Maryland HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in Maryland

Maryland stands as a strong-protection state on residential solar. Md. Code, Real Property § 2-119 provides that a covenant, restriction, or condition may not impose or act to impose unreasonable limitations on the installation of a solar collector system on the roof or exterior walls of improvements, provided the owner owns or has exclusive use of that roof or those walls.¹ As amended effective October 1, 2025, the statute now defines an unreasonable limitation with a numeric test: a restriction is unreasonable if it increases the installation cost of the system by at least 5% over the initially proposed installation, or reduces the energy the system generates by at least 10% below the initially proposed installation.¹ This marks a change from the prior qualitative "significantly increases the cost" or "significantly decreases the efficiency" language.²

Section 2-119 sits in the general Real Property title (Title 2), not in the Maryland Condominium Act (Title 11) or the Maryland Homeowners Association Act (Title 11B), and its definition of "restriction on use" expressly reaches the bylaws or rules of a condominium or homeowners association, so it applies across condominiums, HOAs, and cooperatives.¹ Maryland's net metering program, administered by the Public Service Commission under Public Utilities Article § 7-306, stays a separate utility-customer matter and doesn't expand or limit an association's authority over installations.³ Maryland belongs with California (Civ. Code § 714), Florida (Fla. Stat. § 163.04), Arizona (A.R.S. §§ 33-1816, 33-1268), Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-30-168), Nevada (Nev. Rev. Stat. §§ 111.239 and 278.0208), and Texas (Prop. Code § 202.010) among states whose statutes void or limit association solar restrictions. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. The core solar statute: Md. Code, Real Property § 2-119

Section 2-119 is the operative solar-access provision in Maryland law. It provides that a "restriction on use regarding land use may not impose or act to impose unreasonable limitations on the installation of a solar collector system on the roof or exterior walls of improvements," provided the property owner owns or has the right to exclusive use of the roof or exterior walls.¹ The term "restriction on use" gets defined broadly to include any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in a deed, a declaration, a contract, the bylaws or rules of a condominium or homeowners association, a security instrument, or any other instrument affecting the transfer or sale of real property or any other interest in real property.¹ Because the definition names condominium and homeowners association bylaws and rules directly, the protection reaches association governing documents by its own terms.

The cost-and-efficiency standard is the load-bearing element, and it changed materially in 2025. Under the current text, effective October 1, 2025, a restriction on use is unreasonable if application of the restriction to a particular proposal "increases the installation cost of the solar collector system by at least 5% over the projected cost of the initially proposed installation" or "reduces the energy generated by the solar collector system by at least 10% below the projected energy generation of the initially proposed installation."¹ Maryland therefore now expresses the standard as a specific numeric threshold, replacing the earlier qualitative formulation that asked only whether a limitation "significantly" increased cost or "significantly" decreased efficiency.²

The statute also assigns the burden of proof. An owner who contends that a restriction is unreasonable must provide documentation satisfactory to the community association, and that documentation must be prepared by an independent solar panel design specialist who is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners or who has attested by affidavit to designing at least 30 solar collector systems in the course of trade within the prior three years.¹ A "solar collector system" gets defined as a solar collector or other solar energy device whose primary purpose is the collection, storage, and distribution of solar energy for electricity generation, space heating, space cooling, or water heating.¹ The section doesn't apply to a restriction on use on historic property listed in, or determined by the Director of the Maryland Historical Trust to be eligible for inclusion in, the Maryland Register of Historic Properties.¹ The scope covers residential property, and the placement in Title 2 — conveyancing and general real property provisions — confirms that the protection operates across community types rather than through any single community-association act.

2B. The three-statute community framework

Maryland regulates community associations through three separate statutes, and § 2-119 overlays all three. Condominiums answer to the Maryland Condominium Act, Md. Code, Real Property § 11-101 et seq., which establishes the council of unit owners, common elements, and the board's rulemaking authority.⁴ Homeowners associations answer to the Maryland Homeowners Association Act, Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-101 et seq., which addresses declarations, disclosures, and governance.⁵ Cooperatives answer to the Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act, Md. Code, Corporations and Associations § 5-6B-01 et seq., which sits outside the Real Property article entirely because a cooperative is a corporate form.⁶ Maryland is not a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) state, so practitioners shouldn't import UCIOA concepts into the analysis.

Each community statute supplies the authority for architectural review and rule enforcement. The Condominium Act authorizes a council of unit owners to adopt rules and regulations, and the HOA Act operates through recorded declarations that bind lots. That authority is real but bounded. Section 2-119 confines it to reasonable restrictions that stay within the cost-and-efficiency thresholds, and by its definition of "restriction on use" it reaches condominium and homeowners association bylaws and rules directly.¹ The order of precedence stays straightforward: where a covenant, declaration provision, or association rule would impose an unreasonable limitation as defined in § 2-119, the statute controls and the offending provision doesn't, regardless of which community statute otherwise governs the association.¹

The 2025 amendment also clarified how the statute treats common areas and common elements, a point of frequent confusion. A community association may prohibit or restrict the installation of a solar collector system in the common area or common elements, and it may establish reasonable restrictions as to the number, size, place, or manner of placement or installation of a system in those shared areas.¹ Separately, the board of directors has discretion, notwithstanding the governing documents and provided the installation isn't otherwise prohibited by applicable law, to install a solar collector system in the common area or common elements it serves.¹ The strong owner-side protection in § 2-119(b) attaches to the roof or exterior walls that an owner owns or has the exclusive right to use; it doesn't give an individual owner a right to install on shared common property.

2C. The reasonable-restriction boundary and the role of governing documents

The practical line for an association runs through the numeric standard. An association may adopt and enforce reasonable restrictions on an owner's rooftop or exterior-wall installation, including aesthetic and placement conditions, so long as applying the restriction to the owner's proposal doesn't increase installation cost by at least 5% or reduce generated energy by at least 10% relative to the initially proposed installation.¹ An association may not prohibit a qualifying installation outright, and it may not enforce a restriction that crosses either threshold. A restriction that does cross a threshold counts as an unreasonable limitation the statute bars.¹

Maryland's net metering and community-solar programs form a separate body of law and don't enlarge association authority. Net metering is administered by the Public Service Commission under Public Utilities Article § 7-306, and it governs the utility-customer relationship, interconnection, and bill credits rather than an association's control over installations.³ An association evaluating a solar application should analyze it under § 2-119 and the community's governing documents, not under net metering rules.

Beyond § 2-119, architectural review retains a residual role. Review committees may require applications, documentation of contractor licensing and insurance, and conditions that fall within the statutory thresholds, and the applicable community statute plus, for incorporated associations, Maryland corporate law continue to govern how the board acts procedurally.^4,5,6 The statute channels that discretion; it doesn't eliminate it.

Section 3: What a Maryland association can and cannot do regarding solar

A. What an association cannot do

An association may not prohibit or impose unreasonable limitations on the installation of a solar collector system on the roof or exterior walls an owner owns or has the exclusive right to use.¹ It may not enforce a restriction that increases the installation cost by at least 5% over the initially proposed installation, and it may not enforce a restriction that reduces generated energy by at least 10% below the initially proposed installation; both count as unreasonable under § 2-119 and are void to that extent.¹ This applies to condominiums, HOAs, and cooperatives, and it stays mandatory because the standard comes from statute.

B. What an association may do

An association may adopt and enforce reasonable restrictions on number, size, place, and manner of placement, and it may require an application and review, provided the conditions stay inside the 5% cost and 10% efficiency thresholds.¹ For common areas and common elements, an association may prohibit or restrict owner installations and may impose reasonable restrictions on shared-area systems.¹ These powers apply across all three community types and derive from § 2-119 read together with the association's governing documents and its community statute.^1,4,5

C. The cost-and-efficiency standard and approval process

When an owner asserts that an association's condition is unreasonable, the owner carries the burden and must supply documentation satisfactory to the association, prepared by an independent solar panel design specialist who is North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners certified or who attests by affidavit to having designed at least 30 systems in the prior three years.¹ This documentation requirement, added in 2025, stays mandatory and gives associations a defined evidentiary standard for evaluating claims that a placement condition crosses a threshold.¹

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

A covenant or rule that imposes an unreasonable limitation is unenforceable to that extent under § 2-119 — the statute's core remedy.¹ Contested matters proceed in the Maryland Circuit Court, with appeals to the Appellate Court of Maryland, the intermediate court, formerly the Court of Special Appeals, and discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Maryland, the highest court, formerly the Court of Appeals; the two appellate courts were renamed effective December 14, 2022.⁷ Some counties also maintain dispute-resolution bodies: Montgomery County's Commission on Common Ownership Communities hears certain association disputes and issues decisions binding on the parties for registered communities.⁸ Section 2-119 itself sets out no fee-shifting provision, so cost recovery depends on the governing documents and general Maryland law.¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published or reported opinion from the Appellate Court of Maryland or the Supreme Court of Maryland decided within the past 36 months — July 2023 through July 2026 — interprets § 2-119 or a Maryland association's authority over an owner's solar collector system. The leading appellate interpretation remains the case below, which predates both the recency window and the 2025 amendment and appears here for context:

C. Active legislative debates

Following the 2025 enactment, no active 2026 proposal to further amend § 2-119 as it bears on association solar authority turned up. The recurring community-association proposal in Maryland concerns statewide community association manager licensing, which isn't a solar measure; House Bill 303 (2025 Regular Session), "Real Property – Regulation of Common Ownership Community Managers," which would have created a State Board of Common Ownership Community Managers, died in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.¹¹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Maryland sits in the first of three broad solar-rights categories. The first comprises strong-protection states whose statutes void or limit association solar restrictions, including Maryland (Md. Code, Real Property § 2-119), California (Civ. Code § 714), Florida (Fla. Stat. § 163.04), Arizona (A.R.S. §§ 33-1816, 33-1268), Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-30-168), Nevada (Nev. Rev. Stat. §§ 111.239 and 278.0208), and Texas (Prop. Code § 202.010).¹ The second comprises solar-easement-only states, which enable voluntary easements but don't override associations. The third comprises no-protection states, where the recorded declaration fully controls. Maryland's distinctive features: a cross-community-type statute placed in the general Real Property title rather than in a community-association act, and a three-statute community framework covering condominiums, HOAs, and cooperatives.^1,4,5,6 For multi-state operators, the practical implication is direct: a Maryland association cannot prohibit a qualifying rooftop or exterior-wall installation and must keep any restriction within the 5% cost and 10% efficiency thresholds.¹

HOA Weekly's Maryland Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the Maryland courts act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule (47 C.F.R. § 1.4000) extends to rooftop solar, so Maryland's state statute controls here.

Footnotes

1. Md. Code, Real Property § 2-119, Maryland General Assembly Statute Text ↩
2. Blood v. Stoneridge at Fountain Green Homeowners Ass'n, Inc., 242 Md. App. 417, 215 A.3d 415 (2019), Court of Special Appeals opinion ↩
3. Solar in Maryland / net metering (PUA § 7-306), Maryland Public Service Commission ↩
4. Md. Code, Real Property § 11-101 (Maryland Condominium Act) ↩
5. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-101 (Maryland Homeowners Association Act) ↩
6. Md. Code, Corporations and Associations § 5-6B-01 (Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act) ↩
7. Voter-approved constitutional change renames high courts to Supreme and Appellate Court of Maryland, Maryland Judiciary (Dec. 14, 2022) ↩
8. Commission on Common Ownership Communities, Montgomery County, MD ↩
9. Maryland House Bill 4 (2025 Regular Session), Restrictions on Use – Solar Collector Systems – Alteration (Chapter 517) ↩
10. Maryland Senate Bill 120 (2025 Regular Session), Restrictions on Use – Solar Collector Systems – Alteration (Chapter 516) ↩
11. 2025 Legislative Report for Community Association Manager Licensing, Community Associations Institute ↩