New Jersey bill would close the townhouse gap in HOA solar protection
New Jersey bill would close the townhouse gap in HOA solar protection
2026-09-15 · New Jersey · Legislation · Pending — not yet law
New Jersey's protection for rooftop solar in community associations has two qualifiers in it, and a pending bill would delete both.
Current law bars an association from prohibiting solar collectors on exactly two roof types: the roof of a single-family dwelling solely owned by an individual that is not designated a common element or common property in the governing documents; and the roof of a townhouse unit where the governing documents make roof repair the owner's responsibility rather than the association's.1
What the bill would change
S3562, introduced February 19, 2026 by Senator Linda R. Greenstein, would make clear that associations in common interest communities cannot prohibit solar collectors on the roof of any single-family home or any townhouse in the community — dropping the sole-ownership qualifier and the roof-responsibility qualifier.
Why the qualifiers matter
They are not technicalities. A very large share of New Jersey townhouse communities assign roof maintenance to the association, precisely because a shared roof line over attached units is impractical to maintain unit by unit. Under current law, that common and sensible arrangement is the thing that removes the owner's statutory solar protection.
The result is that the owners with the least practical ability to negotiate — those in communities where the association controls the roof — are the ones the statute does not reach.
Status
Referred to the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee. No further action, no committee statement, no reprint, no vote. There is no Assembly companion.
It has failed twice already
S3562 is the reintroduction of S2907, introduced March 4, 2024 and dead with the 221st Legislature on January 13, 2026, having never left committee. That bill's own chain runs back to A1783. This is at least the third consecutive session in which the same drafting fix has been filed and not heard.
The interaction nobody has addressed
Something changed underneath this bill while it sat in committee. On September 1, 2026, New Jersey enacted the Garden State Balcony Solar Act, which bars associations from enforcing any governing-document provision prohibiting a portable solar device, with no ownership qualifier, no roof-responsibility qualifier and no distinction between building types.
So from March 1, 2027 New Jersey will have two solar regimes in community associations that run on different logic. A 1,200-watt plug-in device on a balcony is protected everywhere. A permanent rooftop array on the same building may not be protected at all, if the association is responsible for the roof.
That is a defensible distinction — a plug-in device does not penetrate a roof membrane, and roof warranties and water intrusion are real association concerns. But it is now the operative line in New Jersey law, and it was drawn by accident rather than by design: the balcony act was written as an energy bill, not an association bill.
What is actually at stake for a board
Where an association maintains the roof, the governing documents control, and most New Jersey declarations give the board architectural review authority over anything attached to it. Boards in that position are not violating the solar statute by requiring an application, conditioning approval on a licensed installer, requiring an owner-funded roof warranty rider, or requiring removal and reinstallation at owner cost when the association replaces the roof.
If S3562 passed, those conditions would come under pressure. The bill as drafted removes the prohibition but says nothing about what conditions survive — the same drafting gap that leaves "reasonable restrictions" undefined in the balcony act.
What it does not do
The bill addresses roofs. It does not reach ground-mounted arrays, carport canopies, panels on common elements, or the allocation of roof-penetration liability. An association whose real dispute is about a proposed array over shared parking would find nothing in S3562 that helps either side.
Status of the broader field
Two other pending bills, A2819 and S3665, would have the Board of Public Utilities fund photovoltaic installations on age-restricted community clubhouses from the societal benefits charge. They are also reintroductions, also unheard. New Jersey's solar policy for community associations is currently made up of one new statute about plug-in devices and a queue of bills nobody has scheduled.
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