Kentucky HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in Kentucky

Kentucky doesn't limit a community association's ability to prohibit or restrict a unit owner's solar energy system. No provision of the Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) voids or overrides declaration-based solar restrictions, and no reported Kentucky appellate decision creates one.¹ The only solar-specific statute is a voluntary solar easement provision in KRS 381.200(2), which lets adjoining owners contract for access to sunlight but doesn't constrain an association.² Kentucky does regulate distributed solar generation on the utility side through the Public Service Commission and KRS Chapter 278 (net metering), but that governs the utility-customer relationship, not an association's authority over installations.³ Community types answer to separate bodies of law: condominiums to the Kentucky Condominium Act (KRS 381.9101 to 381.9207) or, for older regimes, the Horizontal Property Law;⁴ and planned communities to their recorded CC&Rs, the Kentucky Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785 to 381.803, effective June 29, 2023), the Kentucky Nonprofit Corporation Act (KRS Chapter 273), and common law.⁵ Kentucky is not a UCIOA state. Nationally, this places Kentucky among the solar-easement-only, no-restriction-override states, where the declaration controls. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. Solar-access provision (or its absence)

Kentucky has no solar-access statute limiting declaration-based prohibitions on solar energy systems. A review of KRS Chapter 381 — the chapter housing Kentucky's condominium, horizontal-property, and planned-community law — and the KRS generally turns up no provision voiding, capping, or otherwise overriding an association's authority to restrict solar installations through its governing documents.¹ The only solar-specific statute is KRS 381.200(2), a solar easement enabling provision discussed in subsection 2C, which stays voluntary and doesn't bind associations.² The consequence follows directly: a Kentucky association's authority over a rooftop or ground-mounted solar system comes from the recorded declaration and the statute that governs the community type, not from any solar-specific restriction-override. Where the declaration grants architectural-review authority over exterior modifications, that authority reaches solar installations unless the declaration says otherwise.

Kentucky's net-metering and distributed-generation policy sits on the utility side. The Public Service Commission administers retail net metering under KRS Chapter 278, and the General Assembly revised the compensation framework in 2019 through Senate Bill 100, which raised the net-metering cap from 30 kilowatts to 45 kilowatts and replaced the one-to-one kilowatt-hour credit with a dollar-denominated bill credit set by the Commission, effective January 1, 2020.⁶ That framework governs how a utility credits a customer for excess generation. It says nothing about whether an association may approve, condition, or deny an installation, and readers shouldn't read it as a source of homeowner solar rights against an association.

2B. The governing framework: the condominium statute and CC&R-primary HOAs

Kentucky condominiums answer to one of two statutes depending on when the regime was created. The Kentucky Condominium Act (KRS 381.9101 to 381.9207) took effect January 1, 2011, and applies to condominiums created after that date.⁴ It was modeled on the Uniform Condominium Act and modernized Kentucky's condominium law covering creation, association powers, records, assessments, liens, and purchaser protection. House Bill 433 (2012 Ky. Acts ch. 99), signed April 11, 2012, amended the Act and extended several of its provisions, including the resale-certificate requirement (KRS 381.9203) and the financial-records requirement (KRS 381.9197), to condominiums created before January 1, 2011; it also limited the mandatory budget-ratification meeting to budgets increasing by more than fifteen percent over the prior year.⁷ Regimes created before 2011 otherwise remain governed by the older Horizontal Property Law (KRS 381.805 to 381.910), enacted in 1962.⁸ The Condominium Act didn't repeal the Horizontal Property Law; the two operate in parallel, and the first diligence question in any condominium matter is which statute applies and when the regime was created.⁷

Planned communities — the standard single-family HOA — went essentially ungoverned by statute until recently. The Kentucky Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785 to 381.803), enacted as Senate Bill 120 and effective June 29, 2023, stands as Kentucky's first HOA-specific statute.⁵ It sets baseline rules for budgets, assessments, records access, open board meetings, liens, and declarant control, and it applies to planned communities across the Commonwealth. It doesn't, however, address solar energy systems, and it doesn't displace the recorded declaration on architectural matters.⁹ Planned communities also remain subject to the Kentucky Nonprofit Corporation Act (KRS Chapter 273) for corporate governance and to common-law covenant-enforcement principles.¹⁰ Kentucky is not a UCIOA state; the Planned Community Act works as a targeted procedural framework, not an adoption of the uniform common-interest model.

2C. Solar easements and the role of CC&Rs

Kentucky has a solar easement enabling provision at KRS 381.200(2), effective July 15, 1982. It provides that "[a] solar easement may be obtained for the purpose of ensuring access to direct sunlight," that the easement "shall be created in writing and shall be an interest in real property" subject to the usual recording and conveyancing requirements, and that it "shall not be acquired by prescription."² A solar easement is a voluntary agreement between property owners to protect a solar collector's access to sunlight. It is not a solar-access statute, and it doesn't override an association's authority; it neither compels an association to permit an installation nor limits the restrictions an association may impose.¹¹

On order of precedence, if Kentucky had a restriction-override statute, it would control over conflicting CC&R provisions, as the political-yard-sign statute does in its narrow area.¹² Kentucky has no such statute for solar, so the declaration controls, subject to the applicable community-type statute and general doctrines such as the requirement that restrictive covenants stay reasonable and get construed according to their plain terms.¹³ Architectural review therefore carries more weight in Kentucky than in override states: where the declaration assigns a board or architectural committee authority over exterior modifications, that body sets the terms on which a solar system may be installed, and its decisions get reviewed under the governing documents and Kentucky covenant law rather than against a statutory solar standard.

Section 3: What a Kentucky HOA can and cannot do regarding solar

Because Kentucky has no solar restriction-override, an association's authority over solar comes from the governing documents and the statute that applies to the community type. The rules below flow from those sources, not from any solar-specific obligation.

A. Approval and architectural review

A solar installation that changes a home's exterior typically falls subject to architectural review wherever the declaration grants the association authority over exterior modifications, and that authority reaches solar unless the declaration exempts it. For condominiums under the Kentucky Condominium Act, KRS 381.9145 provides that, "[s]ubject to the provisions of the declaration and other provisions of law," a unit owner "[s]hall not change the appearance of the common elements, or the exterior appearance of a unit or any other portion of the condominium, without the written permission of the association" — the operative approval requirement for a condominium solar installation.¹⁴

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

Kentucky imposes no statutory cap on what an association may restrict regarding solar and no statutory list of prohibited conduct, because no restriction-override statute exists.¹ The declaration's terms set the limits, and a restriction is enforceable if it's validly adopted and reasonable under Kentucky covenant law.¹³ An association may, consistent with its documents, regulate placement, screening, and visibility, and, subject to general doctrines, may prohibit an installation outright where the declaration supports it. No statutory "reasonable restrictions" standard of the kind found in override states applies here.

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules typically appear in the declaration or in architectural guidelines adopted under it, and amendments get adopted by the vote specified in the governing documents. For planned communities, the Planned Community Act permits amendment of the declaration by owners of eighty percent of the lots unless the declaration specifies otherwise.¹⁵ For condominiums sold under the Kentucky Condominium Act, the seller must furnish the buyer a resale certificate under KRS 381.9203, which discloses assessments, capital expenditures, and other matters. It isn't solar-specific, but it would capture any solar-related assessment or rule bearing on the unit.¹⁶

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

A solar dispute between an owner and an association gets litigated as a covenant-enforcement or declaratory-judgment matter in the Kentucky Circuit Court, the trial court of general jurisdiction, with smaller civil matters in District Court. Appeals go to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the intermediate appellate court, with discretionary review by the Kentucky Supreme Court.¹⁷ Kentucky has no solar-specific statutory remedy or fee-shifting provision; recovery of attorney fees, if any, depends on the governing documents or a generally applicable statute.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Kentucky enacted no bill over the past 24 months that creates or amends a provision affecting an association's authority over solar energy systems. The 2025 and 2026 regular sessions produced HOA-related legislation on other subjects — HB 27 in 2025, for example, amended KRS 381.800 on political yard signs, effective June 27, 2025 — but no measure addressed solar.¹² Utility-side solar bills, such as measures amending the merchant-plant siting statutes in KRS Chapter 278, sit outside the scope of association authority and aren't treated here.¹⁸

B. Recent appellate rulings

No Kentucky Court of Appeals or Kentucky Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months addresses an association's architectural authority as applied to solar energy systems.¹ The controlling Kentucky authority on covenant enforcement remains Hensley v. Gadd, 560 S.W.3d 516 (Ky. 2018), which holds that, unless enforcement is waived, restrictive covenants are enforceable according to their terms, and that "[i]nterpretation or construction of restrictive covenants is a question of law subject to de novo review on appeal" (560 S.W.3d at 521). It's not a solar case, but it supplies the framework a Kentucky court would apply to a solar-covenant dispute.¹⁹ Two purported solar cases circulating online, styled against "The Highlands" HOAs, couldn't be verified in any reporter or court database and appear fabricated — they're disregarded here.

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal to enact solar-access protection for Kentucky HOAs was pending as of the close of the 2026 regular session.¹⁸

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Solar-rights regimes fall into three broad categories. Strong-protection states void or limit association solar restrictions by statute, including California (Civ. Code § 714), Florida (Fla. Stat. § 163.04), Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1816), Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-30-168), Nevada (NRS 278.0208, voiding any covenant that "prohibits or unreasonably restricts" a solar-energy system), and Texas (Prop. Code § 202.010).²⁰ Solar-easement-only states enable voluntary easements but don't override associations. No-protection states leave the declaration in full control. Kentucky sits in the solar-easement-only category: it has enabled voluntary solar easements since 1982 but has never enacted a restriction-override, so for practical purposes the declaration controls.² For a multi-state operator, that means Kentucky communities can enforce solar restrictions that would be unenforceable in a strong-protection state, and compliance turns on reading each community's governing documents rather than a statutory solar standard. Legislative momentum toward a Kentucky solar-access law stays absent; the General Assembly's recent HOA legislation has addressed governance and political signage, not solar.

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

Recommendations

For property managers (immediate). Treat solar installation requests in Kentucky communities as ordinary architectural-review matters governed by the declaration, not as a protected activity. Before responding to a request, confirm the community type — condominium versus planned community — and, for condominiums, the creation date, because that determines whether the Kentucky Condominium Act, the Horizontal Property Law, or the Planned Community Act supplies the operative rules. Apply the community's written architectural standards consistently and document each decision.

For HOA boards and treasurers (near term). Because the declaration controls, review your governing documents now to confirm whether they address solar at all. If the board wants predictable outcomes, adopt clear architectural guidelines for solar — placement, screening, and application procedure — under existing declaration authority rather than relying on ad hoc denials, which invite covenant-enforcement disputes. For condominiums, remember that KRS 381.9145 already requires written association permission for exterior changes; align your review process with that provision.

For community association attorneys (as matters arise). Advise clients that Kentucky provides no solar restriction-override and that enforceability turns on Hensley v. Gadd's plain-terms and reasonableness framework. Don't import "reasonable restrictions" solar standards from override states such as California, Florida, or Arizona. Confirm that any restriction is validly adopted under the declaration's amendment procedure — for planned communities, the 80 percent default in KRS 381.791 unless the declaration provides otherwise.

For multi-state operators (portfolio level). Flag Kentucky as a jurisdiction where solar restrictions are enforceable, in contrast to override states, and calibrate portfolio-wide solar policies to the individual declaration rather than a single national template.

Benchmarks that would change these recommendations. Revisit this guidance if the General Assembly enacts a bill amending KRS Chapter 381 to void or limit solar restrictions, if a Kentucky appellate court issues an opinion applying covenant law to a solar installation, or if a new Planned Community Act amendment adds a solar provision. Absent one of those developments, the declaration-controls analysis stands.

Caveats

This page states Kentucky law verified against the Kentucky Revised Statutes as maintained by the Legislative Research Commission and against a published Kentucky Supreme Court opinion. Two points warrant emphasis. First, several third-party websites incorrectly describe a "Kentucky Solar Rights Act" or a federal "National Solar Rights Act" limiting HOA solar authority; no such statute exists, and readers shouldn't rely on those claims, some of them AI-generated. Second, the analysis addresses association authority only. It doesn't cover utility-side net metering, Public Service Commission proceedings, local zoning of ground-mounted arrays, electrical-contractor licensing, or consumer-protection claims against solar vendors, each governed by separate law. This content is regulatory intelligence, not legal advice; outcomes in any specific dispute depend on the community's governing documents and the facts.

Footnotes

1. Kentucky Revised Statutes, Chapter 381 (full section index showing no solar restriction-override provision), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
2. KRS 381.200, Deeds construed to include buildings and appurtenances — Solar easements (effective July 15, 1982), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
3. Kentucky Revised Statutes, Chapter 278 (Public Service Commission), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
4. KRS 381.9101, Short title — Kentucky Condominium Act (effective January 1, 2011), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
5. KRS 381.785 et seq., Kentucky Planned Community Act — definitions (created 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23, SB 120), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
6. 2019 Regular Session, Senate Bill 100 (amending KRS 278.465 net-metering provisions; signed 2019, effective January 1, 2020), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
7. 2012 Ky. Acts ch. 99 (House Bill 433), AN ACT relating to condominiums, Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
8. KRS 381.805, Short title — Horizontal Property Law (created 1962), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
9. 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23 (Senate Bill 120), Planned Community Act (full text; signed by Governor March 20, 2023), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
10. Kentucky Revised Statutes, Chapter 273 (Nonstock, Nonprofit Corporations), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
11. Community Associations Institute, "Kentucky: Solar Easements in Community Associations" (Kentucky permits voluntary solar easements by mutual agreement) ↩
12. KRS 381.800, Display of political yard signs — Existing contrary provisions are void (amended 2025 Ky. Acts ch. 32, HB 27, effective June 27, 2025), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
13. Hensley v. Gadd, 560 S.W.3d 516 (Ky. 2018) (restrictive covenants enforceable according to their plain terms), Supreme Court of Kentucky ↩
14. KRS 381.9145, Alteration of units — Kentucky Condominium Act (written association permission required to change exterior appearance), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
15. KRS 381.791, Amendment of declaration — Termination — Amendment of bylaws (80 percent default), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
16. KRS 381.9203, Documentation to be furnished by seller of unit — Certificate, Kentucky Legislative Research Commission ↩
17. Kentucky Court of Justice, Court of Appeals (intermediate appellate court; discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Kentucky) ↩
18. Kentucky Resources Council, "2026 General Assembly: Legislative Update — The Sine Die Edition" (session adjourned sine die April 15, 2026; solar activity limited to utility-side merchant-plant siting) ↩
19. Hensley v. Gadd, 560 S.W.3d 516, 521 (Ky. 2018) (No. 2017-SC-000189-DG; rendered November 15, 2018), FindLaw ↩
20. Community Associations Institute, Solar Rights and Easements (state-by-state overview of solar-access statutes) ↩