Maine HOA Architectural Review

Section 1: Overview — How architectural review works in Maine

In Maine, the recorded declaration comes first. An association draws its authority to review an exterior change, and to approve or deny it, from that recorded declaration; a uniform condominium act then supplies association powers for condominiums, and planned communities have historically leaned on the declaration and on nonprofit corporate law.¹ The Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 et seq., follows the Uniform Condominium Act of 1980 rather than the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and the date a condominium was created decides which statute governs it: the Maine Condominium Act covers condominiums created on or after January 1, 1983, while the older Unit Ownership Act, 33 M.R.S. § 560 et seq., governs the ones created before that date.² For a general architectural application, the declaration — not a statute — sets the decision timeline, any deemed-approval rule, and any written-denial requirement.³ Maine does limit an association's power to ban solar energy devices under 33 M.R.S. § 1421 et seq., and the federal Flag Act, the FCC OTARD rule, and the Fair Housing Act layer on top as additional overlays.⁴ The biggest recent change is the 2025 unit-ownership enactment, PL 2025, c. 280, which created a right to charge an electric vehicle effective January 1, 2026; Maine runs no dedicated HOA regulator, offers no ombudsman, and licenses no community association managers.⁵ And because Maine has no intermediate appellate court, an architectural dispute moves from the Maine Superior Court or District Court straight to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which sits as the Law Court when it hears appeals.⁶

Section 2: The architectural-review framework

2A. Source and scope of architectural authority

Architectural control starts in the recorded declaration, the CC&Rs, which usually hands review to the board or to an architectural committee and lays out the standards those bodies apply.⁷ Which statute applies depends on the community's type and its date. A condominium created on or after January 1, 1983 falls under the Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 et seq., which the Legislature enacted in 1981 and modeled on the Uniform Condominium Act.⁸ That act gives the association its powers under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102, including the power to regulate how owners use, maintain, repair, replace, and modify the common elements, and the power to adopt and enforce rules.⁹ A condominium created before January 1, 1983 falls under the older Unit Ownership Act, 33 M.R.S. § 560 et seq., unless it has amended its instruments to adopt the Maine Condominium Act.¹⁰ Planned communities — the non-condominium HOAs — have never had a comprehensive planned-community statute in Maine, so they rely on the declaration, on the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act (13-B M.R.S.) when they organize as a nonprofit, and on common law.¹¹

The 2025 unit-ownership enactment — Title 33, Chapter 10, PL 2025, c. 280 — added a single new section, 33 M.R.S. § 576-A, on electric-vehicle charging stations; it enacted that one section and left the Maine Condominium Act alone.¹² Section 576-A defines "common interest community" by pointing to the broad definition in Title 38, section 3002, subsection 3, and its operative terms do not stop at pre-1983 condominiums, so the right-to-charge reaches condominium and residential associations across the board.¹³ Because the Maine Condominium Act tracks the Uniform Condominium Act rather than the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, the full-UCIOA planned-community mechanics do not apply here.¹⁴ Precedence runs in a clear order: the applicable statute first, then the declaration, then the bylaws, then the rules and architectural guidelines — and where the declaration and bylaws say nothing, the condominium act fills the gap for condominiums.¹⁵

2B. The approval process and standards of review

Maine sets no general statutory deadline for deciding an application, no general deemed-approval rule, and no general written-denial requirement for architectural applications; where those protections exist at all, the declaration supplies them.¹⁶ The one statutory exception is narrow. For an electric-vehicle-charging application, the executive board must acknowledge receipt in writing within 30 days, must issue a written approval or denial within 60 days, and the application is deemed approved if no written denial reaches the owner within 60 days.¹⁷ The community-association firm Marcus Errico Emmer & Brooks reads the statute the same way, noting that boards "must issue a written acknowledgement of submitted installation applications within 30 days of receipt and a final written decision on the application or a reasonable request for additional information must be issued within 60 days of receiving the application," and that "[i]f a final decision or request for additional information is not made within the 60 days, the owner's request will be deemed approved."¹⁸ That deadline, that deemed-approval rule, and that written-decision requirement govern EV-charging applications only — not paint, fences, sheds, additions, or landscaping.

The governing standard is straightforward: a court enforces a recorded restriction or a declaration term if it is valid and reasonable, and the condominium act adds an unconscionability provision that lets a court refuse to enforce a contract or clause it finds was unconscionable when it was made.¹⁹ Architectural standards should stay reasonable, apply consistently, and rest on the declaration. On enforcement, the condominium act supplies the machinery for condominiums: the association may levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules after it gives notice and an opportunity to be heard, and it holds an automatic lien on a unit for assessments and fines that it may foreclose the same way it would a mortgage.²⁰ For planned communities, enforcement rests on the declaration and nonprofit corporate law rather than the condominium act. So the professional reader's first practical step is to pin down what kind of community this is — a condominium under the Maine Condominium Act or the Unit Ownership Act, or a planned community under the declaration and nonprofit corporate law — and then ground the architectural process in the declaration and the authority that applies.²¹

2C. Statutory and federal limits on architectural authority

Solar is Maine's oldest limit. Under 33 M.R.S. § 1422, the State's policy is to promote solar energy and to clear away needless obstacles to solar energy devices, and 33 M.R.S. § 1423 provides that a legal instrument — including the rules, bylaws, or regulations of a homeowners, unit owners, or condominium owners association, along with deed restrictions, restrictive covenants, and declarations — adopted or created after September 30, 2009 may not stop a person from installing or using a solar energy device on residential property that person owns.²² The statute carves out two exceptions: an instrument may bar solar energy devices on property held in common ownership with third parties or on a condominium's common elements, and it may impose reasonable restrictions needed to protect public health and safety, to keep buildings from damage, to preserve historic or aesthetic values when a reasonably comparable alternative exists, and to protect shorelands under shoreland zoning.²³

Two more Maine limits are narrower. Electric-vehicle charging stations won protection effective January 1, 2026: an association may not prohibit or unreasonably restrict an owner's installation or use of a charging station in a unit or a limited-common-element parking space.²⁴ The Unit Ownership Act adds a political-sign window, providing that "[a]n association of unit owners may not include in its bylaws or declaration, or any rule adopted pursuant to the bylaws or declaration, or any deed a restriction that prohibits a unit owner from displaying on that unit owner's private property a sign that supports or opposes a candidate for public office or a referendum question during the period from 6 weeks prior to the date that a primary or general election or special election is held regarding that candidate or referendum question to one week after the election."²⁵ Beyond those, Maine confirms no statutory carve-out for flags — apart from the federal Flag Act — or for drought-tolerant and native landscaping, rainwater harvesting, or clotheslines, other than the solar clothes-drying device the solar statute already reaches.²⁶

The federal overlays apply in Maine just as they do everywhere else, and they add to state law rather than replace it. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 bars an association from restricting a member's display of the U.S. flag on property the member owns or exclusively uses, subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions the association needs to protect a substantial interest.²⁷ The FCC's OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, forbids restrictions that impair the installation, maintenance, or use of covered antennas and satellite dishes one meter or less across in areas the user controls exclusively.²⁸ And the Fair Housing Act's reasonable-modification right, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A), requires an association to allow reasonable disability-related exterior modifications that the owner pays for.²⁹ We take up these federal frameworks in more detail on their own.

Section 3: Compliance obligations in the architectural-review process

A. Adopting and maintaining architectural standards

Architectural standards have to rest on the recorded declaration. For condominiums, the authority to adopt and enforce rules is statutory: it comes from the association's power to regulate how owners modify the common elements and to make rules under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102. For planned communities, that rulemaking authority is declaration-based and backed by nonprofit corporate law.³⁰ The standards themselves should stay reasonable and apply consistently, because a court enforces a recorded restriction only when it is valid and reasonable, and the condominium act's unconscionability provision, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-112, is a statutory backstop.³¹

B. Reviewing and deciding applications

For a general architectural application — paint, fences, sheds, additions, landscaping — the declaration sets the review timeline, any deemed-approval rule, and any written-decision or written-reasons requirement; Maine imposes no statutory mandate.³² For an electric-vehicle-charging application, and only for that, the obligation is statutory: the executive board must acknowledge receipt in writing within 30 days and issue a written approval or denial within 60 days, and if it misses that window the application is deemed approved under 33 M.R.S. § 576-A.³³

C. Honoring statutory and federal owner protections

An association may not prohibit a solar energy device on an owner's residential property, subject to the common-element and reasonable-restriction carve-outs; that duty is statutory under 33 M.R.S. §§ 1421-1424.³⁴ It may not prohibit or unreasonably restrict an EV charging station in a unit or a limited-common-element parking space — a statutory duty under 33 M.R.S. § 576-A — and a Unit Ownership Act condominium must honor the statutory political-sign window under 33 M.R.S. § 576(10).³⁵ On top of all that, an association must comply with the federal Flag Act, the FCC OTARD rule, and the Fair Housing Act's reasonable-modification right, each a federal obligation that adds to Maine law.³⁶

D. Enforcement and dispute resolution

For condominiums, the enforcement duties and remedies are statutory: an association may levy reasonable fines only after it gives notice and an opportunity to be heard under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a)(11), and unpaid assessments and fines become an automatic lien that it may foreclose like a mortgage under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116.³⁷ For planned communities, enforcement rests on the declaration and nonprofit corporate law rather than the condominium act.³⁸ And because Maine runs no HOA regulator, a contested architectural or enforcement dispute lands in the Superior Court or the District Court, with an appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court.³⁹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

One 2025 enactment accounts for the recent movement in Maine, and it centers on electric-vehicle charging.

B. Recent rulings

One recent decision from the Law Court is worth a close read.

C. Active legislative debates

No pending Maine proposal takes specific aim at architectural-review carve-outs as of the last-verified date. The EV-charging right-to-charge, effective January 1, 2026, remains the recent change to watch as associations bring their declarations into compliance.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Maine sits at the light-touch, declaration-first end of the national spectrum. Its condominium statute follows the Uniform Condominium Act rather than the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and the state has historically gone without a comprehensive planned-community statute, which sets it apart from the full-UCIOA states and from the comprehensive single-statute states; the 2025 unit-ownership enactment, the EV right-to-charge, is the development to watch.⁴⁴ For a multi-state operator, the practical takeaway is simple: in Maine the declaration governs the architectural process, the Maine Condominium Act supplies association powers and enforcement mechanics for condominiums, and Maine limits an association's power to ban solar energy devices.⁴⁵ That leaves Maine well short of carve-out-heavy states such as California and Colorado, which stack numerous statutory owner protections — for signs, flags, landscaping, and more — on top of the declaration.⁴⁶

HOA Weekly updates this Maine architectural-review coverage each quarter, as the Legislature and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court act. Federal frameworks — the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, the FCC OTARD rule, and the Fair Housing Act — apply to Maine associations on top of state law.

A note on a verified ambiguity: 33 M.R.S. § 576-A, the 2025 EV right-to-charge, sits inside the Unit Ownership Act (Title 33, Chapter 10), yet its operative terms define "common interest community" by cross-reference to the broad Title 38, § 3002(3) definition and void "any provision of a declaration or bylaw." The bill's title — "Condominium and Residential Associations" — and community-association counsel both read it to reach condominium and residential associations generally, not just pre-1983 Unit Ownership Act condominiums. No Maine appellate decision has yet construed the section's scope, and we will update this page if one does.

1. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102 (Powers of unit owners' association) ↩
2. 33 M.R.S. § 1601-102 (Applicability; condominiums created before or after the effective date); 33 M.R.S. § 560 et seq. (Unit Ownership Act) ↩
3. Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. ch. 31 (no statutory architectural decision deadline, deemed-approval rule, or written-denial requirement) ↩
4. 33 M.R.S. ch. 28-A (Solar Rights), §§ 1421-1424 ↩
5. 33 M.R.S. § 576-A (Electric vehicle charging stations allowed; PL 2025, c. 280) ↩
6. Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court, illustrated in Tidewater Loft Condominium Ass'n v. Moskal-Kanz, 2026 ME 46 ↩
7. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a)(6), (11) (powers to regulate modification of common elements and to make and enforce rules) ↩
8. 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 (Short title; Maine Condominium Act, PL 1981, c. 699) ↩
9. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a) (Powers of unit owners' association) ↩
10. 33 M.R.S. § 1601-102 (Applicability; pre-existing condominiums and adoption by amendment) ↩
11. 13-B M.R.S. (Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act) ↩
12. 33 M.R.S. § 576-A (enacted by PL 2025, c. 280, § 1) ↩
13. Title 38, § 3002(3) (definition of "common interest community" incorporated by 33 M.R.S. § 576-A(1)(B)) ↩
14. Homeowners Protection Bureau, "Maine Condominium Act, Title 33, Chapter 31" (act based on the Uniform Condominium Act), cross-verifying 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 ↩
15. Levey, Wagley, Putman & Eccher, "Maine Condominium Law: Key Things to Know" (act "fills the gap" when the declaration and bylaws are silent) ↩
16. Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. ch. 31 (contains no general architectural decision deadline, deemed-approval rule, or written-denial requirement) ↩
17. 33 M.R.S. § 576-A(3) (30-day written acknowledgment; 60-day written decision; deemed approval) ↩
18. Marcus Errico Emmer & Brooks, P.C., "Electric Vehicle Charging Law Comes to Maine" ↩
19. 33 M.R.S. § 1601-112 (Unconscionable agreement or term of contract) ↩
20. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a)(11) (fines after notice and opportunity to be heard); 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116 (Lien for assessments; foreclosure like a mortgage) ↩
21. RunHOA, "Maine State Laws" (condominiums under Title 33 ch. 31 or ch. 10; non-condo HOAs under Title 13-B and recorded covenants) ↩
22. 33 M.R.S. §§ 1421-1423 (Solar Rights; policy and right to install and use solar energy devices) ↩
23. 33 M.R.S. § 1423(3)-(4) (exception for common elements; reasonable restrictions) ↩
24. 33 M.R.S. § 576-A(2) (unenforceable prohibitions and unreasonable restrictions, effective January 1, 2026) ↩
25. 33 M.R.S. § 576(10) (political-sign provision, PL 2015, c. 271) ↩
26. 33 M.R.S. § 1421(3), (5) (solar energy device includes a solar clothes-drying device; no other confirmed carve-out) ↩
27. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-243, 4 U.S.C. § 5 note ↩
28. 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 (Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule) ↩
29. 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A) (Fair Housing Act reasonable-modification right) ↩
30. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a)(6), (11) (regulate modification of common elements; make and enforce rules) ↩
31. 33 M.R.S. § 1601-112 (Unconscionable agreement or term of contract) ↩
32. Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. ch. 31 (no statutory timeline or written-decision mandate for general applications) ↩
33. 33 M.R.S. § 576-A(3) (EV-charging application procedure and deadlines) ↩
34. 33 M.R.S. §§ 1421-1424 (Solar Rights) ↩
35. 33 M.R.S. § 576-A (EV charging); 33 M.R.S. § 576(10) (political signs) ↩
36. FCC, "Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule"; 4 U.S.C. § 5 note; 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A) ↩
37. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116 (Lien for assessments; foreclosure like a mortgage); 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a)(11) ↩
38. 13-B M.R.S. (Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act) ↩
39. Tidewater Loft Condominium Ass'n v. Moskal-Kanz, 2026 ME 46 (Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court) ↩
40. 33 M.R.S. § 576-A (enacted by PL 2025, c. 280, § 1) ↩
41. Marcus Errico Emmer & Brooks, P.C. (LD 1133 signed by Governor Mills on June 12, 2025); LD 1133 legislative record (primary sponsor Sen. Mike Tipping) ↩
42. Tidewater Loft Condominium Ass'n v. Moskal-Kanz, 2026 ME 46 (May 21, 2026) ↩
43. Tidewater Loft Condominium Ass'n v. Moskal-Kanz, 2026 ME 46 (facts: Old Orchard Beach unit, 2017 warranty deed subject to a 1987 declaration; disability-accommodation counterclaim; attorney-fee award questioned) ↩
44. 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 (Maine Condominium Act, based on the Uniform Condominium Act) ↩
45. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102 (association powers); 33 M.R.S. §§ 1421-1424 (Solar Rights) ↩
46. 33 M.R.S. ch. 28-A (Maine's principal architectural carve-out is the solar statute, in contrast to carve-out-heavy states) ↩