Massachusetts HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in Massachusetts

Massachusetts limits an association's authority to restrict solar. Under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 184, § 23C, any provision in an instrument relating to the ownership or use of real property that purports to forbid or unreasonably restrict the installation or use of a solar energy system is void.¹ That provision, unlike the zoning protection noted below, reaches private governing documents, including condominium master deeds, declarations of trust, and homeowners association covenants. A separate statute, ch. 40A, § 3, bars municipal zoning ordinances and by-laws from prohibiting or unreasonably regulating solar, but that limit constrains local government, not associations, and the two protections shouldn't be conflated.² Massachusetts condominiums organize under the Condominium Act, ch. 183A, and commonly answer to a condominium trust administered by trustees under a declaration of trust alongside the master deed; non-condominium associations have no comprehensive statute and answer to recorded covenants, corporate or trust law, and common law.³ The state also authorizes voluntary recorded solar easements under ch. 187, § 1A, which secure access to sunlight across neighboring land but don't override association authority.⁴ These features place Massachusetts among the states whose statutes limit private solar restrictions, though the operative standard runs on reasonableness rather than a flat bar on association review. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules, and recent activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. Solar restrictions: zoning versus private covenants

Two distinct Massachusetts statutes bear on solar, and they operate on different actors. Chapter 40A, § 3, the state Zoning Act, provides that no zoning ordinance or by-law shall prohibit or unreasonably regulate the installation of solar energy systems or the building of structures that facilitate the collection of solar energy, except where necessary to protect the public health, safety or welfare.² That's a limit on municipal government. It doesn't reach private covenants, condominium documents, or association architectural authority, and it shouldn't get cited as an association-level protection.

The provision that does reach private governing documents is ch. 184, § 23C. It states that any provision in an instrument relative to the ownership or use of real property which purports to forbid or unreasonably restrict the installation or use of a solar energy system, as defined in ch. 40A, § 1A, or the building of structures that facilitate the collection of solar energy, shall be void.¹ The definition it borrows from ch. 40A, § 1A covers a device or structural design feature whose substantial purpose is the collection, storage, and distribution of solar energy for heating, cooling, electricity generation, or water heating.⁵ Because § 23C voids restrictive provisions in any instrument affecting real property, it applies to condominium master deeds, declarations of trust, and HOA covenants. The section originated in "An Act Promoting Solar Energy and Protecting Access to Sunlight for Solar Energy Systems," enacted in 1985, which inserted solar provisions into several land-use and real-property statutes, and it drew little litigation for decades.⁶ In 2024, the Land Court applied it to a condominium in Timothy J. Hunter, as Trustee of CrashCo Trust v. Peter Killeen, et al., holding that governing-document provisions requiring trustee approval for exterior changes didn't on their face forbid or unreasonably restrict solar, because they vested discretionary review rather than a ban; the court allowed the owner fourteen days to amend to challenge the reasonableness of the trustees' denial.⁶ That decision is a trial-level ruling and isn't binding precedent, but it frames the operative question in Massachusetts: association authority over solar comes from the governing documents, subject to the statutory rule that a provision cannot forbid or unreasonably restrict a system.

2B. The Condominium Act and the condominium-trust structure

The Massachusetts Condominium Act, ch. 183A, governs the creation and operation of condominiums. It establishes unit ownership together with an undivided interest in the common areas, and it vests management authority in an organization of unit owners. Under ch. 183A, § 10, that organization may take the form of a corporation, a trust, or an unincorporated association, and each unit owner holds the same percentage interest in the organization as in the common areas.³ The trust form is the traditional and common Massachusetts practice: the condominium gets administered by trustees acting under a declaration of trust, which sits alongside the master deed and the by-laws. Practitioners should use trustee and declaration-of-trust terminology rather than assuming a corporate board, though all three organizational forms exist.

The Act also determines how a solar installation on the common areas gets treated. Section 10(b)(6), as amended, provides that solar energy systems aren't treated as ordinary energy-conservation devices and that their installation shall be governed by § 18.³ Section 18 is the improvement statute: an improvement to the common areas agreed to by 50 percent but less than 75 percent of unit owners gets paid for by the agreeing owners, while an improvement agreed to by 75 percent or more may be assessed to all owners as a common expense; where such an improvement costs more than 10 percent of the then value of the condominium, a dissenting owner may apply to the Superior Court for an order directing the organization to purchase the unit at fair market value.⁷ This collective-vote framework governs association-driven solar projects on shared roofs and grounds and stays separate from the § 23C rule that voids restrictions on an owner's own installation.

Non-condominium common-interest communities have no comprehensive Massachusetts statute. Planned-community HOAs answer to their recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions, to applicable corporate or trust law, and to common law. Massachusetts has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so UCIOA features don't carry over into the analysis.

2C. Solar easements, governing documents, and order of precedence

Massachusetts authorizes voluntary solar easements under ch. 187, § 1A. An easement of direct sunlight may be acquired over the land of another by express grant or covenant, or by a solar access permit under ch. 40A, § 9B, and the recorded instrument may specify the dimensions of the protected space, restrictions on vegetation and structures, and terms for revision or termination.⁴ A solar easement is a voluntary, negotiated instrument that secures access to sunlight across neighboring parcels. It is not a solar-access mandate, and it doesn't override an association's authority over installations within the community.

The order of precedence follows from § 23C. A governing-document provision that forbids or unreasonably restricts a solar energy system is void to that extent, so the statute controls over conflicting condominium or HOA language.¹ Where a provision isn't an unreasonable restriction, the governing documents control, subject to the general requirement that trustees or boards exercise their discretionary and architectural-review authority reasonably. Trustee or board architectural authority therefore continues to operate as the residual mechanism for reviewing solar applications, setting placement and installation conditions, and protecting the common areas, so long as it doesn't cross into a prohibition or an unreasonable restriction. Utility-side programs, including the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target program and net metering administered by the Department of Energy Resources and the Department of Public Utilities, stay customer-incentive and interconnection matters and carry no bearing on association authority over installations.

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

A. Approval and architectural review

A solar installation gets reviewed under the condominium documents or HOA governing documents, with authority exercised by the trustees or the board through the architectural-review or improvement provisions of the declaration of trust, master deed, and by-laws.³ An owner-driven installation on the owner's separate area stays constrained by § 23C, while an installation affecting the common areas runs through the § 18 improvement process.⁷

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

An association cannot enforce a governing-document provision that forbids or unreasonably restricts a solar energy system; such a provision is void under ch. 184, § 23C.¹ An association may impose reasonable conditions on placement, method, and installation, because § 23C voids only unreasonable restrictions, and, as the Land Court indicated in Hunter v. Killeen, a provision that vests discretionary trustee review isn't on its face a prohibition — though that ruling carries no binding precedent.⁶ The zoning-level protection of ch. 40A, § 3 operates only against municipalities and isn't an association-level rule.²

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules appear in the declaration of trust, master deed, by-laws, or HOA covenants, and get amended through the amendment procedures those documents and ch. 183A prescribe; any provision purporting to bar or unreasonably restrict solar is void regardless of how it was adopted.¹ Massachusetts imposes no solar-specific disclosure obligation on associations comparable to the electric-vehicle-equipment disclosure the Legislature added for EV charging, so no mandatory solar disclosure requirement exists to state.³

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

A solar dispute proceeds as a civil action, typically for declaratory judgment or injunctive relief. Trial-level jurisdiction lies in the Superior Court as the court of general jurisdiction, and in the Land Court, which holds specialized jurisdiction over real-property matters including title, registered land, and condominium documents; the Hunter case proceeded in the Land Court.⁸ Appeals go to the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the intermediate appellate court, with further discretionary review available in the Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court.^9,10 Section 23C contains no dedicated statutory remedy or attorney-fee provision, so relief rests on general declaratory and equitable remedies.¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

No Massachusetts Appeals Court or Supreme Judicial Court decision from July 2023 through July 2026 addresses ch. 184, § 23C or an association's authority to restrict a unit owner's solar system. The only Massachusetts decision applying § 23C to a condominium in this window is Timothy J. Hunter, as Trustee of CrashCo Trust v. Peter Killeen, et al., a 2024 Land Court ruling before Judge Robert B. Foster (Docket No. 23 MISC 000539; Lawyers Weekly No. 14-028-24) — a trial-level decision, not binding precedent.⁶ Massachusetts appellate solar decisions in this period concern municipal zoning under ch. 40A, not association authority, and sit outside the scope of this page.

C. Active legislative debates

An Act Ensuring Solar Energy Access (House No. 3496, 194th General Court), filed by Representative Carmine Lawrence Gentile of Sudbury as successor to H.3685 of the 2023–2024 session, would rewrite § 23C to state expressly that no homeowners association, condominium association, or similar entity may forbid or unreasonably restrict a solar energy system, and it would define what counts as an unreasonable restriction. As of July 2026 the bill had been sent to study, which effectively ends its progress for the session.¹²

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 — for example, California Civ. Code § 714, Florida Fla. Stat. § 163.04, Arizona A.R.S. § 33-1816, Colorado C.R.S. § 38-30-168, Nevada, 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 governing documents fully control. Massachusetts belongs in the strong-protection category, because ch. 184, § 23C voids instrument provisions that forbid or unreasonably restrict solar, though its reasonableness standard leaves associations more review discretion than the most detailed statutes, and much of its solar activity remains at the zoning and utility levels. Its distinctive features: condominium-trust governance and a specialized Land Court for real-property disputes. Multi-state operators should treat Massachusetts as a state where flat solar bans are unenforceable but reasonable architectural conditions survive.

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

1. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 184, § 23C (Solar energy systems; installation or use; restrictive provisions) ↩
2. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40A, § 3 (Subjects which zoning may not regulate; solar energy systems) ↩
3. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10 (Corporation, trust or unincorporated association; owner's interest; powers and duties; management) ↩
4. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 187, § 1A (Solar easements) ↩
5. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40A, § 1A (Definitions; "solar energy system") ↩
6. Bowditch & Dewey, "Shining a Light on Rooftop Solar for Massachusetts Condo Owners" (May 16, 2024), discussing Hunter v. Killeen, Land Court Docket No. 23 MISC 000539 (RBF) (Foster, J.), Lawyers Weekly No. 14-028-24 ↩
7. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 18 (Improvements; costs) ↩
8. Massachusetts Land Court, Jurisdiction of the Land Court (Mass.gov); see also Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 185, § 1 ↩
9. Massachusetts Appeals Court, General Information About the Appeals Court (Mass.gov) ↩
10. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (Mass.gov) ↩
11. Chapter 239 of the Acts of 2024, An Act Promoting a Clean Energy Grid, Advancing Equity and Protecting Ratepayers (S. 2967, 193rd General Court) ↩
12. Bill H.3496, An Act Ensuring Solar Energy Access (194th General Court) ↩