Indiana HOA ADUs & Modifications

Section 1: Overview

In Indiana, the Homeowners Associations Act does one clear thing on solar: it forbids an association from banning a rooftop system outright, even as it lets the association regulate where the panels go and how they look. A separate statute shields political signs. But no Indiana law wipes out an association's covenants on accessory dwelling units, so ADUs stay a question of zoning and covenants.¹ Planned communities answer to their recorded covenants and to the Indiana Homeowners Associations Act at Indiana Code Article 25.5; condominiums answer to the Indiana Condominium Act at Article 25.^2,3 The solar provision at Indiana Code § 32-25.5-3.5 hands a homeowner a petition path to install a system and narrows the grounds on which an association may object, and it stops short of letting the association forbid roof installations altogether.¹ Whether an owner may build an ADU comes down to two layers — the municipal or county zoning ordinance and the recorded covenants — because no state law preempts the association and forces it to allow one.⁴ Four modifications draw their protection not from Indiana statute but from federal law that binds every association: the U.S. flag, antennas and satellite dishes, disability-related reasonable modifications, and the accessibility of common-area facilities that qualify as public accommodations.^5,6,7,8 The sections that follow lay out the legal framework, the compliance duties it creates, the recent action in the legislature and the courts, and where Indiana lands nationally.

Section 2: The legal framework

Architectural review authority and the Homeowners Associations Act

Architectural control in an Indiana planned community starts with the recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions. That document usually creates an architectural review committee or architectural control committee and sets the standards for submission, approval, and appearance. Layered over those covenants sits the Indiana Homeowners Associations Act at Indiana Code Article 25.5.² The Act does not reach every association. It governs an association formed after June 30, 2009 that may impose mandatory dues or assessments, and it governs an older association — one formed before July 1, 2009 — only when a majority of its members vote to be governed by it.² Condominiums follow a different track, the Indiana Condominium Act at Article 25, which carries its own grievance-resolution chapter at Indiana Code § 32-25-8.5.³ Most Indiana associations also incorporate as nonprofits, which puts them under the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991 at Indiana Code Article 23-17 for corporate formalities.⁹ Indiana has never adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so these separate statutes — not one unified code — supply the backdrop.² Article 25.5 breaks into Chapter 3 (homeowners associations), Chapter 3.5 (restrictions on solar energy systems), Chapter 3.7 (regulation of beekeeping), Chapter 4 (Attorney General actions), and Chapter 5 (grievance resolution).² One point matters more than homeowners expect: the Act carries no dedicated fining statute and sets no fine cap. A fine has to draw its authority from the governing documents, and the notice-and-meeting duty that owners often cite comes from the mandatory grievance-resolution chapter at Indiana Code § 32-25.5-5, which requires an association to adopt grievance procedures, write them into the governing documents, and follow them before it goes to court.¹⁰ Secondary sources that cite "Indiana Code § 32-25.5-4" for a pre-fine notice requirement have it wrong; Chapter 4 covers only Attorney General enforcement.¹¹

Protected modifications: solar and signs

The operative HOA solar provision is Indiana Code § 32-25.5-3.5, added in 2022 — not the local-government provision at Indiana Code § 36-7-2-8 that some secondary sources wrongly cite for the HOA rule.^1,12 Under Indiana Code § 32-25.5-3.5-4, a homeowner petitions the other members for approval to install a solar energy system by supplying a site plan, screening details, and the vendor and installer, and by gathering the required number of member signatures; once the request meets the statutory requirements, the association may not deny it.¹³ Indiana Code § 32-25.5-3.5-5 then fixes the only grounds on which an association may prohibit a system or force its removal: a court finding that the system threatens public health or safety or breaks a law; installation on common property or property the association owns or maintains; installation in a non-permitted location; a roof-mounted system that extends more than six inches above or beyond the roof, fails to follow the roof's slope with a top edge parallel to the roof line, or shows a frame, support bracket, or visible piping or wiring in a tone other than the silver, bronze, or black commonly sold in the marketplace; and a yard or patio installation taller than the fence line.¹⁴ The result cuts both ways: an association may regulate placement and appearance and object on those enumerated grounds, but it may not ban rooftop solar outright.¹⁴ Political signs draw their protection from a different statute, Indiana Code § 32-21-13, which sits in Article 21 (conveyance procedures) rather than the HOA Act; it bars enforcement of a rule prohibiting a political sign in the window that opens 30 days before an election and closes 5 days after, while allowing reasonable rules on size, number, and location — though a location rule may not bar a sign in a window or on the ground of the owner's property.¹⁵ Indiana has no HOA electric-vehicle-charging statute and no HOA landscaping statute; because Article 25.5 addresses solar and beekeeping but not those categories, EV charging and landscaping stay with the covenants.²

ADUs and federal overlays

Indiana has no statute that overrides or voids an association's covenants on ADUs. Whether an owner may build one turns on two layers: the municipal or county zoning ordinance has to permit the unit, and the recorded covenants must not forbid it.⁴ In a covenant-governed community, the declaration controls, and a local ordinance that allows ADUs binds the locality, not the association. That sets Indiana apart from the states that strip HOAs of authority over ADUs, among them California (Civil Code § 4751) and Colorado (House Bill 24-1152).¹⁶ Four federal frameworks bind every Indiana association no matter what the state does. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572, enacted July 24, 2006, bars an association from restricting a member's display of the U.S. flag on property the member owns or has the right to use.⁵ The FCC's Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule at 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 protects covered antennas and satellite dishes in areas of exclusive use.⁶ The Fair Housing Act at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A) requires an association to permit reasonable, resident-paid modifications for disability.⁷ And Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act reaches common-area facilities that qualify as public accommodations.⁸

Section 3: Compliance obligations created by the framework

Architectural review process obligations

An association has to run the review process its covenants prescribe. In practice that means accepting applications, deciding within the stated timelines, issuing written decisions, and keeping records — a duty that flows from the covenants and reaches both planned communities and condominiums.² The HOA Act adds records-access and communications duties for covered associations, including the obligation to share communications about a member's lot with that member.² Because Indiana has no dedicated fining statute, any fine has to draw its authority from the governing documents and follow whatever process those documents require; the statutory backstop is the grievance-resolution requirement, not a standalone fine-notice rule.¹⁰

Modifications the association must permit

An association has to permit a solar energy system that satisfies Indiana Code § 32-25.5-3.5, subject only to the enumerated placement-and-appearance grounds.¹ It may not prohibit a political sign during the statutory election window under Indiana Code § 32-21-13, though it may still set reasonable rules on size, number, and location.¹⁵ It also has to honor the U.S. flag act, the OTARD antenna rule, the Fair Housing Act's reasonable-modification duty, and ADA common-area accessibility.^5,6,7,8 In each case the duty bars an outright prohibition, not the reasonable regulation of time, place, manner, or appearance.

ADU obligations and limits on HOA authority

No Indiana statute makes an association permit an ADU.⁴ A municipal ordinance that authorizes ADUs binds the locality, not the association, and the recorded covenants decide whether an owner may build one.⁴

Enforcement, dispute resolution, and appeal obligations

A covered association has to adopt grievance-resolution procedures, write them into the governing documents, and follow them before it starts litigation — planned communities under Indiana Code § 32-25.5-5, condominiums under Indiana Code § 32-25-8.5.^3,10 The Indiana Attorney General may act under Indiana Code § 32-25.5-4 against a board for misappropriation, fraud, or proxy violations, with remedies that include an injunction, restitution, board removal, and a civil penalty that "may not exceed five hundred dollars ($500) for each action."¹¹ Trial-level disputes move through the Indiana Circuit and Superior Courts, appeals go to the Indiana Court of Appeals, and the Indiana Supreme Court exercises discretionary review; Indiana keeps an intermediate appellate court.¹⁷

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent bills

The grievance, communications, governing-documents, board-meeting, and seller-disclosure provisions that anchor this area did not arrive recently. House Enrolled Act 1286 added them, and the legislature enacted it as Public Law 141 in 2015, effective July 1, 2015. Writers often cast it as a fresh reform; it is a decade old.¹⁸ The genuinely recent action sits in two 2026 measures.

Recent appellate rulings

One recent decision drew a clear line around how far an association's architectural authority runs.

Active legislative debates

Through the 2026 session, House Enrolled Act 1152 drew fire from the Community Associations Institute, which objected to the limits it places on association authority.¹⁹ Lawmakers also weighed plug-in home solar measures — Senate Bill 74 and House Bill 1084 — that touch small residential solar installations.²¹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Indiana sits in the middle of the modification-protection spectrum. It gives homeowners a real HOA solar protection at Indiana Code § 32-25.5-3.5 that forbids an outright ban on rooftop systems, yet it offers no ADU preemption of the kind found in states that override association authority, among them California (Civil Code § 4751) and Colorado (House Bill 24-1152).^1,16 Indiana's solar rule follows a placement-and-appearance model — it lets associations regulate how a system looks and where it sits, but not whether it may exist — while some neighboring states leave solar protection largely to local option.²¹ For a multi-state operator, the takeaway is plain: in Indiana, an association cannot ban rooftop solar but keeps its authority over placement and appearance, and ADUs remain a matter of municipal zoning and covenants rather than a statutory entitlement.⁴

HOA Weekly's Indiana ADUs and Modifications coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the courts act. The federal frameworks noted here — the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, the OTARD rule, the Fair Housing Act, and the ADA — apply regardless of the state framework, and a fuller treatment of those federal rules will follow.

1. Ind. Code ch. 32-25.5-3.5, Restrictions on Solar Energy Systems, added by Pub. L. No. 73-2022, Indiana General Assembly ↩
2. Ind. Code art. 25.5, Homeowners Associations Act; applicability at Ind. Code § 32-25.5-1-1; chapter structure, Indiana General Assembly ↩
3. Ind. Code art. 25, Condominium Act, including grievance resolution at Ind. Code § 32-25-8.5, Indiana General Assembly ↩
4. ADU Housing Laws and Regulations in Indiana, Steadily ("Indiana doesn't have a single statewide ADU law, so rules ... vary by county and municipality") (confirming the absence of a covenant-voiding statute) ↩
5. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572, H.R. 42, 109th Cong., Congress.gov ↩
6. Over-the-Air Reception Devices (OTARD) Rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, Federal Communications Commission ↩
7. 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A), Fair Housing Act, reasonable modifications at the disabled person's expense, Legal Information Institute ↩
8. Americans with Disabilities Act, Title III, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq., public accommodations, U.S. Department of Justice ↩
9. Ind. Code art. 23-17, Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991, Indiana General Assembly ↩
10. Ind. Code ch. 32-25.5-5, Grievance Resolution, including § 32-25.5-5-8 (procedures required in governing documents) and §§ 32-25.5-5-9 to -11 (notice of claim and meeting), added by Pub. L. No. 141-2015, Indiana General Assembly ↩
11. Ind. Code ch. 32-25.5-4, Attorney General Actions; § 32-25.5-4-1 (misappropriation, fraud, proxy violations) and § 32-25.5-4-2 (injunction, restitution, board removal, civil penalty not exceeding $500), Indiana General Assembly ↩
12. Example of a secondary-source miscitation of Ind. Code § 36-7-2-8 (local-government solar provision) in place of the HOA-specific rule at Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5, Homeowners Protection Bureau (flagged as an error) ↩
13. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-4, homeowner petition; required information and signatures; denial prohibited if requirements met, Indiana General Assembly ↩
14. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-5, permitted reasons to prohibit or require removal; six-inch limit; silver, bronze, or black tones; fence-line limit, Indiana General Assembly ↩
15. Ind. Code ch. 32-21-13, Display of Political Signs on Property Subject to Restrictive Covenants or Homeowners Association Rules, added by Pub. L. No. 5-2010, Indiana General Assembly ↩
16. Comparative reference to out-of-state HOA-preemption regimes, California (Cal. Civ. Code § 4751) and Colorado (H.B. 24-1152), Palmetto (out-of-state citations to be confirmed against the respective state codes) ↩
17. Linda F. Slavick Trust v. Christmas Lake Props. Ass'n, No. 24A-PL-1746 (Ind. Ct. App. Feb. 4, 2025), Indiana Courts (also confirming the Circuit/Superior to Court of Appeals to Supreme Court structure) ↩
18. House Enrolled Act 1286 (2015), enrolled text, Indiana General Assembly (enacted as Pub. L. No. 141-2015, effective July 1, 2015) ↩
19. House Bill 1152 (2026), Homeowners association matters, Indiana General Assembly (Public Law 53; effective July 1, 2026) ↩
20. House Enrolled Act 1150 (2026), adding Ind. Code ch. 32-21-13.5, Display of the Flag of the United States or the Indiana State Flag, enrolled text, Indiana General Assembly ↩
21. Senate Bill 74 (2026), Plug-in home solar units, Indiana General Assembly (see also House Bill 1084, Plug-in solar power systems) ↩