Nevada HOA Fence & Exterior

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

In Nevada, the rules that govern fences, walls, paint, siding, roofing, trim, exterior structures, and how landscaping looks flow from one place: the recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions — the CC&Rs — and the design guidelines an association adopts under it. Those documents operate against the Nevada Common-Interest Ownership Act, which hands owners one of the deepest sets of rights-overrides in the country.¹ The declaration and its architectural standards still run the day-to-day decisions, but they cannot push past the floors and ceilings the statute sets.

Nevada sorts authority by the type of community. Common-interest communities — condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives — answer to NRS Chapter 116, Nevada's version of the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act.¹ Some older condominiums, the ones created before the modern act, can also fall under NRS Chapter 117, the earlier Condominium Act, which still supplies rules for those projects.² And when a community uses a manager, that manager must hold a license under NRS Chapter 116A.³

The override stack narrows what an association can forbid. Owners hold statutory rights to fly the U.S. and Nevada flags, post political signs, display religious or cultural items, put in drought-tolerant landscaping, store waste and recycling containers, and install distributed-generation — solar — systems, each one carrying its own conditions, under NRS 116.320 through 116.345.¹ NRS Chapter 116 does not set a single, across-the-board deadline that turns every architectural application into an automatic approval; the governing documents set those timelines, subject to the statute's non-unreasonable-denial standards for protected categories, with one exception for solar requests.⁴ Nevada also stands out for how it supervises all of this: a state Ombudsman, the Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels,⁵ and mandatory manager licensing.⁶ The sections that follow lay out the legal framework, the compliance duties, 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

Architectural and exterior authority starts with the recorded declaration — the CC&Rs — and the design guidelines, architectural standards, and board rules adopted under it. The CC&Rs are recorded against the property, they bind whoever owns the lot next, and they usually set up an architectural review committee, spell out how to submit a request, and lay down standards for fences, walls, paint, roofing, and landscaping.¹ But an association's power to make rules has limits. The Nevada Supreme Court has held that an association holds no inherent power to impose design-control restrictions on individually owned property; its governing documents must expressly grant that power, and even then the restrictions have to be reasonable.⁷

Classification decides which statute controls. Common-interest communities — again, condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives — fall under NRS Chapter 116, Nevada's enactment of the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act.¹ Nevada adopted UCIOA, and NRS 116.1104 says the chapter's provisions generally cannot be varied by agreement, waived, or evaded — that is exactly what gives the override stack its teeth.¹ Certain older condominiums can still trigger NRS Chapter 117, the pre-1991 Condominium Act, which handles conveyance, partition, declarations of restrictions, and assessment liens for those projects; where it applies, owners amend the older condominium instruments to conform to Chapter 117.² Anyone who manages these communities must carry a certificate issued under NRS Chapter 116A, and reserve study specialists fall under their own separate regulation.³

Precedence runs in a clear order: the mandatory NRS Chapter 116 provisions come first — the override stack and the reasonableness and uniform-enforcement standards in NRS 116.31065 — then the recorded declaration, then the design guidelines, then the board rules adopted under them.⁸ A design guideline or board rule that collides with a mandatory statutory provision cannot be enforced to the extent of the conflict, and a rule the association fails to enforce uniformly can lose its force altogether.⁸

2B. State-law limits on association exterior authority

The NRS Chapter 116 override stack caps or conditions what an association can do with specific exterior features. Each provision reaches common-interest communities across the board, and each one protects the slice of the community an owner has the right to occupy and use exclusively — usually the yard, the patio, or the door.

Flags (NRS 116.320). An association and its governing documents cannot stop an owner from flying the flag of the United States or of the State of Nevada within the owner's exclusive-use area. This is a Nevada statutory right that covers both flags, and it sits on top of the federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, which covers the U.S. flag. The association may set reasonable time, place, and manner rules, and whoever prevails in an enforcement action recovers attorney's fees and costs. The right stops short of flag depictions made from paint, roofing, siding, or landscaping. This provision caps association authority.⁹

Religious or cultural items (NRS 116.323). An association cannot stop an owner from displaying religious or cultural items in the owner's exclusive-use area — most often on an entry door or doorframe — subject to reasonable size and safety conditions. The 2025 Legislature added this provision, and it caps association authority.¹⁰

Political signs (NRS 116.325). An association cannot stop an owner or occupant from exhibiting political signs in the exclusive-use area, subject to conditions. NRS 116.325(1)(a) states that "All political signs exhibited must not be larger than 24 inches by 36 inches," and the statute further ties the right to tenant consent where the unit is leased and to applicable sign law. This provision conditions association authority.¹¹

Drought-tolerant landscaping (NRS 116.330). Neither the executive board nor the governing documents can stop an owner from installing or maintaining drought-tolerant landscaping within the owner's exclusive-use area, front yard or back yard, with two conditions: (a) before installing, the owner must submit a detailed description or plans for architectural review and approval under whatever procedures the governing documents lay out, and (b) the landscaping must be chosen or designed, to the maximum extent practicable, to fit the style of the community. Courts read this subsection liberally in favor of drought-tolerant landscaping, and the board and the governing documents cannot unreasonably deny or withhold approval or unreasonably call the design incompatible. Putting such landscaping into a common element does not count as a change of use unless a recorded plat map designates that common element a park, open play space, or golf course, or a governing body requires the existing vegetation under a zoning ordinance or permit. The term takes in mulches such as decorative rock and artificial turf. This provision caps association authority while leaving architectural review over design intact.¹²

Solid-waste and recycling containers (NRS 116.332). An owner has the right to store containers for collecting solid waste or recyclable materials, subject to rules the association may adopt. This provision conditions association authority while still allowing procedural regulation.¹³

Solar / distributed generation (NRS 116.333). Starting October 1, 2025, an owner in an association whose governing documents allow restrictions on architectural improvements may submit a request to install a distributed generation system in the owner's exclusive-use area. An association that has adopted distributed-generation rules under NRS 116.334 must approve or deny the request in writing within 35 days, and a denial has to detail its reasons under those rules; if the association does nothing within 35 days, the request is deemed approved. An association that has not adopted such rules must approve the request within 15 days and cannot deny it or attach conditions. When an owner resubmits and addresses the reasons for a denial, the association must act within 15 days or the request is deemed approved. This provision caps association authority and adds a procedural clock with deemed approval. Separately, NRS 111.239 and NRS 278.0208 void covenants that prohibit or unreasonably restrict solar-energy systems statewide; under NRS 701.180(6), the Director of the Governor's Office of Energy must make a technical determination on an unreasonable-restriction claim within 30 days. (The solar provision in Chapter 116 is NRS 116.333; NRS 116.2111 covers alterations of units generally.)⁴

Planned-community restrictions on property, buildings, and structures (NRS 116.345). An association of a planned community cannot restrict the lawful residential use of adjacent non-designated property; cannot restrict an owner's access to the owner's property unless that right sat in the declaration or a recorded instrument at acquisition; cannot construct or situate a previously undisclosed building or structure that is not on the plat without the written consent of a majority of owners and residents within 500 feet of the proposed location; and cannot interrupt utility service except for nonpayment, and then only after 10 days' notice. Restrictions, covenants, and land-use decisions that existed before October 1, 1999 stay in place. This provision limits specific association actions.¹⁴

General alterations and access (NRS 116.2111). This section governs alterations of units and access to units generally, separate from the solar-access provision.¹⁵

Fences and pool barriers. Nevada has no statewide residential fence statute; local ordinance sets fence permitting and height. Residential pool and spa barrier requirements work as a safety floor under locally adopted building and safety codes. Under the Southern Nevada Amendments to the 2018 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, Section 305.2.1, "The top of residential barrier including gates and doors shall not be less than 60 inches (1524 mm) in height above adjacent grade measured from outside the enclosure," with a maximum 4-inch ground clearance and self-closing, self-latching gates. That 60-inch standard, adopted across Clark County and its cities, runs higher than the 48-inch — 4-foot — minimum nearly every other U.S. jurisdiction uses under the ISPSC and IRC pool provisions. These requirements sit alongside association design standards; they do not replace them.¹⁶

2C. The architectural review process and procedural limits

The governing documents run the architectural review process. NRS 116.330 points directly to those procedures for drought-tolerant landscaping submissions, and NRS 116.333 adds approval-or-denial and resubmission mechanics for distributed-generation systems.¹² NRS Chapter 116 does not set a general statutory deadline, or a general deemed-approval consequence, for acting on ordinary architectural applications like fences, paint, or additions; the declaration and design guidelines set those timelines, subject to the statutory non-unreasonable-denial standards that apply to protected categories.⁴ The one statutory clock that carries deemed approval is the solar provision in NRS 116.333.⁴

For protected categories — drought-tolerant landscaping most of all — the statute bars unreasonable denial and unreasonable incompatibility findings, and courts read it liberally in the owner's favor.¹² More broadly, NRS 116.31065 requires that association rules connect reasonably to their purpose, spell things out clearly enough, stay consistent with the governing documents, and get enforced uniformly.⁸ Design-control restrictions on individually owned property have to be expressly authorized in the governing documents, and they have to be reasonable.⁷

Disputes travel through a state oversight structure. The Office of the Ombudsman for Owners in Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels, housed in the Real Estate Division, helps owners and board members and processes claims into the alternative-dispute-resolution program.⁶ Most claims that turn on interpreting, applying, or enforcing CC&Rs must go to mediation or arbitration under NRS 38.310 before anyone files suit.¹⁷ And before it imposes a fine or orders a removal, the board must give notice and an opportunity to be heard under NRS 116.31031.¹⁸

Section 3: Compliance obligations and operational mechanics

A. Association and design-review obligations

• Maintain design standards and architectural procedures, keep them available, and apply them uniformly; a rule the association does not enforce uniformly may not hold up (NRS 116.31065). STATUTORY.⁸
• Do not prohibit protected flags, political signs, religious or cultural items, drought-tolerant landscaping, waste containers, or distributed-generation systems beyond the statutory conditions (NRS 116.320–116.333). STATUTORY.¹
• Apply the non-unreasonable-denial and compatibility standards to drought-tolerant landscaping submissions (NRS 116.330). STATUTORY.¹²
• Meet the solar approval-or-denial clock — 35 days where distributed-generation rules exist, 15 days where they do not, with deemed approval when the association lets the deadline pass (NRS 116.333). STATUTORY.⁴
• Engage a licensed community manager whenever the community uses one (NRS Chapter 116A). STATUTORY.³
• Observe the Ombudsman and mandatory ADR processes, and give notice and an opportunity to be heard before enforcing (NRS 38.310; NRS 116.31031). STATUTORY.¹⁷
• Apply fences, paint, roofing, and setback standards exactly as the declaration and guidelines write them. CONTRACTUAL, and it varies from community to community.¹

B. Owner obligations and rights

• File an architectural application and win approval before installing a fence or doing exterior work wherever the governing documents require it, then follow the approved plans and the published standards. CONTRACTUAL.¹
• For drought-tolerant landscaping, submit a detailed description or plans for review before installing, and design it to fit the community's style to the extent practicable (NRS 116.330). A statutory condition on a statutory right.¹²
• Exercise the override-stack rights — flags, political signs, religious or cultural items, drought-tolerant landscaping, waste containers, distributed generation — each subject to its statutory conditions. STATUTORY.¹
• When the association acts unreasonably or picks and chooses, raise selective enforcement and the statutory non-unreasonable-denial standards, and use the Ombudsman and ADR avenues (NRS 38.310). STATUTORY.¹⁷

C. Enforcement, remedies, and defenses

• The association's remedies run from fines after notice and a hearing (NRS 116.31031) to injunctive relief, forced removal or restoration, and recovery of enforcement costs or attorney fees where the documents authorize it. A STATUTORY framework, with contractual terms that vary by declaration.¹⁸
• The association may record and enforce an assessment lien under NRS 116.3116 for amounts owed, including certain charges. STATUTORY.¹⁹
• The override stack, the non-unreasonable-denial standards, and the mandatory ADR requirement for most CC&R disputes all limit enforcement (NRS 38.310). STATUTORY.¹⁷
• Owner defenses include selective or non-uniform enforcement, a restriction that reaches past the authority NRS Chapter 116 or the declaration grants, and a conflict with a protected category such as drought-tolerant landscaping (NRS 116.330) or distributed generation (NRS 116.333). STATUTORY and CONTRACTUAL.¹²

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two 2025 bills reshaped how associations handle exterior control in Nevada.

B. Recent appellate rulings

Nevada's appellate courts have kept the focus on procedure — on when a claim must go to ADR first, and on how long an early ruling holds within a case.

The foundational Nevada authority on architectural power is still Moretto v. Elk Point Country Club Homeowners Association, 507 P.3d 199 (Nev. 2022), where the Supreme Court adopted Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes sections 6.7 and 6.9 and held that design-control restrictions on individually owned property must be expressly authorized and reasonable. Trial-level disputes move through the Nevada District Courts; the Nevada Court of Appeals, created in 2014, hears the cases the Supreme Court pushes down to it, and the Supreme Court remains the court of last resort.⁷

C. Active legislative debates

Nevada's Legislature meets in regular session only in odd-numbered years, so the next regular session lands in 2027. No regular-session exterior or architectural bills are pending in 2026, though the Real Estate Division keeps track of the bill draft requests that touch common-interest communities between sessions.⁶

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Nevada belongs to the strong-statutory-override group, alongside California, Colorado, and Illinois, where a long list of statutory owner rights hems in association design review — unlike the moderate states with a few targeted overrides, or the CC&R-primary states such as Mississippi, where the recorded declaration dominates and statutory overrides run thin. What sets Nevada apart is the detailed, liberally construed drought-tolerant landscaping right in NRS 116.330, the state Ombudsman and the Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels, and mandatory community-manager licensing under NRS Chapter 116A.¹² For operators working across several states, the practical point is this: the override stack and the non-unreasonable-denial standards limit what design review can demand or refuse, and anyone managing a Nevada community has to be licensed.³

HOA Weekly's Nevada Fence and Exterior coverage updates each quarter as the Legislature and the Nevada appellate courts act. Federal frameworks apply to Nevada associations no matter what the state framework says — among them the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, the FCC OTARD antenna rule, and the Fair Housing Act and ADA for reasonable accommodations that affect exterior features.

Footnotes

1. Nev. Rev. Stat. ch. 116, Common-Interest Ownership (Uniform Act), Nevada Legislature ↩
2. Nev. Rev. Stat. ch. 117, Condominiums, Nevada Legislature ↩
3. Nev. Admin. Code ch. 116A, Regulation of Community Managers, Nevada Legislature ↩
4. Nev. Rev. Stat. §§ 116.333–.334, Distributed Generation Systems (added by S.B. 440, 2025 Leg., 83d Sess. (Nev. 2025)) ↩
5. Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels, Nevada Real Estate Division ↩
6. Office of the Ombudsman for Owners in Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels, Nevada Real Estate Division ↩
7. Moretto v. Elk Point Country Club Homeowners Ass'n, 507 P.3d 199 (Nev. 2022) ↩
8. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.31065, Rules for Common-Interest Communities, Nevada Legislature ↩
9. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.320, Display of Flag of the United States or of the State of Nevada ↩
10. S.B. 201, 2025 Leg., 83d Sess. (Nev. 2025) (enrolled), Nevada Legislature ↩
11. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.325, Political Signs, Nevada Legislature ↩
12. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.330, Drought-Tolerant Landscaping (2025) ↩
13. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.332, Containers for Solid Waste or Recyclable Materials, Nevada Legislature ↩
14. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.345, Prohibited Actions of Planned-Community Associations, Nevada Legislature ↩
15. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.2111, Alterations of Units; Access to Units, Nevada Legislature ↩
16. Southern Nevada Amendments to the 2018 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code § 305.2.1 ↩
17. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 38.310, Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, Nevada Real Estate Division ↩
18. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.31031, Power of Executive Board to Impose Fines; Procedural Requirements, Nevada Legislature ↩
19. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.3116, Assessment Lien, Nevada Legislature ↩
20. S.B. 440, 2025 Leg., 83d Sess. (Nev. 2025), Nevada Legislature ↩
21. Litchfield v. Tucson Ridge Homeowners Ass'n, 140 Nev. Adv. Op. 57 (2024), Nevada Judiciary ↩