Indiana HOA Architectural Review

Key Findings

• The Homeowners Association Act works by creation date. Under Ind. Code § 32-25.5-1-1, the Act reaches two kinds of associations: any homeowners association created after June 30, 2009 that may charge mandatory dues, and any association created before July 1, 2009 that votes to opt in — though a handful of provisions bind every association no matter what.¹ The chapters run in a clear sequence: applicability, definitions, homeowners associations, solar energy systems, beekeeping, Attorney General actions, and grievance resolution, with new chapters added in 2026.
• No statute lays out an architectural-review process for an ordinary application. Neither the Homeowners Association Act nor the Indiana Condominium Act (Ind. Code § 32-25) sets a decision deadline, a deemed-approval rule, a written-denial requirement, or an appeal track for a routine architectural request.² The declaration creates all of that. The one exception is the solar petition chapter (Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5), the only statute that supplies its own approval process.³
• The solar rule that binds associations is a homeowners-association statute, not the local-government one. This is where writers most often go wrong. Ind. Code § 36-7-2-8, which secondary sources keep citing as the HOA solar constraint, actually restricts a unit of local government from adopting an ordinance that blocks solar; by its terms it does not bind an association.⁴ The rule that governs associations is Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5, which lets a homeowner petition fellow members and then bars the board or architectural committee from denying a qualifying installation.³
• Enforcement runs through the declaration and the courts, and the state mostly stays out of it. Associations enforce their rules through the declaration and, for unpaid sums, through liens under Ind. Code § 32-28-14.⁵ Before anyone sues, a claimant has to finish the internal grievance process (Ind. Code § 32-25.5-5).⁶ The Attorney General may step in only for specific abuses (Ind. Code § 32-25.5-4), and Indiana has no statewide HOA regulator and no manager licensing.⁷

Details

Where architectural authority comes from

An Indiana association's power to review, approve, or deny an exterior change is a matter of contract law. It comes from the recorded Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, along with any plat, bylaws, and rules — together the "governing documents," which the Homeowners Association Act defines to include the articles of incorporation and bylaws plus any covenants recorded with the county recorder (Ind. Code § 32-25.5-2-3).⁸ Where the declaration sets up an architectural review committee — an ARC, or an architectural control committee — with discretion over structures, additions, fences, and appearance, Indiana courts enforce those provisions as written, and they generally decline to substitute their own judgment for a committee's good-faith aesthetic call.

Most Indiana associations also incorporate as nonprofits under the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991 (Ind. Code § 23-17), which supplies the corporate rules for boards, members, meetings, and actions.⁹ Condominiums follow a different track: the Indiana Condominium Act (Ind. Code § 32-25) governs condominiums that owners lawfully create by recording condominium instruments.² The Homeowners Association Act and the Condominium Act are separate regimes, and you should not cross-apply one to the other.

What process applies

For an ordinary exterior-modification application — paint, roofing, fences, additions, sheds, landscaping structures — Indiana statute supplies no process at all. No statutory clock tells the board or ARC when to decide. No rule approves a request by default when the committee stays silent. No statute requires a denial in writing or demands reasons, and none creates an architectural appeal. Whatever process exists is whatever the declaration writes down. That cuts both ways: the declaration's own procedural terms bind the association. If the CC&Rs require a written decision within 30 days, or a chance to cure before enforcement, the association must follow its own rule — and if it skips a step, the owner has a contract defense.

The one statutory process that overrides the declaration is the solar petition mechanism, which we turn to next.

The dual solar framework — keep the two provisions distinct

(a) The general reasonable-restrictions standard — Ind. Code § 36-7-2-8, a local-government statute. This section, added in 1981, says a unit "may not adopt any ordinance which has the effect of prohibiting or of unreasonably restricting the use of solar energy systems other than for the preservation or protection of the public health and safety," and it declares a state policy to promote solar and remove obstacles to it.⁴ It defines reasonable restrictions as those that do not significantly raise the system's cost or cut its efficiency, or that allow a comparable alternative. The key word is "unit" — a unit of local government writing a zoning ordinance, not a homeowners association. Many HOA-focused websites cite § 36-7-2-8 as the HOA solar rule. By its terms, it is not.

(b) The homeowners-association solar petition chapter — Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5, the actual rule. The General Assembly added this chapter in 2022. It defines a solar energy system as a solar photovoltaic device whose primary purpose is to produce electricity.³ When an association's governing documents restrict solar, or the board or ARC denies a request for a reason the chapter does not allow, the homeowner may petition fellow members (Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-4). The homeowner supplies the required information — a site plan, the vendor, and, if asked, plans and specifications — and then gathers signatures equal to the lesser of the number needed to amend the governing documents or 65% of the members.¹⁰ Once the homeowner presents those signatures and the information to the board, the board, ARC, or architectural control committee "may not deny the homeowner's request to install the solar energy system." Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-5 then lists the only reasons an association may block a system or order it removed: a court has found it threatens public health or safety or breaks a law; it sits on association-owned or common property; it occupies a non-permitted location; or, for a roof-mounted system, it 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, bracket, or visible piping or wiring in a color other than a silver, bronze, or black tone sold in the marketplace. A yard-mounted system taller than a surrounding fence, or an installation that differs significantly from what the homeowner presented, can also be refused.¹¹

So these are two separate provisions with two different actors. Section 36-7-2-8 bars unreasonable municipal ordinances. Section 32-25.5-3.5 gives the association-level petition-and-approval mechanism and the closed list of permitted denial grounds. Neither one flatly forbids all regulation — reasonable, enumerated limits on appearance and placement survive. (California Civil Code § 714 is a California statute; it has no force in Indiana.)

Limits on association authority — statutory carve-outs

Indiana law overrides the declaration in a few specific places. Each is a targeted carve-out, not a general limit on the association's authority.

• Political and campaign signs — Ind. Code § 32-21-13. A sign here means one that advocates for or against a candidate, a party, or a public question. An association may not bar the display on a member's property during the window that opens 30 days before the related election and closes 5 days after. It may set reasonable rules on size (at least as large as signs commonly used in campaigns), a reasonable number, and location — but it may not ban a sign in a window or on the ground that belongs to the owner — and it may remove a sign that breaks a permitted rule.¹²
• Beekeeping — Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.7. An association may not prohibit beekeeping on property a person owns, rents, or leases, as long as the hives are actively maintained for pollination or honey and the chapter's other conditions are met.¹³
• U.S. and Indiana flag display — Ind. Code § 32-21-13.5. A 2026 law added this chapter, which bars an association's governing documents from prohibiting display of the U.S. flag or the Indiana state flag; reasonable placement rules still stand. It reaches property owners associations broadly — HOAs, condominiums, cooperatives, and the like.¹⁴
• Amateur-radio antennas — Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.4. Also new in 2026, this section stops an association from adopting or enforcing any rule that effectively prohibits a person from maintaining a ham-radio antenna on their own property.¹⁵
• Fuel-source neutrality for vehicles and outdoor equipment — Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.6. Another 2026 addition bars an association's governing documents from prohibiting, restricting, distinguishing among, or setting different standards for motor vehicles or outdoor equipment based on the fuel that powers them — which effectively blocks bans aimed at electric vehicles and equipment or at gas-powered equipment.¹⁴

Carve-outs not found in Indiana law. Indiana does not appear to protect drought-tolerant or native landscaping, rainwater harvesting, or clotheslines, and you should not attribute those to Indiana. No dedicated EV-charging-station statute turned up; the fuel-source-neutrality provision is the closest analog. The federal OTARD rule, not a state statute, is what mainly reaches antennas and satellite dishes.

Federal overlays (apply in Indiana as everywhere)

• The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-243) stops a condominium, cooperative, or residential real estate management association from restricting a member who displays the U.S. flag on residential property the member owns or has the exclusive right to use, subject to reasonable time, place, and manner limits that protect a substantial association interest.¹⁶
• The FCC OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, protects most over-the-air-reception antennas and satellite dishes one meter or less across, within the rule's limits.¹⁷
• The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A), gives a disabled resident the right to make reasonable, owner-funded exterior modifications, within limits of reasonableness.¹⁸

How violations are enforced

The declaration governs enforcement. Depending on the document, an association's remedies include violation notices, fines, self-help or abatement where the document authorizes it, and suit for an injunction or damages. The Homeowners Association Act sets no statutory fine cap, no statutory maximum, and no statutory notice-and-hearing sequence before a fine; those procedures live in the governing documents, and an association that skips its own required steps risks losing the fine as a breach of the declaration.

For unpaid assessments and other sums the declaration turns into a lien, Ind. Code § 32-28-14 governs homeowners association liens.⁵ The association enforces a lien by filing a complaint in the circuit or superior court of the county where the property sits, no earlier than 90 days and no later than five years after it records the notice of intention to hold the lien; a lien it does not enforce in time is void (Ind. Code § 32-28-14-8), and a lienholder who ignores an owner's proper written demand to foreclose within one year loses the lien as well (Ind. Code § 32-28-14-9). That demand goes by registered or certified mail, and an affidavit of service recorded with the county recorder releases the property.^19,20

Mandatory pre-suit grievance resolution. Before starting any legal proceeding, a claimant — owner or association — must comply with the Homeowners Association Act's grievance-resolution chapter (Ind. Code § 32-25.5-5). A claimant may not begin a legal proceeding until it has followed the chapter's procedures; the claimant must give the respondent a notice of claim that states the nature and basis of the claim, what the claimant wants, and the respondent's right to request a meeting; and if the respondent asks for a meeting within 10 business days, the parties meet to negotiate, with mediation or arbitration available if they reach an impasse.⁶ The Condominium Act carries a parallel grievance chapter at Ind. Code § 32-25-8.5.²¹

Attorney General role — limited. Under Ind. Code § 32-25.5-4-1, the Attorney General may sue a homeowners association board or a board member only for specific abuses: knowingly or intentionally misappropriating or diverting association funds, using a board seat to commit fraud or a criminal act, or exercising a proxy in violation of Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3-10. A court's remedies include a civil penalty of up to $500 per violation.⁷ The Attorney General is not a general HOA regulator and not an architectural regulator; the office's Consumer Protection Division separately handles complaints under the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act (Ind. Code § 24-5-0.5) when practices turn deceptive.²²

No state regulator or manager licensing. Indiana runs no statewide HOA or condominium regulator and licenses no community-association managers. The Attorney General's Homeowner Protection Unit and Consumer Protection Division can act on specific abuses — misappropriation, proxy and budgeting violations, deceptive practices — but they do not review or regulate architectural decisions.

Court structure

Trial-level disputes — covenant enforcement, injunctions, lien foreclosures — move through the Indiana Circuit and Superior Courts. Appeals go to the Court of Appeals of Indiana, and the Indiana Supreme Court may take further review at its discretion.

Section 4A — Recent legislative activity (past 24 months)

Indiana's 2026 session was a landmark year for HOA law, and several enacted bills bear on what an association may restrict on the outside of a home. Here are the measures that matter, each tied to a primary source.

One more 2026 measure deserves a mention for what it does not do. House Enrolled Act 1001 constrains local-government units on residential design standards, not homeowners associations, so it does not change an association's architectural authority; it also starts annual housing-data reporting to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority beginning January 1, 2027.²³

Section 4B — Recent rulings (past 36 months)

Two recent Court of Appeals decisions show how Indiana judges handle these disputes — one directly on the reach of an architectural-review covenant, and one on the enforcement mechanics that back it up.

No qualifying appellate opinion applying the HOA solar provisions (Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5) or § 36-7-2-8 to an association's architectural decision turned up in the 36-month window.

Active legislative debates

Faegre Drinker partner Chip Garver and counsel Lacey Berkshire, writing in The Indiana Lawyer in June 2026, described the 2026 overhaul as "a deliberate, thoughtful effort to expand housing supply, rein in HOA overreach, and protect homeowner rights, while leaving some battles, particularly on local zoning preemption, to future sessions." They add that if the reporting required under HEA 1001 shows local governments dragging their feet on density and permitting reform, the 2027 session may "arrive with sharper teeth."²⁶ No specific 2027 architectural-authority proposal is confirmed as of this writing.

Recommendations

• Start every architectural question with the declaration, not the statute. Because Indiana supplies no statutory ARC process, map your association's own procedural requirements — submission form, decision window, written-decision and cure requirements, appeal rights — and follow them exactly. When the declaration is amended to add or delete a step, retrain staff and update templates to match.
• Fix the solar citation in every template and denial letter. Cite Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5, the HOA petition chapter, not Ind. Code § 36-7-2-8, the municipal-ordinance statute. Deny a qualifying solar installation only on a ground the enumerated list allows; once a homeowner completes the member-petition process, the board or ARC may not deny. Escalate to counsel the moment a solar denial rests on a ground the list does not name.
• Audit governing documents and rules against the 2026 carve-outs now. Remove or narrow any provision that could prohibit U.S. or Indiana flag display, effectively prohibit amateur-radio antennas, restrict vehicles or equipment by fuel source, prohibit qualifying beekeeping, or restrict political signs in the protected window. Where the statute allows it, convert bans into reasonable time, place, and manner rules.
• Build the grievance step into enforcement workflows. Do not file suit — and, for owners, do not sue the association — without first completing the Ind. Code § 32-25.5-5 notice-of-claim and meeting process (for condominiums, Ind. Code § 32-25-8.5). Document your compliance to avoid dismissal.
• Manage liens on the calendar. Record assessment liens promptly and foreclose within the Ind. Code § 32-28-14-8 windows; treat any owner's certified-mail demand under § 32-28-14-9 as a one-year clock to foreclose or lose the lien.
• For multi-state managers: treat Indiana as a declaration-controls state with a light statutory overlay — closer to a covenants-enforcement model than to the prescriptive architectural-timeline regimes some other states run — and do not import other states' carve-outs, such as native landscaping, EV-charging mandates, clotheslines, or California Civil Code § 714, into Indiana communities.

Caveats

• The state's official code site, iga.in.gov, runs as a JavaScript application that does not render for automated text extraction. The statutory text here was confirmed against the exact language and the "As added/amended by P.L." provenance reproduced by mirror databases and cross-checked, with section numbers verified against the General Assembly's published code structure. Editors should confirm final section text and effective dates directly on iga.in.gov before publication.
• Two claims that secondary sources repeat could not be verified against the Indiana Code and are excluded here. First, that the Homeowners Association Act contains an express notice-and-hearing-before-fines section: the Act's operating chapter (Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3) has no such fine section, and the frequently cited "Ind. Code § 32-25.5-4" is the Attorney General Actions chapter, not a fine provision — fine procedure lives in the declaration. Second, that Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3-3(j) creates a member-to-member communication right: that subsection concerns communications with the association's legal counsel and attorney work product that need not be disclosed, not a member-to-member right.
• HOA guides widely mis-describe Ind. Code § 36-7-2-8 as an association solar constraint. By its terms it governs local-government ordinances. The association-facing solar rule is Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5.
• The 2026 enactments are new. Effective dates for House Enrolled Acts 1150 and 1152 are largely July 1, 2026, with some provisions effective upon passage; confirm the precise effective date and final codified section numbers for each provision before relying on them.
• Case citations for 2025 Court of Appeals opinions are given by docket number (for example, 24A-PL-1746); parallel N.E.3d reporter citations may not yet be assigned. Verify on the Indiana courts' public opinion portal.
• The Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991 (Ind. Code § 23-17) overlay and the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act (Ind. Code § 24-5-0.5) reference rest on consistent secondary authority; confirm the current section text on iga.in.gov.

1. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-1-1 (Application of Article to Homeowners Associations), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
2. Ind. Code art. 32-25 (Indiana Condominium Act), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
3. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5 (Homeowners Association Restrictions on Solar Energy Systems), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
4. Ind. Code § 36-7-2-8 (Solar Energy Systems; Ordinances; Reasonable Restrictions), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
5. Ind. Code § 32-28-14 (Homeowners Association Liens), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
6. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-5 (Grievance Resolution), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
7. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-4 (Attorney General Actions), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
8. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-2-3 ("Governing Documents"), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
9. Ind. Code art. 23-17 (Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
10. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-4 (Petition to Members; Required Information and Signatures), FindLaw ↩
11. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-5 (Permitted Reasons for Homeowners Association to Prohibit Use of, or Require Removal of, Solar Energy System), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
12. Ind. Code § 32-21-13 (Display of Political Signs on Property Subject to Restrictive Covenants or Homeowners Association Rules), 2024 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
13. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.7-6 (Prohibition on Beekeeping; Conditions) (added by P.L. 159-2024), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
14. House Enrolled Act 1150, P.L. 26-2026 (2026 Reg. Sess.) (adding Ind. Code § 32-21-13.5 (flag display), § 32-25.5-3.6 (fuel-source neutrality), and § 32-25.5-3.8), Indiana General Assembly ↩
15. House Enrolled Act 1152 (2026 Reg. Sess.), "Homeowners association matters" (adding Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.4 (amateur-radio antennas) and § 32-25.5-3.9), Indiana General Assembly ↩
16. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-243, codified at 4 U.S.C. § 5, Legal Information Institute ↩
17. 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 (Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule), eCFR ↩
18. Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A) (reasonable modifications), Legal Information Institute ↩
19. Ind. Code § 32-28-14-8 (Time Limit for Enforcing Lien), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
20. Ind. Code § 32-28-14-9 (Voiding of Lien for Failure to Foreclose), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
21. Ind. Code § 32-25-8.5 (Condominium Grievance Resolution), § 32-25-8.5-10 (Requirements for Claimant to Begin Legal Proceedings), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
22. Ind. Code § 24-5-0.5 (Deceptive Consumer Sales Act), 2025 Indiana Code, Justia ↩
23. House Enrolled Act 1001 (2026 Reg. Sess.), "Housing matters" (local-government residential design standards; annual housing-data reporting beginning Jan. 1, 2027), Indiana General Assembly ↩
24. Linda F. Slavick Trust v. Christmas Lake Properties Ass'n, Inc., No. 24A-PL-1746 (Ind. Ct. App. Feb. 4, 2025), Indiana Courts ↩
25. Treyburn Lakes Homeowners Ass'n, Inc. v. Scott, No. 25A-CC-646 (Ind. Ct. App. Oct. 31, 2025), Justia ↩
26. Chip Garver & Lacey Berkshire, Legislature's Overhaul Expands Housing Supply, Reins in HOAs, The Indiana Lawyer (June 2026) ↩