Missouri HOA Solar Rights

Key Findings

• The HOA-restriction rule runs as § 442.404.3, added by SB 820 and codified in Chapter 442, covering titles and conveyance of real estate — a general real-property chapter, not the condominium act.^1,2
• The protection carries a scope qualifier: it applies only to rooftops owned, controlled, and maintained by the individual owner, and by its own definition it doesn't apply to condominium unit owners' associations or residential cooperatives.¹
• Condominiums answer to the Missouri Uniform Condominium Act — § 448.1-101 et seq., created after Sept. 28, 1983 — and the predecessor Condominium Property Act, § 448.005 et seq.; this is the Uniform Condominium Act, not the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act.^3,4,5
• Planned-community HOAs have no comprehensive statute; they answer to CC&Rs, the Missouri Nonprofit Corporation Act, Chapter 355, and common law.⁶
• Missouri has no dedicated HOA regulator and requires no community association manager license.⁷

Details

Section 1: Overview

Missouri stands as a solar-protection state, but the protection runs conditional and doesn't live where a quick search might suggest. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.404.3 provides that no deed restriction, covenant, or similar binding agreement running with the land may limit or prohibit, or have the effect of limiting or prohibiting, the installation of solar panels or solar collectors on a rooftop.¹ The protection isn't absolute. It carries two qualifiers: it permits an association to adopt reasonable placement rules within a defined standard, and it applies only to rooftops owned, controlled, and maintained by the individual owner.¹ By its own definition, the statute excludes condominium unit owners' associations and residential cooperatives.¹ The statute sits in Chapter 442, the general real-property chapter, and reaches planned-community and subdivision homeowners' associations rather than a single community type.² Condominiums answer to the Missouri Uniform Condominium Act and the predecessor Condominium Property Act; planned-community HOAs answer to their recorded CC&Rs, the Missouri Nonprofit Corporation Act, and common law, with § 442.404 overlaying those frameworks.^3,6 Nationally, Missouri belongs in the protection category, with the qualifier that its protection runs conditional rather than absolute.⁸ The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational boundary, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. The core solar statute and its qualifier: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.404.3

The operative provision runs as § 442.404.3, not § 442.012. Section 442.012, enacted in 1979, establishes that the right to use solar energy is a property right and sets out the requirements for creating solar easements. It doesn't void HOA covenants.⁹ The HOA-restriction rule was added by Senate Bill 820, sponsored by then-State Senator Eric Burlison and signed by Governor Mike Parson on June 29, 2022; an amendment by Senator Karla May postponed the effective date to January 1, 2023 to give associations time to comply. It stands codified as § 442.404.3.^1,10

Subdivision (1) provides that no deed restrictions, covenants, or similar binding agreements running with the land shall limit or prohibit, or have the effect of limiting or prohibiting, the installation of solar panels or solar collectors on the rooftop of any property or structure.¹ Subdivision (2) sets the qualifier: a homeowners' association "may adopt reasonable rules, subject to any applicable statutes or ordinances, regarding the placement of solar panels or solar collectors to the extent that those rules do not prevent the installation of the device, impair the functioning of the device, restrict the use of the device, or adversely affect the cost or efficiency of the device."¹ Subdivision (3) narrows scope: the protection applies only with regard to rooftops that are owned, controlled, and maintained by the owner of the individual property or structure.¹

The qualifier is best understood as a reasonable-restriction standard combined with a scope limitation, not a membership-vote exception or a grandfathering clause. The statute contains no provision allowing an association to opt out by membership vote, and it doesn't grandfather covenants recorded before its effective date.¹ It does, however, exclude two community types by definition: § 442.404.1 defines "homeowners' association" to exclude a condominium unit owners' association, as defined in § 448.1-103, and a residential cooperative.¹ The statute sits in Chapter 442, covering titles and conveyance of real estate, and applies across planned communities and residential subdivisions, not to one narrow community type.²

2B. The governing framework: the Missouri Uniform Condominium Act and CC&R-primary HOAs

Missouri has no comprehensive statute governing planned-community homeowners' associations.⁶ Condominiums answer to two acts within Chapter 448. The Missouri Uniform Condominium Act, § 448.1-101 et seq., stands as Missouri's adoption of the Uniform Condominium Act and governs condominiums created after September 28, 1983.^3,11 The predecessor Condominium Property Act, § 448.005 et seq., governs condominiums created before that date, though certain Uniform Condominium Act provisions also apply to older condominiums for events occurring after September 28, 1983.^4,5 This is the Uniform Condominium Act, not the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act; Missouri hasn't adopted UCIOA.³

Planned-community HOAs answer to no condominium act. They answer to their recorded declarations and CC&Rs, to the Missouri Nonprofit Corporation Act, Chapter 355 — most associations organize as nonprofit corporations, and § 355.025 expressly lists a "homeowner and community improvement association" as a permitted purpose — and to common law.^6,12 Where the governing documents stay silent on a right, there is often no statutory backstop.

Section 442.404.3 overlays these frameworks for the community types it covers. For a planned-community HOA, it voids any conflicting covenant or rule prohibiting rooftop solar within its scope while leaving the rest of the governing documents intact.¹ Because the statute defines "homeowners' association" to exclude condominium unit owners' associations and residential cooperatives, it doesn't overlay the condominium acts in the same way; condominium solar questions turn on the declaration and the condominium act, particularly because condominium roofs typically count as common elements rather than owner-controlled space.¹

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

Within the statute's scope, an association may not prohibit rooftop solar, and it may not achieve a prohibition indirectly through placement rules that prevent installation, impair functioning, restrict use, or adversely affect cost or efficiency.¹ What an association may do is adopt reasonable placement and aesthetic rules that stay within that standard, and it may require an application and architectural review as long as the review doesn't become an effective prohibition.¹

The order of precedence runs straightforward. Within its scope, § 442.404.3 overrides conflicting covenants and rules as a matter of public policy, a reading the Supreme Court of Missouri confirmed in Eikmeier.¹³ Outside its scope — ground-mounted systems, common or association-owned roofs, condominium associations, and cooperatives — the governing documents control.¹ Architectural review boards retain a residual role for solar within the statutory limits and full authority over installations the statute doesn't reach.

Missouri's net metering rules stand as a separate matter. The Net Metering and Easy Connection Act, § 386.890, and the oversight of the Missouri Public Service Commission govern how a utility compensates a customer for exported electricity. That runs as utility-customer policy and has no bearing on an association's authority over an installation.¹⁴

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

A. What an association cannot do

An association may not prohibit or restrict the installation of solar panels or solar collectors on a covered rooftop, and it may not enforce a covenant that has the effect of prohibiting installation, under § 442.404.3(1).¹ It may not adopt placement rules that prevent installation, impair functioning, restrict use, or adversely affect cost or efficiency, under § 442.404.3(2).¹ These limits stay mandatory and override conflicting governing documents within the statute's scope.¹³

B. What an association may do

An association may adopt reasonable rules regarding the placement of solar devices, subject to applicable statutes and ordinances, provided the rules stay within the four-part standard in § 442.404.3(2).¹ It may require a written application and architectural review, and it may set reasonable aesthetic and placement conditions, as long as none of these functions as an effective prohibition. This authority runs permissive, and it exists only for the rooftops the statute covers.¹

C. The qualifier analysis and approval process

Whether the statute applies at all can decide the outcome, so the threshold question turns on scope: is the roof owned, controlled, and maintained by the owner, and is the community a homeowners' association rather than a condominium association or cooperative under § 442.404.1.¹ If the statute applies, the association reviews a placement request against the four-part standard; if a proposed condition would reduce output or raise cost, it isn't enforceable, as the Supreme Court held in Eikmeier.¹³ Section 442.404 sets no statutory approval deadline, so any decision timeline or deemed-approval rule comes from the governing documents.¹

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

A covenant or rule that unlawfully prohibits solar within the statute's scope stands void and unenforceable.¹³ An owner enforces the right in the Missouri Circuit Court, typically through an action for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief, as homeowners Colleen Eikmeier and William S. Love did in Greene County.¹³ Appeals go to the appropriate district of the Missouri Court of Appeals — Eastern in St. Louis, Western in Kansas City, or Southern in Springfield — and then, by discretionary review, to the Supreme Court of Missouri.¹⁵ Section 442.404 contains no attorney-fee or statutory-penalty provision for solar violations, so fee recovery depends on the governing documents or other law.¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent legislation

No bill enacted in the past 24 months amended the solar provisions of § 442.404. The most recent enacted amendment to the section came through House Bill 2062 (2024), which added subsection 5 addressing the ownership and pasturing of chickens and didn't change the solar rule.¹⁶

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal to amend or narrow the solar rule in § 442.404.3 turned up for the current session. Recent legislative solar activity has centered on utility-side community-solar pilot proposals, which fall outside association authority.²⁰

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 NRS 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.⁸ Missouri belongs in the protection category through § 442.404.3, but the scope limitation — owner-controlled rooftops only — and the exclusion of condominium associations and cooperatives make its protection conditional rather than absolute.¹ For multi-state operators, Missouri should be treated as a protection state where the threshold scope question decides many disputes, and the analysis differs sharply between planned communities and condominiums. Legislative momentum on the HOA solar rule itself runs low; the significant recent movement came from the courts, not the legislature.¹³

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

Recommendations

• Immediate, for planned communities. Audit governing documents for any covenant or rule that bans or limits rooftop solar. After Eikmeier, such provisions are unenforceable regardless of recording date, so enforcing them invites litigation the association will lose.
• Near-term, on rule revision. Replace rear-roof-only, street-visibility, or similar placement rules with rules that satisfy the four-part standard: no prevention of installation, no impairment of functioning, no restriction of use, no adverse effect on cost or efficiency. If a homeowner's installer documents a cost increase or output reduction from a proposed condition, drop the condition.
• Process. Because § 442.404 sets no decision deadline, adopt a written solar application and review timeline in the governing documents so approvals stay predictable and defensible.
• Segment by community type. Treat condominiums and cooperatives separately; the statute excludes them, so solar there turns on the declaration and the condominium act, and roofs usually count as common elements.
• Boundary discipline. Keep net-metering and Public Service Commission questions out of the association-authority analysis; they run as utility-side matters.
• Threshold that changes the analysis. If a legislative amendment narrows or expands § 442.404.3, or if a Court of Appeals district splits from Eikmeier on a related question, revisit these steps at the next quarterly update.

Caveats

• The § 442.404.3 text and the Eikmeier holding are verified against primary sources — the Missouri Revisor of Statutes and the official slip opinion. Several secondary sources mis-cite the statute as § 442.012; that section is the 1979 solar-property-right and easement provision, not the HOA-restriction rule.
• The Eikmeier docket number is SC101152, as shown on the face of the official opinion and confirmed by the Missouri Bar and the Westlaw citation (2026 WL 202043); at least one legal database indexes it incorrectly as SC101161.
• The chicken provision of HB 2062 faces an unresolved constitutional challenge on single-subject grounds, but that litigation doesn't affect the solar rule.
• This page addresses association authority only; it doesn't cover permitting, utility interconnection, or the federal solar tax credit, none of which bear on association authority.

Footnotes

1. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.404 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes), effective Aug. 28, 2024, including subsection 3 (solar) and the subsection 1 definition of "homeowners' association" excluding condominium unit owners' associations and residential cooperatives. ↩
2. Mo. Rev. Stat. Chapter 442, Titles and Conveyance of Real Estate (Missouri Revisor of Statutes). ↩
3. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 448.1-101 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) (short title: "Uniform Condominium Act"). ↩
4. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 448.005 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) (short title: "Condominium Property Act"). ↩
5. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 448.1-102 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) (applicability; September 28, 1983 dividing line). ↩
6. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 355.001 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) (Missouri Nonprofit Corporation Act). ↩
7. Missouri Real Estate Commission (Missouri Division of Professional Registration) (real estate licensing; Missouri has no separate community association manager license). ↩
8. "'Solar Rights' Laws in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York," Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research (2021-R-0185). ↩
9. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.012 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) (solar energy as a property right; solar easement requirements; effective Aug. 28, 1979). ↩
10. "Sen. Eric Burlison's Bill Addressing HOA Solar Panel Restrictions Passes Missouri Senate," Missouri Senate (2022) (SB 820). ↩
11. "The Uniform Condominium Act in Missouri," Missouri Law Review, Vol. 49, Iss. 3 (1984) (Missouri's adoption of the Uniform Condominium Act). ↩
12. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 355.025 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) (permitted nonprofit purposes, including "homeowner and community improvement association"). ↩
13. Eikmeier v. Granite Springs Home Owners Ass'n, Inc., No. SC101152 (Mo. banc Jan. 23, 2026) (slip opinion, Ransom, J.). ↩
14. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 386.890 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) (Net Metering and Easy Connection Act; Public Service Commission oversight). ↩
15. "Missouri Court of Appeals," Missouri Courts (Eastern, Western, and Southern Districts; discretionary transfer to the Supreme Court of Missouri). ↩
16. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.404, revision history (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) (L. 2018 H.B. 1887, A.L. 2022 H.B. 1662 merged with S.B. 745 merged with S.B. 820, A.L. 2024 H.B. 2062). ↩
17. "Associations Regain Choice on Chickens After Statute Ruled Unconstitutional," Sandberg Phoenix (2024–2026) (single-subject challenge to HB 2062). ↩
18. "Missouri Supreme Court rules homeowners associations cannot block solar panels," Sunhub News (Jan. 2026) (record evidence: ~24% production reduction and nearly $17,000 in added cost on the non-street-facing layout). ↩
19. "Missouri Supreme Court rules against HOA on solar panel law," Missouri Lawyers Media (Jan. 29, 2026) (Greene County Circuit Judge Daniel R. Wichmer; Southern District affirmance; en banc reversal). ↩
20. SB 1347 (Missouri Senate) (community solar pilot program; utility-side, not association authority). ↩