the association fails to act; instead it fixes owner-side steps. The owner must register the installed device with the association within 30 days of installation, and, for a common-element device, must provide a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured within 14 days of the association's approval.¹ Common-element placement requires the association's prior written consent, which the statute directs the association to give once the owner agrees in writing to the three statutory conditions.¹

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

The primary statutory remedy: an unlawful prohibition is void and unenforceable, leaving the owner free to install a compliant device.¹ For condominiums, a dispute over interpretation or enforcement of the declaration, bylaws, or house rules may be submitted to mandatory mediation on written request under § 514B-161, and to arbitration under § 514B-162. The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Real Estate Commission administers a condominium program that subsidizes evaluative mediation and voluntary binding arbitration through the Condominium Education Trust Fund.^7,8 For planned communities, § 421J-13 requires that a dispute over the association documents or Chapter 421J first be submitted to mediation.³ The Regulated Industries Complaints Office handles only a narrow set of condominium complaints; most solar disputes proceed through mediation, arbitration, or the courts.⁹ Trial-level disputes proceed in the Circuit Court, or District Court for smaller matters, with appeals to the Intermediate Court of Appeals and discretionary review by the Hawaii Supreme Court. Condominium fee-shifting under § 514B-157 and the planned-community fee provision in § 421J-10 can award costs and attorneys' fees and may penalize a party that bypasses available mediation.^9,3 Condominium managing agents must be licensed Hawaii real estate brokers, or a qualifying trust company under Chapter 412, and must register with the Real Estate Commission under § 514B-132.¹⁰

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

A review of Hawaii State Judiciary opinions didn't turn up any published or memorandum opinion of the Intermediate Court of Appeals or the Hawaii Supreme Court decided between July 2023 and July 2026 that interprets § 196-7 or a community association's authority over rooftop solar.¹³ No qualifying appellate decision is reported for this window, so this page doesn't present a case card here; the statute's text and the community acts govern in the absence of controlling appellate interpretation.¹³

C. Active legislative debates

The active debate concerns extending solar protection to condominium units, multifamily buildings, and renters through portable plug-in devices, reflected in HB 2435 and SB 2902. Both failed in 2026, and the concept is positioned to return in the 2027 session.^11,12 No pending proposal would narrow the core placement protection or fee bar in § 196-7.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Hawaii belongs to the first of three broad solar-rights categories. Strong-protection states void or sharply limit association solar restrictions and include Hawaii (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 196-7), California (Civ. Code § 714), Florida (Fla. Stat. § 163.04), Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1816 and § 33-1268), Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-30-168), Nevada, and Texas (Prop. Code § 202.010).¹ Solar-easement-only states enable voluntary easements but don't override associations, and no-protection states leave the declaration in full control. Hawaii's distinctive features: a cross-community-type statute located in the energy code rather than the community-association acts, and a process built on owner registration and common-element consent rather than a deemed-approval clock.¹ For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is direct: a Hawaii association cannot prohibit solar on a covered dwelling, cannot charge a placement fee, and must follow the statutory placement and consent process.¹

HOA Weekly's Hawaii Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the Hawaii courts act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule extends to rooftop solar, so Hawaii's state statute controls the question of association authority.

1. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 196-7, Placement of solar energy devices (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
2. Haw. Rev. Stat. Chapter 514B, Condominium Property Act (applicability and structure) (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
3. Haw. Rev. Stat. Chapter 421J, Planned Community Associations (including § 421J-13 mediation and § 421J-10 attorneys' fees) (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
4. Utility Dive, "Hawaii PUC ends net metering program" (Oct. 2015 PUC order; self-supply and grid-supply tariffs) ↩
5. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-140, Additions to and alterations of condominium (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
6. DCCA Real Estate Commission, "The Repeal of Chapter 514A, HRS" (Act 181, SLH 2017; Act 223, SLH 2019) ↩
7. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-161, Mediation (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
8. DCCA Real Estate Commission, Condominium Governance FAQs (mediation and arbitration under § 514B-161 and § 514B-162; Condominium Education Trust Fund) ↩
9. DCCA Real Estate Commission, "Can the Real Estate Commission Step in to Resolve Disputes..." (RICO scope; § 514B-157 fee-shifting) ↩
10. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-132, Managing agents (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
11. HB 2435 (2026), Relating to Portable Plug-in Solar Generation Devices (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
12. SB 2902 (2026), Relating to Renewable Energy (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
13. Hawaii State Judiciary, Opinions and Orders (Intermediate Court of Appeals and Supreme Court) ↩