New York HOA Solar Rights

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

New York limits a homeowners' association's authority over a member's rooftop solar system through a specific statute, not through its climate reputation. Real Property Law § 342, the Solar Rights Act (Article 9-C), provides that a homeowners' association may not adopt or enforce any rule that would effectively prohibit, or impose unreasonable limitations on, the installation or use of a rooftop solar power system, and it declares any such restriction void as contrary to public policy.¹ The statute was added by Chapter 342 of the Laws of 2021 and took effect October 1, 2021, so the current status is confirmed by enacted law rather than inferred from the state's energy agenda.²

Solar authority in New York depends on the form of ownership, because condominiums, cooperatives, and planned-community HOAs answer to different bodies of law.³ New York's utility-side and climate programs, including net metering, community distributed generation, NY-Sun, NYSERDA, and the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, sit with the Public Service Commission and related agencies and don't govern an association's authority over a member's installation. The state's separate solar easement statute allows a voluntary, recorded easement for sunlight access and doesn't override an association.⁴ On the strength of § 342, New York belongs among the states that limit association solar restrictions, though the protection runs narrower than the broadest statutes elsewhere. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules by form, and recent activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. Solar-access provision (current law)

New York does limit association solar restrictions. Real Property Law § 342 states that a homeowners' association "may not adopt or enforce any rules or regulations that would effectively prohibit, or impose unreasonable limitations on, the installation or use of a solar power system," and that a restriction that effectively prohibits such a system "is unenforceable and shall be void as contrary to public policy."¹ The section defines a "solar power system" as a rooftop photovoltaic system with a rated capacity of not more than twenty-five kilowatts, and defines "restriction on use" to reach covenants in deeds, contracts, association bylaws, association rules, security agreements, and other instruments affecting real property.¹ It identifies two per se unreasonable limitations: a restriction that inhibits the system from functioning at its intended maximum efficiency, and one that increases installation or maintenance costs by an amount estimated to be greater than ten percent of the total initial installation cost, including labor and equipment.¹ An association may still prohibit installation on property owned by the association or owned in common by the members, must state the exact basis for any denial in writing with specific examples, and may require compliance with health and safety standards and permitting.¹ The statute took effect October 1, 2021.²

The operative prohibition runs to a "homeowners' association," a term the statute doesn't define, and the protection attaches to systems on property the homeowner owns. The section doesn't by its terms extend to condominium common elements or to a cooperative building owned by the corporation, so for those two forms authority over solar is set by the governing documents and, for cooperatives, by corporate and lease law rather than by § 342.¹ New York's utility-side and climate programs — net metering and successor tariffs, community solar, NY-Sun, NYSERDA, the CLCPA, and the Public Service Commission — stay separate from this question and don't enlarge or limit association authority.

2B. The multi-form common-interest framework

New York uses several distinct forms, and the differences matter for solar. Condominiums answer to the New York Condominium Act, Real Property Law Article 9-B, § 339-d et seq., under which the property gets submitted to the Act by a recorded declaration and operated under bylaws; the unit owner holds the unit in fee with an undivided interest in common elements, and the roof typically counts as a common element controlled by the board of managers.³ A cooperative works as a different structure. A corporation owns the building, and residents own shares and hold a proprietary lease for their apartment rather than title to real property.⁵ Cooperative governance runs through corporate law — the Business Corporation Law and, for some older entities, the Cooperative Corporations Law — together with the proprietary lease and house rules, not a condominium-style statute.⁵ Because a shareholder owns no real property and the building and roof belong to the corporation, a cooperative's authority over solar is a corporate and lease matter, and board decisions receive deference under the business judgment rule set out in Levandusky v. One Fifth Avenue Apartment Corp., 75 N.Y.2d 530 (1990).

Planned-community HOAs answer to no comprehensive New York statute. Their authority comes from the recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions, the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law where the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, and common law.⁶ The Martin Act, General Business Law Article 23-A, works as offering-plan regulation administered by the Attorney General through the Real Estate Finance Bureau; it requires that offers and sales of condominium and cooperative interests proceed under an offering plan accepted for filing, and it operates largely as a point-of-sale disclosure regime rather than ongoing solar regulation.⁷ New York is not a UCIOA state, so uniform-act features shouldn't be assumed.

2C. The solar easement statute, governing documents, and order of precedence

Real Property Law § 335-b, enacted in 1979, allows a property owner to acquire a solar easement, which must be created in writing and recorded like other easements and must specify the angles of the protected airspace and terms for granting, termination, and compensation.⁴ The easement works as a voluntary agreement that runs against a neighboring owner's property; it doesn't give a member a right to install solar over an association's objection and doesn't void governing-document restrictions. It is a solar easement statute, not a solar-access statute.

Order of precedence depends on the form. For a planned-community HOA, § 342 controls over a conflicting governing-document restriction and voids any covenant, bylaw, or rule that effectively prohibits or unreasonably limits a qualifying rooftop system.¹ Where § 342 doesn't reach — that is, for condominium common elements and cooperative buildings — the condominium declaration and bylaws, the cooperative's corporate documents and proprietary lease, or the HOA's CC&Rs control, subject to general doctrines including the business judgment rule and the requirement that enforcement be within the scope of the governing documents. Board or architectural review retains a residual role even under § 342, which preserves reasonable conditions, health and safety compliance, and a written, specific basis for any denial.¹

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

A. Approval and board or architectural review

An HOA may require an application and architectural review for a rooftop system, but § 342 requires that any denial state the exact basis in writing with specific examples of the association's concerns, which constrains discretionary review.¹ A condominium reviews exterior and common-element work through the board of managers under the declaration and bylaws, Article 9-B, and a cooperative reviews alterations through the board under the proprietary lease and house rules, with deference under the business judgment rule.³

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

For an HOA, § 342 makes void any restriction that effectively prohibits a qualifying rooftop system or that inhibits maximum efficiency or adds more than ten percent to initial cost, while still allowing prohibition on association-owned or commonly owned property and reasonable installation and placement conditions.¹ For condominiums and cooperatives, there is no statutory cap specific to solar; the governing documents and, for cooperatives, corporate and lease law set the limits.⁵

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules appear in, and get amended within, the relevant documents by form: an HOA's CC&Rs, bylaws, and rules; a condominium's declaration and bylaws; and a cooperative's proprietary lease and house rules.³ Condominium unit owners may inspect the declaration, bylaws, floor plans, and rules on file with the board under Real Property Law § 339-q.⁸ Point-of-sale disclosure for condominium and cooperative interests runs through the Martin Act offering plan filed with the Attorney General.⁷

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

A dispute is filed at the trial level in the Supreme Court, organized by county; an appeal goes to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the relevant Department — First, Second, Third, or Fourth — and a further appeal may reach the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. Section 342 contains no express private right of action or fee-shifting provision; a civil-action and cost-award clause appeared in an earlier draft of the enacting bill but was removed before enactment, so remedies rest on general contract and real-property doctrines.²

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No New York bill enacted or amended in the past twenty-four months creates or changes a provision governing an association's, condominium's, or cooperative's authority over a member's solar system. The controlling statute, Real Property Law § 342, was enacted in 2021 and predates this window.² Solar-related bills active in the 2025-2026 session address utility-side, tax, and permitting matters rather than association authority and sit outside the scope of this page.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published decision of the Appellate Division or the Court of Appeals issued since July 2023 construes Real Property Law § 342 or otherwise addresses condominium, cooperative, or HOA authority as applied to solar. The section appears to remain untested at the appellate level, which leaves its scope, including whether the term "homeowners' association" reaches any condominium or cooperative arrangement, unresolved by binding New York precedent.¹

C. Active legislative debates

There is no active New York proposal specifically to expand or limit association authority over rooftop solar. The Solar Up Now NY (SUNNY) Act, A9111-C / S8512-C, passed both chambers on May 28, 2026 and awaits action by the Governor as of July 18, 2026, but it concerns portable plug-in solar devices, defined by the SUNNY Act as photovoltaic systems with up to 1,200 watts of AC power output that can connect to a standard 120-volt electrical outlet, and exempts them from utility interconnection requirements, not association authority; with its passage New York became the eighth state to advance plug-in solar legislation to the governor's desk, and Governor Hochul has until the end of 2026 to sign or veto it.⁹ Because § 342 is limited to rooftop systems, plug-in or balcony devices fall outside the current association-solar protection.

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, such as California, Civil Code § 714; Florida, Fla. Stat. § 163.04; Arizona, A.R.S. § 33-1816; Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-30-168; Nevada, Nev. Rev. Stat. § 111.239, with the local-government parallel at NRS 278.0208; and Texas, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.010; solar-easement-only states, which enable voluntary easements but don't override associations; and no-protection states, where the governing documents fully control.¹⁰ New York's § 342, which voids association restrictions on qualifying rooftop systems as against public policy, places it in the strong-protection category, though its reach stays confined to rooftop photovoltaic systems up to 25 kilowatts and, on its text, to homeowners' associations; strong state climate policy doesn't by itself put a state in this category. New York's distinctive features are its multi-form framework, with cooperatives especially prominent in New York City, where over 75 percent of apartment buildings are co-ops and more than 7,000 residential co-ops are registered with the city, and its inverted court naming, under which the Supreme Court is the trial court and the Court of Appeals is the highest court. For multi-state operators, the practical implication is that a New York rooftop-solar policy must be written to the § 342 standard for HOAs while recognizing that condominiums and cooperatives turn on their own governing and corporate documents.

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

Footnotes

1. N.Y. Real Property Law § 342 (Solar Rights Act, Article 9-C) ↩
2. N.Y. Senate Bill S2997 (2021-2022), signed as Chapter 342 of the Laws of 2021 ↩
3. N.Y. Real Property Law Article 9-B (Condominium Act) ↩
4. N.Y. Real Property Law § 335-b (Recording of solar energy easements) ↩
5. New York Attorney General, Cooperatives (Real Estate Finance Bureau) ↩
6. N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law ↩
7. N.Y. General Business Law Article 23-A (Martin Act) ↩
8. N.Y. Real Property Law § 339-q (Filing with board) ↩
9. N.Y. Assembly Bill A9111-C (2025-2026), Solar Up Now NY Act ↩
10. Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, Solar Rights Laws in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York (2021-R-0185) ↩