Indiana HOA Solar Rights

Key Findings

1. Verified restriction-override. Chapter 32-25.5-3.5 stands as a genuine solar-access statute. It applies to associations whose governing documents prohibit, restrict, or limit solar and to boards or architectural committees that deny requests or seek removal, and it caps association authority to ten enumerated grounds — materially stronger than an easement-only regime.
2. Effective and scoped since 2022. The chapter applies to systems not approved or installed before March 14, 2022, and defines "solar energy system" as a photovoltaic device for producing electricity, so it reaches rooftop PV rather than solar thermal or passive systems.
3. The petition mechanism runs demanding. The owner-driven signature threshold — the lesser of the covenant-amendment number or 65 percent of members — sets a higher procedural bar than the automatic voiding used in strong-protection states such as California and Texas.
4. Condominiums and association-maintained roofs stay largely carved out. Because the statute permits prohibition where a system would sit on association-owned or association-maintained property, condominium and townhome communities with association-maintained roofs remain governed by the Condominium Act and the declaration.
5. No dedicated regulator or manager licensing. Indiana has no dedicated HOA regulator and no community association manager licensing requirement; HB 105 (2025), which would have required a broker license for HOA managers, died upon adjournment.
6. No case law and no OTARD analog. No Indiana appellate decision interprets the solar chapter, and no federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule extends to rooftop solar, so Indiana's state statute controls.

Details

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in Indiana

Indiana limits a community association's ability to enforce a declaration-based prohibition on solar energy systems. Since 2022, Indiana Code chapter 32-25.5-3.5 has given a homeowner in an association whose governing documents prohibit, restrict, or limit solar a statutory path to install a system that the board cannot deny once the homeowner satisfies the chapter's petition and signature requirements.¹ That places Indiana in the protection category, not the easement-only category where national compilations sometimes miscategorize it.

Indiana separately has a voluntary solar easement act (IC 32-23-4) that lets a property owner acquire a recorded easement for sunlight access across a neighbor's parcel by agreement; that act works as a tool between consenting owners and doesn't itself override an association's authority.² The two provisions shouldn't be conflated: the solar-access chapter constrains associations, the easement act doesn't.

The governing framework runs layered. Condominiums fall under the Indiana Condominium Act (IC 32-25); other associations fall under the Indiana Homeowners Associations Act (IC 32-25.5), together with recorded CC&Rs and the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act (IC 23-17).^3,4,5 Indiana is not a UCIOA state. Where the solar-access chapter doesn't reach — systems placed on association-owned or association-maintained roofs, for example — the declaration and architectural review control.⁶ The sections below detail the chapter's scope, its limits, and the operational consequences for boards, managers, and counsel.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. Solar-access provision

Indiana has a restriction-override statute. Indiana Code chapter 32-25.5-3.5, "Homeowners Association Restrictions on Solar Energy Systems," was added by Public Law 73-2022 (House Enrolled Act 1196) and applies to solar energy systems that weren't approved by the association or installed before March 14, 2022.^1,7 The chapter defines a "solar energy system" narrowly, as a solar photovoltaic device whose primary purpose is to use solar energy to produce electricity, which means it reaches rooftop photovoltaic panels rather than solar thermal or passive systems.⁸

The chapter applies to any homeowners association whose governing documents prohibit, restrict, or limit member installation of solar energy systems, and to any association whose board, architectural review committee, or architectural control committee seeks to deny a request or compel removal.^1,6 Its operative limit sits in IC 32-25.5-3.5-5, which provides that an association "may prohibit the installation or use of a solar energy system or may require the removal of a solar energy system that has been installed only if one (1) or more of the following apply."⁶ Those ten conditions include a court finding that the system threatens public health or safety or violates a law, installation on property owned or maintained by the association or owned in common, installation somewhere other than the roof of the dwelling or an approved structure or a fenced yard or patio, and roof-mounted systems that under IC 32-25.5-3.5-5(b)(6) "(A) extend above or beyond the roof of the dwelling unit by more than six (6) inches; (B) do not conform to the slope of the roof and have a top edge that is not parallel to the roof line; or (C) have a frame, support bracket, or visible piping or wiring that is not in a silver, bronze, or black tone commonly available in the marketplace," plus systems that void material warranties and systems installed significantly differently from what was presented to the board.⁶ This is a solar-access statute, not merely an easement enabler: the declaration no longer holds the final word once the statute applies.

2B. The solar easement act and the governing framework

Indiana also has a voluntary solar easement act at IC 32-23-4, added by Public Law 2-2002.² It defines a "solar easement" as an easement obtained for exposure of a solar energy device or passive solar system to the direct rays of the sun, and it makes such easements subject to the same conveyancing and recording requirements as other easements.² The easement act works as a private ordering tool: it lets one owner secure, by written agreement with a neighbor, a right to unobstructed sunlight across the neighbor's parcel. It gives a unit owner no right to install solar over an association's objection, and it doesn't void declaration-based restrictions. Associations shouldn't treat it as a constraint on their architectural authority, and homeowners shouldn't treat it as a substitute for the petition process in chapter 32-25.5-3.5.

The broader framework runs three layers deep. Condominiums answer to the Indiana Condominium Act (IC 32-25), which addresses declarations, common expenses, insurance, and open board meetings.³ Non-condominium associations answer to the Indiana Homeowners Associations Act (IC 32-25.5), which applies in full to associations formed after June 30, 2009, and to older associations whose members vote to adopt it.⁴ Most Indiana associations are also nonprofit corporations subject to the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act (IC 23-17).⁵ Indiana is not a UCIOA state, so UCIOA concepts don't carry over. A separate statute, IC 36-7-2-8, limits local government ordinances that unreasonably restrict solar, but it addresses municipal and county land-use authority, not association authority, and shouldn't be cited as the source of HOA solar rights.⁹

2C. The role of CC&Rs and architectural review

Where chapter 32-25.5-3.5 applies, it controls over conflicting CC&R provisions. Under IC 32-25.5-3.5-4(d), "the board of directors, an architectural review committee, or an architectural control committee of the homeowners association may not deny the homeowner's request to install the solar energy system once the homeowner has obtained the required number of signatures, if the homeowner complied with the requirements provided in this section," and IC 32-25.5-3.5-5 permits prohibition or removal "only if" a listed condition applies, which displaces a flat covenant ban.^6,10 Absent that statute, the recorded declaration and architectural review provisions serve as the operative rules, and Indiana courts treat restrictive covenants as contracts that stay presumed enforceable.⁴

Architectural review retains a real residual role even under the statute. Several of the ten permitted conditions are aesthetic and dimensional parameters that a committee still administers: roof-mounted systems must sit within six inches of the roof, conform to the roof slope, and use standard-tone hardware, and ground or yard systems must be screened and kept within the fence line.⁶ The role differs by community type. The statute targets homeowners associations, and its permitted conditions expressly allow prohibition where the system would sit on property owned or maintained by the association, including roofs the association maintains.⁶ Condominiums and townhome communities where the association owns or maintains roofs and exteriors therefore fall largely outside the homeowner's petition right, leaving the Condominium Act and the declaration to govern.³

Section 3: What an Indiana HOA can and cannot do regarding solar

A. Approval and architectural review

An association may subject a solar installation to architectural review, and the statute contemplates that a homeowner presents a site plan, color, screening, vendor and installer information, and, on request, plans and specifications.¹⁰ This rests on IC 32-25.5-3.5-4 and the declaration, applicable to homeowners associations; the review may not be used to deny a compliant petition, and it stays mandatory where the chapter applies.

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

Under IC 32-25.5-3.5-5, an association may prohibit, or require removal of, a solar energy system only if one of ten enumerated conditions applies, such as a court finding of a health, safety, or legal violation, placement on association-owned or association-maintained property, or noncompliance with the roof-mounting and color parameters.⁶ This restriction-override statute stays mandatory; a flat covenant ban outside these grounds becomes unenforceable once a homeowner completes the petition process.

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules typically appear in the recorded declaration or in board-adopted architectural guidelines, and the statutory workaround runs through a member petition rather than a board amendment: a homeowner must gather signatures equal to the lesser of the number needed to amend the covenants or 65 percent of the members, then present them to the board, which may not then deny a compliant request.¹⁰ This rests on IC 32-25.5-3.5-4 and stays mandatory where the chapter applies. Indiana's HOA Act separately requires that governing documents permit amendment and imposes records-access duties, but it contains no solar-specific resale disclosure obligation.⁴

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

Trial-level disputes proceed through the Indiana Circuit Courts and Superior Courts, which hold concurrent general jurisdiction in most counties, with appeals to the Court of Appeals of Indiana and discretionary transfer to the Indiana Supreme Court.¹¹ The HOA Act also requires associations subject to it to follow an internal grievance resolution procedure before litigation.⁴ The solar chapter itself contains no fee-shifting or statutory-damages provision, so cost recovery in a solar dispute generally depends on a fee-shifting clause in the declaration, which Indiana courts will enforce.^6,4

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted over the past 24 months — roughly July 2024 through July 2026 — created or amended a provision affecting an Indiana HOA's authority over solar energy systems. The controlling law, House Enrolled Act 1196, was enacted in 2022 and predates this window.¹²

Two 2026-session measures touched residential solar but not association authority. House Bill 1084 addressed "plug-in solar power systems," which the Indiana General Assembly's bill digest defines as "a moveable photovoltaic generation device that: (1) has a maximum power output of not more than 1,200 watts; (2) is designed to be connected to a building's electrical system through a standard outlet," and it exempts those devices from utility interconnection requirements with a stated effective date of July 1, 2026 — it governs the utility relationship, not HOA architectural authority.¹³ Senate Bill 74, a companion "plug-in home solar units" proposal authored by Sen. Fady Qaddoura, never received a hearing in the Senate Utilities Committee, according to the Citizens Action Coalition.¹³ Separately, House Bill 105 (2025) would have required a person who manages property for an HOA to hold a broker license; the Community Associations Institute reports the bill "died upon adjournment," so Indiana still imposes no community association manager licensing requirement.¹⁴

B. Recent appellate rulings

No decision of the Court of Appeals of Indiana or the Indiana Supreme Court in the past 36 months — roughly July 2023 through July 2026 — has cited, applied, or interpreted IC 32-25.5-3.5, the HOA solar chapter. Indiana appellate courts have decided association covenant-enforcement and architectural-review disputes in this period, but none turned on the solar statute.¹⁵

C. Active legislative debates

Solar advocates, including Solar United Neighbors, have said they'd like to see Indiana strengthen the rights of homeowners to install rooftop solar beyond the current petition model, but no active bill to expand the HOA solar-access chapter was pending as of the 2026 session.¹⁶

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Solar-rights regimes fall into three broad categories: strong-protection states whose statutes void or sharply limit association solar restrictions — for example California Civ. Code § 714, Florida Fla. Stat. § 163.04, Arizona A.R.S. § 33-1816, Colorado C.R.S. § 38-30-168, Nevada, and Texas Prop. Code § 202.010; solar-easement-only states, which enable voluntary easements but don't override associations; and no-protection states, where the declaration fully controls. Indiana belongs in the protection category. Its solar easement act alone would place it in the easement-only group, but chapter 32-25.5-3.5 adds a genuine restriction-override, so Indiana sits closer to the strong-protection states, though its owner-petition-and-supermajority mechanism runs more procedurally demanding than the automatic voiding used in California or Texas.^1,6 For multi-state operators, the practical implication is that an Indiana community cannot rely on a covenant ban to stop a compliant rooftop installation, and boards should convert flat prohibitions into reasonable, statute-aligned guidelines. Legislative momentum toward a broader override exists among advocates but hasn't produced an enacted expansion.¹⁶

HOA Weekly's Indiana Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the Indiana courts act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule extends to rooftop solar, so Indiana's state law controls here.

Recommendations

• Boards and managers (do now). Audit governing documents for flat solar bans or discretionary architectural clauses that could function as bans. Where a community is subject to chapter 32-25.5-3.5, a covenant that prohibits solar outright is unenforceable against a compliant petitioning owner, so replace it with a written solar policy built around the ten statutory conditions — roof placement, six-inch profile, roof-slope conformity, standard silver/bronze/black hardware tones, screening for non-roof systems, and warranty integrity.
• Boards and managers (on receipt of a request). Route the request through architectural review for the statutory parameters only. Don't deny a request that meets the parameters and carries the required signatures — denial outside the ten grounds invites reversal and, where the declaration has a fee-shifting clause, fee exposure.
• Community association attorneys. Advise condominium and association-maintained-roof clients that the petition right generally doesn't reach systems on association-owned or maintained property, and that the Condominium Act and declaration continue to govern there. Confirm each client's covenant-amendment threshold, because that number sets the petition bar when it falls below 65 percent.
• Homeowners. Use the chapter's petition route rather than the solar easement act to overcome an association restriction. Assemble the site plan, color, screening, and vendor and installer information up front, and gather signatures to the lesser applicable threshold before presenting to the board.
• Multi-state operators. Treat Indiana as a protection state in compliance playbooks, distinct from easement-only jurisdictions. The threshold that would change this guidance: enactment of a bill converting the petition mechanism into automatic voiding of covenant bans, moving Indiana fully into the strong-protection tier, or the first Court of Appeals of Indiana decision interpreting IC 32-25.5-3.5 — either should trigger a full re-review at the next quarterly update.

Caveats

• Effective date nuance. The chapter's own applicability cutoff is March 14, 2022, and the enacting Public Law 73-2022 was signed March 10, 2022, indicating the act took effect at or near signing rather than on the default July 1 date. Confirm the precise emergency-clause wording against the enrolled act PDF on iga.in.gov before quoting it as a specific effective date.
• Official code links. The iga.in.gov code browser is a JavaScript application whose deep section URLs don't render as static text; footnotes to specific sections cite the Justia and FindLaw mirrors of the official Indiana Code, which reproduce the "As added by P.L.73-2022" enactment line, with the official Title 32 browse page provided as the primary entry point. Confirm each section against the official site before publication.
• No interpreting case law. Because no Indiana appellate court has applied chapter 32-25.5-3.5, several operational questions — how "differs significantly from the manner of installation presented" is measured, or how the signature process interacts with unusual voting structures, for example — remain untested and should be flagged as open.
• The statute stays narrow by design. The chapter reaches photovoltaic electricity systems and homeowners associations; it doesn't create rights for solar thermal or passive systems, and it doesn't displace the Condominium Act for association-owned or maintained components.

1. Ind. Code ch. 32-25.5-3.5, Homeowners Association Restrictions on Solar Energy Systems (added by P.L.73-2022) (Justia mirror of official Indiana Code) ↩
2. Ind. Code § 32-23-4-2, "Solar easement" defined, and ch. 32-23-4, Solar Easement (added by P.L.2-2002) ↩
3. Ind. Code art. 32-25, Indiana Condominium Act (official Indiana Code, Title 32) ↩
4. Ind. Code art. 32-25.5, Indiana Homeowners Associations Act (applicability, records, grievance resolution, amendment of governing documents) ↩
5. Ind. Code art. 23-17, Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991 (official Indiana Code, Title 23) ↩
6. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-5, Permitted Reasons for Homeowners Association to Prohibit Use Of, or Require Removal Of, Solar Energy System ↩
7. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-1, Applicability (chapter does not apply to systems approved or installed before March 14, 2022; added by P.L.73-2022, SEC.1) ↩
8. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-3, "Solar energy system" means a solar photovoltaic device whose primary purpose is to use solar energy to produce electricity ↩
9. Ind. Code § 36-7-2-8, Solar Energy Systems; Ordinances; Reasonable Restrictions (limits local government ordinances, not association authority) ↩
10. Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5-4, Homeowner's Petition of Other Members for Approval to Install Solar Energy System; Required Signatures; Denial Prohibited if Requirements Met ↩
11. Indiana Judicial Branch, court structure (Circuit and Superior Courts at trial level; Court of Appeals of Indiana; Indiana Supreme Court with discretionary transfer) ↩
12. Indiana General Assembly, House Bill 1196 (2022), Homeowners associations and solar power (House Enrolled Act 1196; signed March 10, 2022) ↩
13. Indiana General Assembly, House Bill 1084 (2026), Plug-in solar power systems (effective July 1, 2026); see also Senate Bill 74 (2026), Plug-in home solar units ↩
14. Community Associations Institute, 2025 Legislative Report for Community Association Manager Licensing (Indiana HB 105 died upon adjournment) ↩
15. Tracy Talley v. Cheswick Homeowners' Association, Inc., Court of Appeals of Indiana Memorandum Decision 24A-SC-581 (Feb. 27, 2025) (illustrative recent HOA covenant-enforcement decision; no Indiana appellate decision as of July 2026 interprets IC 32-25.5-3.5) ↩
16. Solar United Neighbors, Homeowners associations and solar access in Indiana (advocacy to strengthen HOA solar rights beyond HEA 1196) ↩