What associations keep

Not nothing, and boards reading only the headline will misjudge this. The same subsection provides that such entities "may establish reasonable restrictions concerning the size, placement, or manner of placement."

Nobody has defined "reasonable" in this context, and no New Jersey court has construed it. The existing solar-rights framework in PREDFDA uses similar language for rooftop collectors, which gives boards an analogy but not an answer. The live question for 2027 is how far a placement restriction can go before it functions as the prohibition the statute voids.

The notice duty runs to tenants, not owners

This asymmetry is easy to flatten and worth stating precisely. The act requires a tenant to give written notice at least 14 days before placement or use, to the landlord and to the association, including documentation that the device qualifies and the proposed location. The landlord may respond with reasonable restrictions.

The text does not impose the same express 14-day notice duty on an owner-occupant unit owner. A board writing a rule for March 2027 should not assume it can demand owner notice on the statute's authority; if it wants one, it needs to justify it as a "reasonable restriction… concerning placement," which is a different and weaker footing.

Indemnification is expressly permitted

A landlord or association "may require" the tenant, unit owner or occupant to indemnify it "for claims, damages, losses, or liabilities arising from personal injury or property damage caused by the negligent installation, maintenance, or use" of the device by that person or their contractor or agent.

For most boards this is the single most useful provision in the act, and it is opt-in — an association that does not adopt an indemnification requirement does not get one. That is a rule to draft before March 2027, not after the first device goes up.

Codes still apply

The municipal preemption covers permits for the device. It does not cover building modifications or electrical work, which still answer to the National Electrical Code and the State Uniform Construction Code. New Jersey adopted the 2023 NEC and the 2024 model codes effective August 17, 2026, so any hard-wired work associated with a device will be reviewed under the newest edition.

What a board can do between now and March

Three things are worth having settled before the effective date rather than during the first dispute: a written architectural standard for size, placement and manner of placement that is defensible as reasonable rather than prohibitive; an indemnification requirement, since the statute permits one and silence forfeits it; and a decision on whether to require owner notice, with the reasoning recorded.

One documentation caveat

The chapter-law pamphlet text for P.L.2026, c.82 is not yet posted on the Legislature's site, which currently stops at chapter 30. The language quoted here is from the third reprint — the version the Legislature's own bill history shows was passed by both houses and signed — rather than from the enrolled chapter law. Byte-level differences are unlikely but have not been ruled out.