Maryland HOA Fence & Exterior

Quick Reference

Section 1: Overview — How fence and exterior rules work in Maryland

In Maryland, if you want to change the look of your property — a fence, a wall, the paint, the siding, the roof, the trim, an outbuilding, even the landscaping — the rules start with one document: the recorded declaration, the CC&Rs, and the architectural guidelines the community adopts under it. Comprehensive state statutes back that document up, and a handful of statutory overrides rein it in.¹ Which statute governs your community depends on how that community is organized. Three possibilities cover it: the Maryland Homeowners Association Act (Real Property § 11B-101 et seq.), the Maryland Condominium Act (Real Property § 11-101 et seq.), and the Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act (Corporations & Associations § 5-6B-01 et seq.).²

On top of that framework, Maryland stacks several exterior overrides. A solar-rights provision bars unreasonable limits on solar collector systems (§ 2-119). A flags-and-decorations provision reaches condominium, homeowners association, and cooperative property alike (§ 14-128). A candidate-and-proposition-sign provision covers homeowners associations (§ 11B-111.2) and condominiums (§ 11-111.2). And a low-impact-landscaping provision limits how far an association can push turf-grass mandates (§ 2-125).³ Notice what none of these statutes does: none sets a deadline for an association to act on an architectural application. The declaration sets those timelines — there is no statutory deemed-approval clock.⁴

Step back and look nationally. Maryland is a comprehensive-statute state, it has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it carries multiple exterior overrides. That combination sets it apart from the CC&R-primary states, where the recorded documents do most of the work.⁵ The sections that follow lay out where exterior authority comes from, the state-law limits on that authority, how architectural review works, and the recent moves in the legislature and the courts.

Section 2: The legal framework for exterior and fence control

2A. Where exterior and fence authority comes from

The recorded declaration, and the architectural guidelines a community adopts under it, is where a Maryland association gets its authority over fences and exterior appearance. Covenants that restrict exterior alterations run with the land and bind everyone who buys in later, and Maryland's appellate courts enforce them when they are validly recorded and properly applied.⁶ Which body of statutory law fills the gaps comes down to the community type.

For homeowners associations, the Maryland Homeowners Association Act (Real Property § 11B-101 et seq.) governs formation, disclosures, meetings, records, the homeowners association depository, and enforcement.⁷ For condominiums, the Maryland Condominium Act (Real Property § 11-101 et seq.) applies, and § 11-142 handles condominiums established before July 1, 1982.⁸ For cooperatives, the Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act (Corporations & Associations § 5-6B-01 et seq.) governs.⁹ At the corporate level, many associations also organize as nonstock corporations under the Maryland Corporations and Associations Article.¹⁰ Keep in mind that these are separate statutes. Maryland has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and a provision in one act does not automatically carry over into another.¹¹

The Homeowners Association Act carries an anti-waiver rule at § 11B-103. Except where the title expressly provides otherwise, you cannot vary its provisions by agreement, you cannot waive the rights it confers, and a declarant or vendor cannot use a power of attorney or some other device to slip past the title's requirements.¹² So the order of precedence runs like this: any mandatory statutory provision for the community type — including the exterior overrides below — controls first; then the recorded declaration; then the architectural guidelines adopted under it; then the board's rules. A rule or guideline that conflicts with the declaration or a mandatory statute is unenforceable to the extent of that conflict.¹³

2B. State-law limits on association exterior authority

Maryland has passed several statutes that cap or condition an association's authority over particular exterior features. Here they are.

Solar collector systems (§ 2-119). A restriction on use may not impose unreasonable limits on installing a solar collector system on a roof or exterior wall that the owner owns or has exclusive use of. As amended effective October 1, 2025, the statute spells out when a restriction crosses the line: it is unreasonable if, applied to a particular proposal, it "(i) Increases the installation cost of the solar collector system by at least 5% over the projected cost of the initially proposed installation; or (ii) Reduces the energy generated by the solar collector system by at least 10% below the projected energy generation of the initially proposed installation."¹⁴ The owner has to document that unreasonableness through an independent solar-design specialist who "1. Is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners; or 2. Has attested by affidavit to designing at least 30 solar collector systems in the course of trade within the prior 3 years."¹⁵ The provision reaches deeds, declarations, contracts, and condominium and homeowners association bylaws and rules — it caps what the association can do rather than merely regulating procedure.¹⁶

Flags and decorations (§ 14-128). This section covers residential property, including property under the condominium, homeowners association, and cooperative titles. No matter what a covenant, restriction, rule, bylaw, or other document says about displaying flags or decorations, a homeowner or tenant may not be barred from flying one portable, removable United States flag in a respectful manner consistent with 4 U.S.C. §§ 4 through 10.¹⁷ The board of a condominium, homeowners association, or housing cooperative — or a landlord — may still adopt reasonable rules on where and how you display it.¹⁸ That U.S.-flag protection sits on top of the federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005; § 14-128 is Maryland's own flag-and-decorations rule, and it caps association authority across all three community types.¹⁹

Candidate and proposition signs (§ 11B-111.2; § 11-111.2). For homeowners associations and condominiums, a recorded covenant, declaration provision, or bylaw may not prohibit a candidate sign or a sign supporting or opposing a proposition, subject to stated exceptions.²⁰ An association may restrict these signs in common areas, in line with federal, state, and local law, and, where no local-law window applies, it may hold owners to a display period. House Bill 855 (2026) moved that default window. It used to start 30 days out; now it begins not less than "45 DAYS BEFORE THE START OF EARLY VOTING FOR A PRIMARY ELECTION, GENERAL ELECTION, OR VOTE ON THE PROPOSITION" (or, "IF THERE IS NO EARLY VOTING, 45 days before" the election or vote), and it ends 7 days after.²¹ The same 2026 change applies to cooperatives under Corporations & Associations § 5-6B-23.²² The provision conditions association authority: it allows reasonable rules, but it sets a floor for the protected display period.²³

Low-impact landscaping (§ 2-125). A restriction on use may not impose unreasonable limits on low-impact landscaping, so long as the owner owns or has exclusive use of the property and keeps it maintained and regularly tended. The statute defines low-impact landscaping to include bio-habitat gardens, pollinator gardens, rain gardens, and xeriscaping, and it counts a limitation as unreasonable if it significantly raises cost, significantly cuts efficiency, or forces cultivated vegetation to be turf grass in whole or in part.²⁴ The statute still preserves reasonable design and aesthetic guidelines on the type, number, and location of landscaping features.²⁵ This one sits in Title 2 of the Real Property Article rather than the § 11B-111 series, and it caps association authority over how your yard looks.²⁶

Fences and pool barriers. Maryland has no statewide statute setting general residential fence dimensions; the declaration and local zoning set those. Residential pool and spa barriers work differently — they operate as a safety floor through building codes adopted at the state and county level. The commonly adopted baseline calls for a barrier at least 48 inches high with self-closing, self-latching gates, and several counties go higher: Montgomery County requires a 5-foot (60-inch) fence, and Prince George's County requires 6 feet.²⁷ And remember, a fence approved to satisfy a pool-barrier code still needs association architectural approval wherever the declaration requires it.

2C. The architectural review process and procedural limits

Neither the Homeowners Association Act nor the Condominium Act sets a deadline for an association to act on an architectural application, and neither says that inaction counts as approval. So application timelines — and whatever follows from an association's delay — come from the declaration and the architectural guidelines, not from a statutory clock.²⁸ Section 11B-104 gives building code and zoning laws full force within a development, and it lets a code home rule county in the Southern Maryland class set up a homeowners association commission that offers alternative dispute resolution, including binding arbitration.²⁹

Maryland judges an association's covenant-enforcement and architectural decisions by a reasonableness and good-faith standard, one drawn from common-law covenant doctrine and the business judgment rule, and the courts construe restrictive covenants against the party trying to enforce them whenever the meaning is doubtful.³⁰ The § 11B-103 anti-waiver rule is statutory; the requirement that decisions be reasonable, made in good faith, and consistent with the governing documents rests on Maryland common-law doctrine as the courts and county commissions apply it.³¹

To hold up, restrictions have to be validly recorded or duly adopted under the declaration, and the Homeowners Association Act requires associations to deposit their designated disclosure documents — the declaration, the bylaws, the rules — into the homeowners association depository.³² Before an association fines you or imposes another sanction, it has to give notice and a chance to be heard under § 11B-111.10 for homeowners associations or § 11-113 for condominiums, which Section 3 and Fining Authority take up.³³

Section 3: Compliance obligations and operational mechanics

A. Association and architectural-committee obligations

• Keep your architectural standards validly recorded or duly adopted, and deposit the declaration, bylaws, rules, and other designated disclosures into the homeowners association depository (STATUTORY as to the depository for HOAs under § 11B-112 and § 11B-113; CONTRACTUAL as to the content of the standards).³⁴
• Review and answer architectural applications within the timeline the declaration sets; there is no statutory response deadline and no deemed approval (CONTRACTUAL, set by the declaration).³⁵
• Respect the solar (§ 2-119), flag-and-decoration (§ 14-128), candidate-and-proposition-sign (§ 11B-111.2; § 11-111.2), and low-impact-landscaping (§ 2-125) limits (STATUTORY; solar, flags, and landscaping reach HOAs, condominiums, and cooperatives, while the § 11B-111.2 / § 11-111.2 sign provisions run to HOAs and condominiums respectively, with cooperatives under § 5-6B-23).³⁶
• Apply your standards reasonably, in good faith, and consistently, and honor the § 11B-103 anti-waiver rule and the § 11B-104 alternative-dispute-resolution provision (§ 11B-103 and § 11B-104 STATUTORY for HOAs; the reasonableness standard rests on common-law doctrine).³⁷
• Give notice and an opportunity to be heard before you impose a fine or any other sanction (STATUTORY under § 11B-111.10 for HOAs and § 11-113 for condominiums).³⁸

B. Owner obligations and rights

• Submit an application and get approval before you install a fence or start exterior work wherever the declaration requires it, and build to the approved plans and published standards (CONTRACTUAL, set by the declaration).³⁹
• If the association misses a declared timeline, or acts unreasonably or selectively, you can raise those failures as defenses to enforcement; how strong a delay argument is depends on the declaration, because there is no statutory deemed-approval (CONTRACTUAL and common-law).⁴⁰
• Exercise your statutory rights — to install a solar collector system, to display a U.S. flag and protected decorations, to post candidate and proposition signs during the protected window, and to put in low-impact landscaping — subject to reasonable rules (STATUTORY under § 2-119, § 14-128, § 11B-111.2 / § 11-111.2, and § 2-125).⁴¹

C. Enforcement, remedies, and defenses

• An association's remedies include fines after notice and hearing, injunctive relief, forced removal or restoration ordered by a Circuit Court, and recovery of enforcement costs or attorney fees where the declaration or a court authorizes them (fines STATUTORY in procedure under § 11B-111.10 / § 11-113; fee recovery generally CONTRACTUAL, subject to a court's reasonableness review).⁴²
• The association may secure unpaid fines, charges, and assessments with a lien under the Maryland Contract Lien Act (Real Property § 14-201 et seq.), the lien mechanism for community associations, which Collections and Liens covers (STATUTORY).⁴³
• The § 11B-103 anti-waiver rule limits enforcement, and in participating counties a county commission on common ownership communities that offers dispute resolution does too; these commissions — like the Montgomery County Commission on Common Ownership Communities — are county-level bodies, not a statewide regulator (STATUTORY where a county has created one).⁴⁴
• Owner defenses include selective enforcement, waiver or abandonment of a covenant, a restriction that exceeds the authority the statute or declaration grants, and a restriction that is void under an override — say, an unreasonable solar limitation under § 2-119 or a flag-display ban under § 14-128 (common-law defenses plus STATUTORY override defenses).⁴⁵

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Maryland's recent legislation on exterior control has been targeted rather than sweeping, focused on rooftop solar and on political signs. Two Acts stand out.

B. Recent appellate rulings

Two recent appellate decisions shape how Maryland associations enforce exterior covenants — one on when the HOA Act even applies, and one on enforcing a removal order while an appeal is pending.

C. Active legislative debates

Maryland's General Assembly has kept working on association measures that touch exterior and yard matters, including the solar and sign provisions it revisited in the 2025 and 2026 sessions; managers and boards should watch each session for further changes to the § 11B-111 series and the exterior overrides.⁵⁰

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Maryland sits in the middle of three broad groups. Some states pair association statutes with strong exterior overrides — California, Colorado, Illinois. Others, like Iowa, stay CC&R-primary and leave most exterior control to the recorded documents. Maryland belongs to the comprehensive non-UCIOA group, with three separate association statutes and multiple overrides covering solar, flags and decorations, candidate and proposition signs, and low-impact landscaping.⁵¹ What makes it distinctive: the three-statute structure, the § 14-128 flag-and-decorations protection that reaches condominium, homeowners association, and cooperative property, and county commissions on common ownership communities that handle local dispute resolution instead of statewide regulation.⁵² For multi-state operators, the practical takeaway is simple — several overrides constrain association authority beyond whatever the declaration says. One more thing to get right in your citations: Maryland renamed its appellate courts effective December 14, 2022, after voters approved the change, so current references should read Supreme Court of Maryland and Appellate Court of Maryland.⁵³

HOA Weekly's Maryland Fence & Exterior coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the Maryland appellate courts act. Federal frameworks also apply to Maryland associations no matter the state framework, including the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, the FCC OTARD antenna rule (47 C.F.R. § 1.4000), and the Fair Housing Act and ADA for reasonable accommodations that affect exterior features.

Footnotes

1. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-104 (building code and zoning; alternative dispute resolution) ↩
2. Md. Code, Real Property Title 11B (Maryland Homeowners Association Act); Title 11 (Condominium Act); Corps. & Ass'ns § 5-6B-01 et seq. ↩
3. Md. Code, Real Property §§ 2-119, 14-128, 11B-111.2, 11-111.2, 2-125 ↩
4. Md. Code, Real Property Title 11B (no architectural-review deadline or deemed-approval provision) ↩
5. Maryland association statutes overview (three statutes; non-UCIOA) ↩
6. Logan v. Dietz, 258 Md. App. 629 (2023) ↩
7. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-101 et seq. ↩
8. Md. Code, Real Property § 11-101 et seq.; § 11-142 (pre-July-1-1982 condominiums) ↩
9. Md. Code, Corps. & Ass'ns § 5-6B-01 et seq. (Cooperative Housing Corporation Act) ↩
10. Maryland nonstock corporation organization of associations ↩
11. Maryland has not adopted UCIOA; statutes kept distinct ↩
12. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-103 (anti-waiver) ↩
13. Elvaton Towne Condominium Regime II v. Rose (rules must be consistent with declaration and statute) ↩
14. Md. Code, Real Property § 2-119(b) ↩
15. Md. Code, Real Property § 2-119(b)(3) ↩
16. Md. Code, Real Property § 2-119(a)(2) ↩
17. Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128(a)-(b) ↩
18. Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128(d) ↩
19. Maryland political sign and flag statutes (CAI) ↩
20. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.2 ↩
21. 2026 Md. Laws ch. 289 (House Bill 855) ↩
22. 2026 Md. Laws ch. 289, amending Corps. & Ass'ns § 5-6B-23 ↩
23. 2026 Md. Laws ch. 289 (reasonable rules; default window) ↩
24. Md. Code, Real Property § 2-125 ↩
25. Md. Code, Real Property § 2-125(c) ↩
26. 2021 Md. Laws ch. 368 (House Bill 322) ↩
27. Baltimore County residential swimming pool barrier requirements (48-inch baseline; county height variations) ↩
28. Md. Code, Real Property Title 11B (no statutory deemed approval) ↩
29. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-104 ↩
30. Logan v. Dietz, 258 Md. App. 629 (2023) (covenant construction) ↩
31. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-103 ↩
32. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-112 and § 11B-113 (records and depository) ↩
33. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.10; § 11-113 ↩
34. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-112, § 11B-113 ↩
35. Maryland People's Law Library, covenant enforcement (timelines set by documents) ↩
36. Md. Code, Real Property §§ 2-119, 14-128, 11B-111.2, 11-111.2, 2-125; Corps. & Ass'ns § 5-6B-23 ↩
37. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-103, § 11B-104 ↩
38. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.10; § 11-113 ↩
39. Maryland People's Law Library, architectural approval ↩
40. Maryland People's Law Library, enforcement defenses ↩
41. Md. Code, Real Property §§ 2-119, 14-128, 11B-111.2, 11-111.2, 2-125 ↩
42. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.10; § 11-113 ↩
43. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-117 (lien via Maryland Contract Lien Act, § 14-201 et seq.) ↩
44. Montgomery County Commission on Common Ownership Communities ↩
45. Maryland covenant-enforcement defenses (selective enforcement, waiver) ↩
46. 2025 Md. Laws ch. 517 (House Bill 4); ch. 516 (Senate Bill 120) ↩
47. 2026 Md. Laws ch. 289 (House Bill 855) ↩
48. Logan v. Dietz, 258 Md. App. 629 (2023) ↩
49. Vargas v. Franklin Farms Homeowners Ass'n, No. 282, Sept. Term 2024 (Md. App. Apr. 22, 2025) (unreported) ↩
50. Maryland General Assembly, 2025 and 2026 sessions (association legislation) ↩
51. State landscaping-law comparison (Maryland among override states) ↩
52. Montgomery County Commission on Common Ownership Communities ↩
53. Maryland Judiciary, appellate court renaming effective December 14, 2022 ↩