2026-09-10 · Indiana · Legislation

What happened. House Enrolled Act 1150 (Public Law 26-2026) created a new chapter, IC 32-21-13.5, protecting flag display in Indiana community associations. It was signed on 24 February 2026 — the first of the session's association bills — and took effect on 1 July 2026.¹

A “property owners association” may not adopt or enforce a governing document provision prohibiting or restricting a member from displaying the flag of the United States or the Indiana state flag, including from a flagpole.

The definition is deliberately wide

Unlike most of the 2026 package, this chapter does not sit in the Homeowners Association Act. It is in Article 21, and it reaches a property owners association defined to include homeowners associations, condominium associations, cooperatives and residential subdivision associations.

Condominium and co-op boards, largely untouched by the rest of the session's legislation, are squarely inside this one.

The flagpole floor

The chapter allows associations to regulate flagpole size, number and location — but sets a floor beneath that power. An association may not prevent:

• at least one flagpole per property, up to twenty feet, in the front yard, subject to zoning and setback requirements; or
• one flagpole attached to a residential structure the member owns and the association does not maintain.

The second limb is what makes the chapter work in attached housing, where a freestanding pole is often impossible.

What an association may still require

Reasonable restrictions survive: compliance with federal flag-display law, flagpole material and finish standards, zoning setbacks, and maintenance requirements. A tattered flag or a decaying pole remains an enforceable maintenance matter.

It reaches old documents

Unlike the amateur radio and child care chapters enacted a week later, this one is not prospective. It reaches every association governing document whether adopted before, on or after 1 July 2026. An Indiana flagpole ban recorded in 1988 is unenforceable today.

1. House Enrolled Act 1150 (2026), P.L. 26-2026 — adding IC 32-21-13.5 (flag display), IC 32-25.5-3.6 and IC 32-25.5-3.8 ↩
2. Office of the Governor, 2026 Bill Watch — HEA 1150 signed Feb. 24, 2026 ↩
3. Ind. Att'y Gen., HOA political signage guidance (Oct. 4, 2024) — the separate political-sign regime at IC 32-21-13 ↩