Maine HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in Maine

Maine limits a community association's ability to prohibit solar energy systems. The Maine Solar Rights statute, 33 M.R.S. §§ 1421-1424, provides that a legal instrument — including the rules, bylaws, and declarations of a homeowners association, unit owners association, or condominium owners association — may not prohibit a person from installing or using a solar energy device on residential property that person owns.¹ That places Maine among the states with a genuine restriction-override rather than a solar-easement-only state. The protection runs as a matter of state law; no federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule extends to rooftop solar.

The Solar Rights statute stays separate from Maine's utility-side solar policy. Net energy billing, administered by the Maine Public Utilities Commission, governs how a customer gets credited for exported electricity, not what an association may do about a rooftop array.² The two shouldn't be conflated.

The governing framework depends on the community type. Condominiums answer to the Maine Condominium Act, which is based on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act.³ Non-condominium HOAs answer to their recorded declarations, Maine nonprofit corporation law under Title 13-B, and common law, because Maine has no comprehensive planned-community statute.⁴ Maine also has a separate, voluntary solar easement statute that lets neighbors record sunlight-access easements, but that statute doesn't override association authority.⁵ The sections that follow set out the statutory text, the limits on the protection, and the operational rules.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. The solar-access provision

Maine has a solar restriction-override, confirmed against the Maine Revised Statutes. Title 33, Chapter 28-A, the Solar Rights statute, was enacted in 2009 and provides at 33 M.R.S. § 1423(2) that, except as provided in subsections 3 and 4, a legal instrument subject to the section may not prohibit a person from installing or using a solar energy device on residential property owned by that person, or a solar clothes-drying device on residential property leased or rented by that person.¹ The term "legal instrument" is defined at 33 M.R.S. § 1421 to include municipal ordinances, the rules, bylaws, or regulations of an association of property owners — expressly including a homeowners association, unit owners association, or condominium owners association — and deed restrictions, restrictive covenants, declarations, contracts, or similar binding agreements.⁶ The stated policy at 33 M.R.S. § 1422 is to promote the use of solar energy and to avoid unnecessary obstacles to solar energy devices.¹

The scope carries an important date limit. Section 1423(1) states that the section applies to a legal instrument adopted or created after September 30, 2009.¹ A solar prohibition contained in a declaration recorded before that date isn't voided by the statute on its face, which distinguishes Maine from states whose overrides apply regardless of when the instrument was recorded. Two further limits apply. Section 1423(3) permits a legal instrument to prohibit solar energy devices on residential property in common ownership with third parties or on the common elements of a condominium. Section 1423(4) permits reasonable restrictions necessary to protect public health and safety, to protect buildings from damage, to protect historic or aesthetic values when an alternative of reasonably comparable cost and convenience is available, and to protect shorelands under shoreland zoning.¹

The utility-side boundary is worth restating. Net energy billing and the Maine Public Utilities Commission govern the utility-customer relationship and the crediting of exported power. They don't set an association's authority over a solar installation, and they aren't part of the Solar Rights analysis.²

2B. The Maine Condominium Act and CC&R-primary HOAs

Condominiums created in Maine on or after January 1, 1983 answer to the Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 et seq.⁷ The Act is based on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act, and its own effective-date section fixes January 1, 1983.⁸ Condominiums created before that date fall under the older Maine Unit Ownership Act unless they amend their instruments to come under the current Act; certain enumerated sections of the current Act apply to pre-1983 condominiums as well.⁹

The distinction between the Uniform Condominium Act and the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act matters. Maine adopted the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act for condominiums.³ It didn't adopt the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it has no comprehensive planned-community statute. Importing UCIOA planned-community provisions into a Maine analysis would be an error.

For non-condominium HOAs, authority comes from the recorded declaration and from general corporate and common law rather than from a dedicated planned-community act.⁴ Most Maine associations organize as nonprofit corporations under the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act, Title 13-B, which governs corporate structure, meetings, voting, and records.¹⁰ The Condominium Act itself requires that a unit owners' association be organized as a nonprofit corporation under Title 13-B.¹¹ The result is a CC&R-primary structure for planned communities: the declaration controls, supplemented by Title 13-B and common law, and, for solar specifically, constrained by the Solar Rights statute.

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

Maine has a separate solar easement statute at Title 33, Chapter 28, 33 M.R.S. §§ 1401-1402, enacted in 1981. It provides that an easement obtained to ensure access to direct sunlight must be created in writing, recorded like other conveyances, and that solar easements must be appurtenant and run with the land benefited and burdened.⁵ This works as a voluntary mechanism for neighbors to protect sunlight access. It is not a restriction-override, and it doesn't limit what an association may do. A solar easement statute and a solar-access statute are different tools, and only the Solar Rights statute at Chapter 28-A overrides association authority.

The order of precedence is straightforward. Where the Solar Rights statute applies, it controls over a conflicting provision in a governing document, rendering a prohibition unenforceable to the extent it conflicts.¹ Where the statute doesn't reach — for example, a pre-October 2009 instrument, a condominium common element, or a common-ownership situation under section 1423(3) — the declaration controls, subject to general contract and property doctrines and to the applicable statutes. Architectural review retains a residual role. An association may still review a solar application and apply reasonable restrictions within the categories the statute allows, so long as the review doesn't operate as a prohibition of an owner-sited residential system.

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

A. Approval and architectural review

A Maine association may subject a proposed solar installation to architectural review and may condition approval on reasonable restrictions under 33 M.R.S. § 1423(4), such as safety, protection of the building from damage, and historic or aesthetic requirements where a comparable-cost alternative exists.¹ Review is permitted; using it to effectively prohibit an owner-sited residential system is not. This limit is mandatory, and it applies to instruments adopted or created after September 30, 2009.

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

An association may not prohibit an owner from installing or using a solar energy device on residential property the owner owns, and a prohibiting provision is unenforceable to that extent. An association may still prohibit devices on common elements of a condominium or on property in common ownership with third parties.¹ This mandatory rule under 33 M.R.S. § 1423(2) and (3) covers instruments generally, with the common-element exception applying to condominiums. Maine's statute sets no numeric cost-or-efficiency cap, so the "reasonable restriction" categories in section 1423(4) supply the boundary.

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules typically appear in the declaration, bylaws, or architectural guidelines, and amendments get adopted through the procedures in the governing documents and, for condominiums, the Condominium Act. Condominium associations must keep records available to unit owners under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-118, which expressly includes records of executive board or committee actions approving or denying architectural requests.¹² This requirement is mandatory for condominium associations.

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

Solar disputes get litigated in the Maine trial courts, principally the Superior Court, which is the court of general jurisdiction. Maine has no intermediate appellate court, so an appeal goes directly to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court, the state's only appellate court.¹³ The Condominium Act directs that its remedies be liberally administered,¹⁴ but the Solar Rights statute itself contains no dedicated fee-shifting or penalty provision.¹ This framework applies statewide, with Condominium Act remedies reaching condominiums specifically.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted or seriously considered by the Maine Legislature in the past 24 months creates or amends Maine's HOA solar-authority provision at 33 M.R.S. §§ 1421-1424. The Solar Rights chapter carries a single section history, PL 2009, c. 273, in the official statute text current through October 1, 2025, meaning the chapter hasn't been amended since its 2009 enactment.¹ Maine has had prominent solar legislative activity in this window, but it runs utility-side — net energy billing and distributed-generation policy administered through Title 35-A and the Public Utilities Commission — which doesn't govern association authority and sits outside the scope of this page.²

B. Recent appellate rulings

No decision of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court in the past 36 months addresses a community association's architectural or covenant authority as applied to a homeowner's solar energy system. The Law Court's one recent solar-related decision, Odiorne Lane Solar, LLC v. Town of Eliot, 2023 ME 67, concerned municipal zoning of a large solar array, not association authority, and doesn't construe the Solar Rights statute.¹⁵ Several condominium cases decided in the window concern assessments, land disputes, and mismanagement rather than solar.

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal to enact new HOA-specific solar protection or to amend the Solar Rights statute is pending. Legislative attention to solar in Maine stays focused on utility-side net energy billing rather than on association authority.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Solar-rights regimes fall into three broad categories: strong-protection states whose statutes void or limit association solar restrictions — California Civ. Code § 714, Florida Fla. Stat. § 163.04, Arizona A.R.S. § 33-1816, Colorado C.R.S. § 38-30-168, Nevada Rev. Stat. § 111.239, 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. Maine belongs in the strong-protection category, because 33 M.R.S. § 1423 voids association prohibitions on owner-sited residential solar, though its protection runs narrower than California's: it reaches only instruments adopted or created after September 30, 2009, exempts condominium common elements, and, unlike California Civ. Code § 714, sets no numeric cap — California treats a cost increase over $1,000 or an efficiency loss exceeding 10 percent as unreasonable for photovoltaic systems — and provides no civil penalty or attorney-fee award for violations.¹⁶ For multi-state operators, that means Maine governing documents drafted or amended after 2009 cannot ban owner-sited residential solar, and boards should treat blanket prohibitions as unenforceable while retaining reasonable-restriction review. Legislative momentum on this specific provision runs low; the statute has stayed stable since 2009.

HOA Weekly's Maine Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the Maine Legislature and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule applies to rooftop solar, so Maine's state law controls here.

Footnotes

1. MRS Title 33, Chapter 28-A, Solar Rights (§§ 1421-1424), current through October 1, 2025: legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33ch28-A.pdf ↩
2. Maine Public Utilities Commission, Net Energy Billing: maine.gov/mpuc/regulated-utilities/electricity/neb ↩
3. MRS Title 33, Chapter 31, Maine Condominium Act (index): legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33ch31sec0.html ↩
4. MRS Title 13-B, Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act (index): legislature.maine.gov/statutes/13-B/title13-Bch0sec0.html ↩
5. Title 33, § 1401, Establishment of solar easements: legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33sec1401.html ↩
6. Title 33, § 1421, Definitions: legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33sec1421.html ↩
7. Title 33, § 1601-102, Applicability: legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33sec1601-102.html ↩
8. Title 33, § 1601-116, Effective date: legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33sec1601-116.html ↩
9. MRS Title 33, Chapter 31, Maine Condominium Act, § 1601-102 (Applicability, transition provisions): legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33ch31.pdf ↩
10. Title 13-B, § 201, Purposes (nonprofit corporations, including home owners): legislature.maine.gov/statutes/13-B/title13-B.pdf ↩
11. Title 33, § 1603-101, Organization of unit owners' association: mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/33/title33sec1603-101.html ↩
12. Title 33, § 1603-118, Association records: legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33sec1603-118.html ↩
13. Maine Judicial Branch, Maine Supreme Judicial Court (Law Court): courts.maine.gov/courts/sjc/index.html ↩
14. Title 33, Chapter 31, Maine Condominium Act, § 1601-114 (Remedies to be liberally administered): legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33ch31sec0.html ↩
15. Odiorne Lane Solar, LLC v. Town of Eliot, 2023 ME 67 (Maine Supreme Judicial Court): law.justia.com/cases/maine/supreme-court/2023/2023-me-67.html (verify published opinion at courts.maine.gov) ↩
16. California Civil Code § 714 (comparison; reasonable-restriction thresholds and remedies): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (CIV § 714) ↩