Montana HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in Montana

Montana doesn't limit a community association's ability to prohibit or restrict a homeowner's solar energy system. A search of the Montana Code Annotated, including Title 70 (Property) and the enactments of the 2025 regular legislative session, identifies no solar-access statute or restriction-override that voids declaration-based solar prohibitions.¹ Montana has a voluntary solar easement statute that allows adjoining owners to record an easement for sunlight exposure by agreement, but that statute doesn't override an association's authority and doesn't give a unit owner a right to install solar over the association's objection.² Montana also regulates net metering on the utility side through the Montana Public Service Commission, which governs the utility-customer relationship and stays separate from association governance.³ Condominiums answer to the Montana Unit Ownership Act, while planned-community HOAs answer primarily to their recorded CC&Rs and the Montana Nonprofit Corporation Act, because Montana has no comprehensive planned-community statute.⁴ On the three-part national map of solar-rights regimes, Montana counts as a solar-easement-only state, not a strong-protection state. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational limits on association authority, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. Solar-access provision (or its absence)

Montana has no solar-access provision. Neither Title 70 nor any other title of the Montana Code Annotated contains a statute that prohibits a homeowners' association or condominium association from restricting or banning solar energy systems, and the 2025 regular session, the 69th Legislature, enacted none.¹ This places Montana apart from strong-protection states whose statutes void or cap association solar restrictions. The consequence runs direct: an association's authority over solar is set by the recorded declaration, the governing documents, and the applicable statutes — the Unit Ownership Act for condominiums, the Nonprofit Corporation Act for most HOAs — not by any solar-specific override.⁴ A general covenant statute, Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-901, provides that a homeowners' association "may not enter into, amend, or enforce a covenant, condition, or restriction in such a way that imposes more onerous restrictions on the types of use of a member's real property than those restrictions that existed when the member acquired the member's interest in the real property, unless the member who owns the affected real property expressly agrees in writing," but it addresses "types of use" and doesn't mention solar; it isn't a solar-access override.⁵ The utility-side boundary deserves attention: Montana's net-metering statutes at Title 69, chapter 8, part 6, and the Public Service Commission govern the interconnection and billing relationship between a customer-generator and a regulated utility, not the association's architectural authority.³

2B. The solar easement statute and the governing framework

Montana's solar easement statute runs enabling, not restrictive. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-301 provides that "[a]n easement obtained for the purpose of exposure of a solar energy device must be created in writing and is subject to the same conveyancing and instrument recording requirements as other easements on real property."⁶ Section 70-17-302 requires that the instrument specify the vertical and horizontal angles, in degrees, at which the easement extends over the burdened parcel, and any terms or conditions of the grant or its termination.² A solar easement works as a voluntary agreement between consenting owners that protects an installed system's access to sunlight against future obstruction by a neighboring parcel. It doesn't compel any owner to grant it, and it gives a unit owner no right to install solar over an association's objection. It is not a solar-access statute.

The governing framework divides by community type. Condominiums answer to the Montana Unit Ownership Act, Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-101 et seq., which applies only to properties whose owners have elected coverage by recording a declaration.⁷ Planned-community HOAs answer primarily to their recorded CC&Rs, the Montana Nonprofit Corporation Act — Title 35, chapter 2, under which most Montana associations incorporate — and common law, because Montana hasn't enacted a comprehensive planned-community statute.⁴ Montana is not a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act state, so UCIOA features shouldn't be imported into the analysis.⁴

2C. The role of CC&Rs and architectural review

Because Montana has no restriction-override, the recorded declaration and its architectural-review provisions stand as the operative rules for solar. The order of precedence runs straightforward: a solar restriction-override statute, if one existed, would control over conflicting CC&R provisions, but absent one, the declaration controls, subject to the applicable statutes and to general contract and property doctrines. Montana courts construe restrictive covenants strictly, limiting restrictions to what the recorded language plainly states and resolving genuine ambiguity in favor of the free use of property.⁸ That doctrine cuts both ways for solar: where a declaration contains no clear solar or architectural restriction, an association has limited footing to bar an installation, but where the declaration clearly authorizes architectural review or prohibits certain exterior modifications, that language stays enforceable. The residual role of architectural review differs by community type. In a condominium, the association's authority reaches the building envelope, roofs, and exterior walls, which typically count as common elements under the Unit Ownership Act and the declaration, so a rooftop installation usually requires association consent.⁷ In a planned community, the owner generally holds the roof and lot in fee, and architectural review reaches the installation only to the extent the recorded declaration and any architectural committee provisions grant that authority.⁴

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

A. Approval and architectural review

A solar installation gets treated as an exterior modification subject to whatever architectural-review authority the governing documents grant; the basis runs through the declaration — and, for condominiums, the Unit Ownership Act and common-element provisions — not any solar statute, and review is mandatory only where the documents require it.⁷ Where a declaration establishes no architectural committee or review process, an association has limited authority to require pre-approval.⁸

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

Montana has no statutory cap on solar restrictions and no list of prohibited or permitted "reasonable" restrictions, because it has no solar-access statute; the limits on an association are set by the declaration's terms and by general doctrines of strict covenant construction, reasonableness, and good-faith enforcement.⁸ A separate general limit applies: under Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-901, an association may not enforce a covenant that imposes more onerous use restrictions than existed when the owner acquired the property without the owner's written consent, though this provision addresses types of use rather than solar specifically.⁵

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules, where they exist, appear in the recorded declaration or in architectural guidelines adopted under it; amendments follow the amendment procedure in the declaration and bylaws — commonly a supermajority owner vote — and must be recorded with the county clerk and recorder to bind successors.⁴ Montana imposes no solar-specific resale or disclosure obligation on associations; recorded CC&Rs stand as public records available through the county clerk and recorder.⁴

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

Solar disputes get litigated in the Montana District Courts, the trial courts of general jurisdiction; a party dissatisfied with the judgment appeals directly to the Montana Supreme Court, because Montana has no intermediate appellate court and the Supreme Court must hear appeals of right.⁹ Montana has no solar-specific statutory remedy or fee-shifting provision; attorney fees and other remedies turn on the governing documents and generally applicable law. Montana courts enforce prevailing-party fee clauses as written, as in Clover Meadows v. Spear, where the Supreme Court upheld a fee award grounded in a covenant providing that "reasonable attorneys' fees shall be assessed against" an owner against whom an action for a covenant violation is successfully brought.⁸

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Montana enacted no bill in the past 24 months that creates or amends a provision governing an HOA's or condominium association's authority over a homeowner's solar energy system. The 2025 regular session, the only regular session in the window because Montana's Legislature meets in regular session in odd-numbered years, produced no HOA-solar bill.¹

Two adjacent 2025 enactments shouldn't be mistaken for solar-access legislation. House Bill 760, introduced by Reps. George Nikolakakos and Emma Kerr-Carpenter, established solar consumer-protection rules codified as an integral part of Title 30, chapter 14, covering consumer protection, and doesn't address association authority.

A second bill, House Bill 761, "AN ACT GENERALLY REVISING RESIDENTIAL COVENANT LAWS TO PROTECT REAL PROPERTY RIGHTS; PREVENTING ANY PERSON FROM IMPOSING MORE ONEROUS RESTRICTIONS ON A PROPERTY OWNER THAN THOSE RESTRICTIONS THAT EXISTED WHEN THE PROPERTY OWNER ACQUIRED THE REAL PROPERTY; AMENDING SECTION 70-17-901, MCA," extended the general residential-covenant limit to any person enforcing a covenant. It runs HOA-related but contains no solar-specific text and creates no solar override.⁵

B. Recent appellate rulings

The Montana Supreme Court issued no decision in the past 36 months addressing association architectural authority as applied to solar. No published or memorandum opinion in the window turns on an association's power over a solar energy system.¹¹ The closest recent authority is the Court's treatment of association architectural and covenant disputes generally.

C. Active legislative debates

No bill to enact solar protection for Montana HOAs is pending. Renewable-energy legislative attention has centered on utility-side measures such as Senate Bill 188, the Montana Solar Shares Act, a community-solar and net-metering bill vetoed June 13, 2025, which doesn't concern association authority.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 — 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 between consenting owners but don't override associations; and no-protection states, where the declaration fully controls. Montana sits in the easement-only category. Its solar easement statute enables recorded sunlight easements but does nothing to constrain an association, and a solar easement statute alone never places a state in the strong-protection group.⁶ For a multi-state operator, the practical implication runs clear: a Montana community's solar policy is governed by the recorded declaration and general Montana law, so the governing documents, not a state solar mandate, stand as the first and controlling reference. Legislative momentum toward HOA solar protection in Montana stays absent; recent solar activity has run utility-side and, in the case of community solar, ended in a veto.¹²

HOA Weekly updates this Montana Solar Rights page quarterly as the Legislature and the Montana Supreme Court act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule, which covers antennas and satellite dishes, extends to rooftop solar, so Montana state law controls here.¹³

Footnotes

1. Montana Code Annotated, Title 70 (Property), Table of Contents (no solar-access/restriction-override provision) ↩
2. Mont. Code Ann. Title 70, ch. 17, pt. 3, Solar Easements (§§ 70-17-301, 70-17-302) ↩
3. Mont. Code Ann. § 69-8-601 (net metering; legislative findings), Title 69, ch. 8, pt. 6 ↩
4. Montana Legislature, Local Government Interim Committee, "HOA Governance in Montana" (Jan. 24, 2024) ↩
5. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-901 (Homeowners' association restrictions -- real property rights); Montana HB 761 (2025) amending § 70-17-901 ↩
6. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-301 (Creation of solar easements) ↩
7. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-101 et seq. (Unit Ownership Act -- Condominiums) ↩
8. Clover Meadows Homeowners Ass'n v. Spear, 2024 MT 102N (strict construction of restrictive covenants; attorney-fee award) ↩
9. Montana Judicial Branch, About Us (no intermediate appellate court; Supreme Court hears direct appeals) ↩
10. Montana HB 760 (2025), Solar Consumer Protection Laws (signed May 13, 2025; codified in Title 30, ch. 14) ↩
11. Montana Supreme Court Decisions (no solar architectural-authority ruling in window); Clover Meadows v. Spear, 2024 MT 102N ↩
12. Daily Montanan, "Governor vetoes community solar bill" (June 18, 2025) (SB 188, Solar Shares Act, vetoed June 13, 2025) ↩
13. FCC OTARD rule context (Over-the-Air Reception Devices; antennas and satellite dishes) ↩