New Hampshire HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in New Hampshire

New Hampshire doesn't limit a community association's authority to prohibit or restrict solar energy systems through a solar-access statute; no provision in the New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated voids declaration-based solar restrictions. The state's solar skyspace easement provisions, RSA 477:49 through 477:51, create a voluntary, recordable easement for access to sunlight between consenting landowners and don't override an association's architectural authority.^1,2,3 Those easement provisions are frequently mischaracterized by solar vendors as a "solar rights law," but the statutory text runs as a conveyancing tool, not a limit on association power.⁴ The utility-side rules that govern net metering and distributed generation, administered by the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, address the customer-utility billing relationship and don't constrain association authority over installations.⁵ Condominiums answer to the New Hampshire Condominium Act, RSA Chapter 356-B, while planned-community homeowners' associations have no dedicated statute and answer to their recorded declarations, the New Hampshire Voluntary Corporations and Associations Act, RSA Chapter 292, and common law.^6,7 Nationally, this places New Hampshire in the solar-easement-only category, not the strong-protection category. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational limits on association authority, recent legislative and judicial activity, and New Hampshire's national position.

Section 2: The statutory framework

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

New Hampshire has no solar-access statute that voids or limits declaration-based solar restrictions. A review of RSA Chapter 477, covering conveyances, and the wider Code confirms that the only solar-specific real-property provisions are the voluntary solar skyspace easement provisions at RSA 477:49 through 477:51.^1,2,3,4 There is no counterpart to a restriction-override statute of the kind found in California, Florida, or Texas. The consequence runs direct: an association's authority over a solar installation is set by the recorded declaration, the applicable statute — the Condominium Act for condominiums — and general common-law doctrines, not by any solar-specific statutory cap on what the association may restrict.^6,8 Some solar-industry sources assert that RSA 477:49 is a 2013 "solar rights" law that bars associations from prohibiting solar. That characterization is incorrect. RSA 477:49 is the definitions section of the solar skyspace easement subdivision, enacted in 1985, and it defines terms such as "solar energy," "solar energy collector," and "solar skyspace easement." It doesn't address association authority.¹ The utility-side boundary deserves a plain statement: net metering and distributed-generation policy under RSA 362-A and the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission govern how a customer-generator interconnects and gets credited for exported energy. They aren't a source of authority over, or a limit on, a community association's architectural decisions.⁵

2B. The solar skyspace easement provisions and the governing framework

The solar skyspace easement provisions allow a property owner to acquire, by voluntary written agreement recorded in the same manner as any other conveyance, a negative easement that restricts a neighboring parcel's future use so that structures or vegetation don't shade a solar collector.^2,3 The easement runs with the land, must contain the angles or times of day during which obstruction is limited, and cannot terminate within ten years of creation absent an express earlier termination or a court decree.² The instrument gets created between the benefited and burdened landowners; no planning board may compel a landowner to grant one.² These provisions don't give a unit owner any right to install solar over an association's objection, and they don't void a declaration's solar restrictions. They work as a tool for protecting sunlight access against neighboring obstruction, not a solar-access mandate against an association. On the governing framework, condominiums fall under the New Hampshire Condominium Act, RSA Chapter 356-B, which covers creation, declaration contents, the unit owners' association, meetings, budgets, assessments, liens, insurance, and resale disclosure.⁶ Planned-community homeowners' associations have no comprehensive statute. They typically organize as nonprofits under the New Hampshire Voluntary Corporations and Associations Act, RSA Chapter 292, and their powers and obligations flow from the recorded declaration and bylaws, supplemented by the narrow guardrails of RSA 292:8-m — a two-thirds vote requirement where one person acquires more than 50 percent of votes after declarant control ends, and a planning-board hearing before dissolution.^7,9 New Hampshire is not a full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act state, and UCIOA features shouldn't be imported into either regime.

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

Because New Hampshire 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 restriction-override statute, if one existed, would control over conflicting declaration provisions; because none exists, the declaration controls, subject to the applicable statute and general doctrines such as the requirement that restrictive covenants be enforced according to the parties' intent and that association action be reasonable and within granted authority.^6,8 In a condominium, RSA 356-B:30 allows a unit owner to make improvements within a unit except to the extent prohibited by the condominium instruments and subject to any restrictions specified in them, and every unit owner must comply with the condominium instruments under RSA 356-B:15.⁸ A rooftop is ordinarily a common area or limited common area rather than part of the unit, so a rooftop solar array typically requires board or association approval under the declaration and bylaws. In a planned-community HOA, architectural review derives entirely from the recorded declaration and any architectural guidelines adopted under it, because no statute supplies a default standard.⁷ In both settings, the association's power to review and to condition or deny a solar application rests on its governing documents, not on a solar-specific statute.

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

A. Approval and architectural review

A solar installation is subject to whatever architectural-review process the governing documents establish; in a condominium, alterations affecting common areas or the exterior require association approval under the declaration and bylaws, consistent with RSA 356-B:30 and the compliance duty in RSA 356-B:15.⁸ In a planned-community HOA, review authority comes solely from the recorded declaration, as no statute imposes a default architectural standard.⁷

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

Because New Hampshire has no restriction-override statute, there is no statutory cap on what an association may restrict and no statutory list of prohibited conduct; the declaration's terms and general common-law doctrines set the limits, and a validly recorded prohibition on solar can be enforceable.^4,6 An association's restriction remains subject to the general requirement that it be within the authority granted by the governing documents and applied reasonably.⁸

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules typically appear in the declaration, bylaws, or architectural guidelines; amendments get adopted by the vote specified in those documents, and in a condominium the instruments and any registered rules control.^6,8 For condominiums, RSA 356-B:58 gives a resale purchaser the right to obtain the declaration, bylaws, rules, budget, financials, and related items from the association before contracting, which stands as the disclosure vehicle through which a buyer would learn of any solar restriction; there is no comparable statutory resale-disclosure mandate for planned-community HOAs.¹⁰

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

A covenant or architectural dispute, including one involving solar, proceeds at the trial level in the New Hampshire Superior Court, the court of general jurisdiction for civil matters exceeding the Circuit Court's limits.¹¹ New Hampshire has no intermediate appellate court, so an appeal goes directly to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the state's only appellate court.¹² No solar-specific statutory remedy or fee-shifting provision applies to association solar disputes; remedies derive from the governing documents and general law, and for condominiums from the enforcement provisions of RSA Chapter 356-B.⁶

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted or introduced in the New Hampshire General Court's 2025 or 2026 sessions creates or amends a provision affecting a community association's authority over solar energy systems. The 2026 session's solar measure, SB 540, runs as a utility-side bill: it defines "portable solar generation device" and caps devices at a maximum of one 1,200-watt AC inverter output system per metered customer under RSA 362-A:10, exempts such devices from utility interconnection requirements and from the net-metering provisions of RSA 362-A:9, and Governor Kelly Ayotte signed it on May 28, 2026 as Chapter 89, effective July 27, 2026, making New Hampshire the seventh state to legalize plug-in solar. It doesn't address association architectural authority and gets noted here only to distinguish it.¹³

B. Recent appellate rulings

No New Hampshire Supreme Court opinion in the past 36 months addresses a community association's architectural or covenant authority as applied to a solar energy system. The one recent solar decision, Mojalaki Holdings, LLC v. City of Franklin, 2024 N.H. 17, decided April 9, 2024, Docket No. 2022-0122, on appeal from Merrimack County Superior Court No. 217-2021-CV-351, involved a proposed ground-mounted array on roughly 6.5 of about 96 acres of a former golf course; the New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed a planning board's denial and granted a builder's remedy, holding the board could not deny the site plan solely in reliance on the purpose provisions of its site plan regulations. It concerns municipal land-use review, not association authority over residential rooftop solar, and doesn't bear on HOA solar authority.¹²

C. Active legislative debates

There is no active proposal in the New Hampshire General Court to enact or amend solar protection for community associations. Two earlier attempts to create an HOA and condominium solar-access override both failed: HB 1535 (2020) died after being introduced and laid on the table in the Senate on June 16, 2020, and HB 1380 (2022), which would have added RSA 477:22-b to void covenants that prohibit or unreasonably limit a solar photovoltaic system, was killed on a 200-131 "inexpedient to legislate" vote on March 15, 2022. No successor bill has been introduced since.^14,15

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 between owners but don't override associations; and no-protection states, where the declaration fully controls. New Hampshire sits in the solar-easement-only category. Its RSA 477:49 through 477:51 easement provisions enable voluntary sunlight-access agreements but don't limit association authority, and a solar-easement statute alone doesn't qualify a state for the strong-protection category.^1,2,3 For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is that a New Hampshire association may enforce a validly recorded solar restriction that would be unenforceable in a strong-protection state, so governing-document review controls the analysis. Legislative momentum stays low, with the last override attempt failing in 2022 and no successor pending.^14,15

HOA Weekly's New Hampshire Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the New Hampshire Supreme Court act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule extends to rooftop solar, so New Hampshire's state law controls here.

Footnotes

1. RSA 477:49, Definitions (Solar Skyspace Easements) ↩
2. RSA 477:50, Creation of a Solar Skyspace Easement ↩
3. RSA 477:51, Statutory Form of Solar Skyspace Easement ↩
4. RSA Chapter 477, Conveyances of Realty and Interests Therein (full chapter text) ↩
5. New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, Group Net Metering (RSA 362-A:9) ↩
6. RSA Chapter 356-B, New Hampshire Condominium Act ↩
7. RSA Chapter 292, Voluntary Corporations and Associations ↩
8. RSA 356-B:30 (Alterations Within Units) and RSA 356-B:15 (Compliance With Condominium Instruments) ↩
9. RSA 292:8-m, Homeowners' Associations ↩
10. RSA 356-B:58, Resale by Purchaser ↩
11. New Hampshire Judicial Branch, Superior Court ↩
12. New Hampshire Judicial Branch, Supreme Court ↩
13. NHPR, New Hampshire plug-in solar law (SB 540, signed May 28, 2026) ↩
14. HB 1535 (2020), Relative to installation of solar photovoltaic energy systems by owners subject to deed restrictions ↩
15. HB 1380 (2022), Relative to installation of solar photovoltaic energy systems by owners subject to deed restrictions ↩