New Mexico HOA Solar Rights

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

New Mexico stands as a protection state on rooftop solar. The Solar Rights Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 47-3-1 to 47-3-5, enacted in 1977, declares that the right to use solar energy is a property right,¹ and a separate provision in the state's municipal code, NMSA 1978, Section 3-18-32(B), makes any covenant or restriction that effectively prohibits the installation or use of a solar collector void and unenforceable.² That protection isn't absolute. The New Mexico Attorney General has read Section 3-18-32(B) to allow a homeowners association to regulate the installation or use of solar panels so long as the regulations don't "effectively prohibit" their installation or use, meaning a reasonable-restriction standard applies rather than a flat ban on any rules.³ Common-interest communities in New Mexico fall under two separate statutes: condominiums under the New Mexico Condominium Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 47-7A-1 et seq.,⁴ and planned communities under the Homeowner Association Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 47-16-1 et seq.⁵ New Mexico's net-metering and distributed-generation policy runs as a utility matter handled by the Public Regulation Commission and stays separate from an association's authority over a collector on an owner's home. Nationally, New Mexico sits in the strong-protection category, with the distinctive feature of a 1977 property-right solar statute framed by analogy to water rights. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules for associations, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. The Solar Rights Act and the HOA-solar restriction

The Solar Rights Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 47-3-1 to 47-3-5, enacted as Laws 1977, Chapter 169, ranks among the earliest solar statutes in the country.¹ Section 47-3-4(A) declares that "the right to use the natural resource of solar energy is a property right," known as a solar right.¹ The Act frames that right by analogy to New Mexico water law, applying the concepts of beneficial use, prior appropriation — in disputes, "priority in time shall have the better right" — and transferability to disputes over solar access.¹ Section 47-3-3 defines a solar collector as a device "capable of collecting not less than twenty-five thousand British thermal units on a clear winter solstice day or that is used for the conveyance of light to the interior of a building," and defines a solar right as an unobstructed line-of-sight path from a collector to the sun.⁶ A companion statute, the Solar Recordation Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 47-3-6 to 47-3-12, provides the mechanism for claiming and recording a solar right, which gets treated as an easement appurtenant enforceable at law or in equity, with recordation a condition precedent to enforcement.⁷

These provisions principally govern solar access between neighboring property owners. They allocate the right to sunlight and resolve shading disputes. They are not, by themselves, a restriction on what a community association may do with respect to a collector on an owner's own roof.

The HOA-solar restriction sits elsewhere. It is found in NMSA 1978, Section 3-18-32, titled "Limitation of county and municipal restrictions on solar collectors," enacted as Laws 2007, Chapter 232, effective June 15, 2007.² Subsection B states that "a covenant, restriction or condition contained in a deed, contract, security agreement or other instrument, effective after July 1, 1978, affecting the transfer, sale or use of, or an interest in, real property that effectively prohibits the installation or use of a solar collector is void and unenforceable."² The New Mexico Attorney General has applied this subsection to homeowners associations, concluding that an association "may regulate the installation or use of solar panels so long as the regulations do not 'effectively prohibit' their installation or use," and that the phrase "effectively prohibit" "includes restrictions on the installation or use of solar panels that make such installation or use unreasonably difficult or costly."³ The standard runs qualitative. The statute contains no numeric cost-or-efficiency threshold. Utility-side net metering gets governed separately by the Public Regulation Commission and doesn't bear on this analysis.

2B. The two-statute common-interest framework

New Mexico governs common-interest communities through two distinct statutes rather than a single unified code. The New Mexico Condominium Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 47-7A-1 through 47-7D-20, enacted as Laws 1982, Chapter 27, stands as New Mexico's version of the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act. The compiler's notes state that "Laws 1982, ch. 27, enacted New Mexico's version of the Uniform Condominium Act, as amended in 1980," and that Section 47-7A-1 "is substantially similar to Section 1-101 of the Uniform Condominium Act."⁴ This is the Uniform Condominium Act, not the broader Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act; New Mexico didn't adopt full UCIOA, and the compiler's notes identify specific uniform provisions New Mexico left out, including Sections 1-110, 4-113 to 4-116, and all of Article 5.⁴ The Condominium Act applies to condominiums created after its effective date of May 19, 1982, and governs creation, management, apportionment of interests, common expenses, liens, and purchaser protection. Older condominiums remain under the Building Unit Ownership Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 47-7-1 et seq., unless they elect to come under the Condominium Act.⁸

Planned communities answer to the Homeowner Association Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 47-16-1 to 47-16-18, enacted in 2013 and applicable to planned communities established after July 1, 2013.⁵ It works as a relatively limited disclosure-and-governance statute. It addresses recordation of association notices, record disclosure to members, board duties and budgets, financial audits, resale disclosure certificates, meetings, flags, fining procedure, and dispute resolution.⁵ It doesn't contain a solar-collector provision. On the corporate side, most New Mexico associations organize as nonprofit corporations under the Nonprofit Corporation Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 53-8-1 et seq., which governs corporate structure and procedure.⁹ The solar restriction in Section 3-18-32(B) overlays all of these frameworks: it operates on covenants and restrictions affecting real property regardless of whether the community is a condominium or a planned community, because it voids the offending instrument rather than amending any single association statute.²

2C. The reasonable-restriction boundary and the role of governing documents

An association may adopt reasonable restrictions on the placement, manner, and appearance of a solar collector. What it may not do is prohibit a collector outright or impose conditions that effectively prohibit installation or use, including conditions that make installation or use "unreasonably difficult or costly," under the Attorney General's reading of Section 3-18-32(B).³ The order of precedence is set by the statute's operative language: a covenant, restriction, or condition that crosses the line into effective prohibition is void and unenforceable, so it overrides a conflicting governing-document provision within its scope.² A restriction that stays on the permissible side of the line — an aesthetic or placement rule that doesn't defeat the installation — remains enforceable through the association's ordinary governing documents. Architectural review retains a residual role. A condominium association acts under the Condominium Act and its declaration, where the association often controls building exteriors and roofs as common elements, which can shape where a collector may go.⁴ A planned-community association acts under the Homeowner Association Act and its recorded covenants, where the owner typically owns the roof.⁵ In both settings, review may address placement and appearance but may not become a vehicle for effective prohibition.

Section 3: What a New Mexico association can and cannot do regarding solar

A. What an association cannot do

An association cannot enforce a covenant, restriction, or condition that effectively prohibits the installation or use of a solar collector; such a provision is void and unenforceable under NMSA 1978, Section 3-18-32(B).² It cannot impose approval conditions that make installation or use "unreasonably difficult or costly," which the Attorney General treats as an effective prohibition.³ This mandatory rule, drawn from Section 3-18-32(B) as construed by AG Opinion 11-02, applies to covenants and restrictions effective after July 1, 1978.

B. What an association may do

An association may adopt and enforce reasonable regulations governing the placement, manner, and appearance of a collector, provided they don't effectively prohibit it.³ This discretionary authority, grounded in Section 3-18-32(B) as construed by AG Opinion 11-02 together with the association's authority under its governing documents, reaches all associations whose instruments touch real property.

C. The reasonable-restriction standard and approval process

The operative standard turns on whether a restriction effectively prohibits a collector, not whether it merely regulates one; a rule that regulates placement without defeating the installation is permissible, while one that makes the project "unreasonably difficult or costly" is not.³ An association that runs solar requests through architectural review may apply reasonable placement and appearance criteria, but the practical burden rests on the association to keep conditions short of prohibition, and a denial or a condition that defeats the installation exposes the offending provision to being declared void.

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

Solar disputes get resolved in court rather than before any dedicated HOA regulator, because New Mexico has none and doesn't separately license community association managers.¹⁰ Trial-level disputes proceed in the New Mexico District Courts, with appeals to the New Mexico Court of Appeals and discretionary review by the New Mexico Supreme Court. The Homeowner Association Act provides for alternative dispute resolution and for reasonable fines only after notice and an opportunity to be heard, Section 47-16-18,¹¹ and for attorney fees and costs, Section 47-16-14.⁵ The consequence of an unlawful restriction is statutory: under Section 3-18-32(B) the offending covenant is void and unenforceable, so an owner may raise the statute as a defense to enforcement or as the basis for a declaratory action.² The Solar Rights Act's own enforcement mechanism, Section 47-3-8, runs to solar-access disputes between owners through a recorded, vested solar right, not to association-imposed restrictions.⁷

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

New Mexico enacted no bill in the past 24 months that creates or amends a provision affecting a community association's authority over solar collectors. One related measure was introduced and failed.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No New Mexico Court of Appeals or New Mexico Supreme Court opinion in the past 36 months interpreted the Solar Rights Act as applied to associations or otherwise addressed association authority over solar collectors. The controlling administrative interpretation of the HOA-solar question remains New Mexico Attorney General Opinion No. 11-02 (2011), which is an Attorney General opinion rather than a court decision and stays persuasive rather than binding.³ Because there is no qualifying appellate ruling, no case metadata block or audience table appears here.

C. Active legislative debates

There is no active, publicly tracked proposal to amend the Solar Rights Act or Section 3-18-32 as applied to associations; the portable-device concept in the failed SB 157 stands as the nearest recent proposal and concerned plug-in units under the Public Utility Act.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 Civil Code Section 714, Florida Statutes Section 163.04, Arizona Revised Statutes Section 33-1816, Colorado Revised Statutes Section 38-30-168, Nevada, and Texas Property Code Section 202.010; solar-easement-only states, which enable voluntary easements but don't override associations; and no-protection states, where the declaration fully controls. New Mexico belongs in the first category: Section 3-18-32(B) voids covenants that effectively prohibit a collector, subject to reasonable restrictions.² Its distinctive feature is a 1977 Solar Rights Act that treats solar access as a property right by analogy to water rights, paired with a two-statute common-interest framework that keeps condominiums and planned communities under separate codes.¹ For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is that a New Mexico portfolio can apply reasonable placement and appearance rules but must scrub governing documents for any flat solar ban, which is unenforceable.

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

Footnotes

1. NMSA 1978, Sections 47-3-1 to 47-3-5 (Solar Rights Act); Section 47-3-4(A) ("the right to use the natural resource of solar energy is a property right"); Laws 1977, Chapter 169, New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
2. NMSA 1978, Section 3-18-32(B) ("Limitation of county and municipal restrictions on solar collectors"); Laws 2007, Chapter 232, Section 1; effective June 15, 2007, New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
3. New Mexico Attorney General Opinion No. 11-02 (February 2011), construing NMSA 1978, Section 3-18-32(B) ("a homeowners' association [may] regulate the installation or use of solar panels so long as the regulations do not 'effectively prohibit' their installation or use"; "effectively prohibit" "includes restrictions ... that make such installation or use unreasonably difficult or costly"), reflected in the annotations to Section 3-18-32, New Mexico Compilation Commission. ↩
4. NMSA 1978, Sections 47-7A-1 through 47-7D-20 (Condominium Act); Laws 1982, Chapter 27; compiler's note to Section 47-7A-1 ("New Mexico's version of the Uniform Condominium Act, as amended in 1980"; "substantially similar to Section 1-101 of the Uniform Condominium Act"), New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
5. NMSA 1978, Sections 47-16-1 to 47-16-18 (Homeowner Association Act), enacted 2013, applicable to planned communities established after July 1, 2013; Section 47-16-14 (attorney fees and costs), New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
6. NMSA 1978, Section 47-3-3 (definitions of "solar collector" and "solar right"), New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
7. NMSA 1978, Sections 47-3-6 to 47-3-12 (Solar Recordation Act); Section 47-3-8 (method of claiming; solar right as easement appurtenant enforceable at law or in equity), New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
8. NMSA 1978, Section 47-7A-2 (applicability of the Condominium Act; election out of the Building Unit Ownership Act, Sections 47-7-1 et seq.), New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
9. NMSA 1978, Sections 53-8-1 et seq. (Nonprofit Corporation Act), New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
10. New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, rld.nm.gov. New Mexico does not license community association managers separately from real-estate broker licensing handled by the New Mexico Real Estate Commission; there is no dedicated state HOA regulator. ↩
11. NMSA 1978, Section 47-16-18 (enforcement of covenants; dispute resolution; fines after notice and hearing; alternative dispute resolution), New Mexico Compilation Commission, nmonesource.com. ↩
12. New Mexico Senate Bill 157 (2026 Regular Session), "Use of Portable Solar Generation Devices," Section 1 (maximum output 1,920 watts; Subsection D referencing NMSA 1978, Section 3-18-32); status: postponed indefinitely, nmlegis.gov. ↩