North Carolina HOA Architectural Review

Section 1: Overview — How architectural review works in North Carolina

North Carolina governs planned communities under the North Carolina Planned Community Act, Chapter 47F, and condominiums under the North Carolina Condominium Act, Chapter 47C. The state draws its statutory lines by creation date, and it anchors architectural authority in the recorded declaration.¹ So start by classifying the community. Ask whether it is a planned community, which falls under Chapter 47F for communities created on or after January 1, 1999, or a condominium, which falls under Chapter 47C for condominiums created on or after October 1, 1986 and under the older Unit Ownership Act, Chapter 47A, for condominiums created before that date.^1,2 The January 1, 1999 line does not push pre-1999 communities outside the Act. G.S. 47F-1-102 reaches an enumerated set of sections back to all planned communities for events occurring on or after January 1, 1999 — including the fine-hearing section, G.S. 47F-3-107.1, and the flag-and-political-sign section, G.S. 47F-3-121 — and a pre-1999 community may elect the full Act by amending its declaration with 67 percent of the votes.³ A small cluster of carve-outs constrains architectural authority: the solar void-covenant rule of G.S. 22B-20 and the flag-and-political-sign protection of G.S. 47F-3-121.^4,5 Enforcement runs through a statutory fine-and-suspension hearing, and the parties litigate disputes in the trial courts — the Superior Court, or the District Court for smaller claims — with appeals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and then the North Carolina Supreme Court.⁶ The sections that follow lay out the source of authority, the process and standard of review, the statutory and federal limits, the operational compliance obligations, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The architectural-review framework

2A. Source and scope of architectural authority

An association's authority to review a proposed exterior change — and to approve or deny it — begins in the recorded declaration. The board administers that authority, or an architectural committee the declaration creates does, and both work within the framework of the applicable Act and the powers the Act recognizes.¹ For planned communities, G.S. 47F-3-102 lists the powers of the owners' association, and G.S. 47F-1-104 confirms that the declaration, bylaws, and articles of incorporation "are enforceable by their terms," so long as they do not conflict with the Chapter.⁷ The Condominium Act carries a parallel powers section at G.S. 47C-3-102.²

The landscape is date-based. Chapter 47F, the Planned Community Act, applies to planned communities created on or after January 1, 1999.³ Chapter 47C, the Condominium Act, draws on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and applies to condominiums created on or after October 1, 1986; the Unit Ownership Act, Chapter 47A, governs condominiums created earlier.² Most associations of either kind also incorporate as nonprofits, and the North Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act, Chapter 55A, supplies the background corporate governance — a point the Planned Community Act expressly recognizes.⁸

The date line does not exempt older planned communities from the key provisions. G.S. 47F-1-102(c) applies an enumerated set of sections to every planned community created before January 1, 1999 — for events and circumstances occurring on or after that date, unless the articles of incorporation or the declaration expressly provide otherwise, and without invalidating existing declaration, bylaw, or plat provisions.³ Those enumerated sections are G.S. 47F-1-104 (variation), 47F-2-103 (construction and validity of declaration and bylaws), 47F-2-117 (amendment of declaration), 47F-3-102(1) through (6) and (11) through (17) (powers), 47F-3-103(f) (executive board members and officers), 47F-3-104 (transfer of special declarant rights), 47F-3-107(a), (b), and (c) (upkeep), 47F-3-107.1 (fines and suspension), 47F-3-108 (meetings), 47F-3-115 (assessments for common expenses), 47F-3-116 (lien), 47F-3-118 (records), and 47F-3-121 (flags and political signs); 47F-3-120 (attorneys' fees limits) also reaches pre-1999 communities.³ A pre-1999 community may adopt the entire Chapter by amending its declaration through the affirmative vote or written agreement of owners who hold at least 67 percent of the votes, or a smaller majority the declaration specifies.³ For a compliance decision, the order of precedence runs from the applicable Act, including its retroactive sections, then the declaration, then the bylaws, then the rules and architectural guidelines.⁷

2B. The approval process, standards, and enforcement hearing

North Carolina sets no statutory deadline for deciding an architectural application, creates no deemed-approval rule, and requires no written architectural denial. The process itself comes from the declaration, and the board or an architectural committee administers it under the powers that G.S. 47F-3-102 and its Chapter 47C analog recognize.⁷

The governing standard is reasonableness. Courts enforce a valid declaration term, but they hold an association's exercise of discretionary power — including rule-making and amendment of the declaration — to a reasonableness limit. The leading authority is Armstrong v. Ledges Homeowners Association, 360 N.C. 547, 633 S.E.2d 78 (2006), where the North Carolina Supreme Court held: "We hold that amendments to a declaration of restrictive covenants must be reasonable. Reasonableness may be ascertained from the language of the declaration, deeds, and plats, together with other objective circumstances surrounding the parties' bargain, including the nature and character of the community."⁹ So ground architectural standards in the declaration, keep them reasonable, and apply them consistently. A 2013 amendment to the Planned Community Act added G.S. 47F-2-117(d), which provides that an amendment passed under the section or the declaration's own procedures is "presumed valid and enforceable." Even so, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has continued to apply the Armstrong reasonableness test despite that presumption.¹⁰

The one detailed statutory process is the fine-and-suspension hearing. Under G.S. 47F-3-107.1, and G.S. 47C-3-107.1 for condominiums, a fine or a suspension of privileges or services requires a hearing — unless the declaration supplies its own procedure — before the executive board or an adjudicatory panel that the board appoints from association members who are not officers or board members.⁶ The owner charged must receive notice of the charge, a chance to be heard and to present evidence, and notice of the decision.⁶ A fine may not exceed 100 dollars per violation, and, without a further hearing, it may run for each day more than five days after the decision that the violation continues.⁶ Those fines become assessments that liens secure under G.S. 47F-3-116, and the owner may appeal an adjudicatory panel's decision to the full executive board within 15 days.⁶ For the professional reader, the defensible path is straightforward: classify the community, ground the architectural decision in the declaration, apply the standards reasonably and consistently, and follow the fine-hearing process to the letter when enforcing a violation.

2C. Statutory and federal limits on architectural authority

Two state carve-outs constrain architectural authority. First, G.S. 22B-20 makes any covenant that would prohibit, or effectively prohibit, the installation of a solar collector on residential property "void and unenforceable," subject to three limits.⁴ Subsection (c) preserves covenants that regulate where a collector sits or how it is screened, as long as they do not block the reasonable use of one.⁴ Subsection (d), the street-facing exception, preserves restrictions on collectors that a person on the ground can see and that sit on the facade facing areas open to common or public access, or on a roof slope facing those areas.⁴ And the definition of "residential property" excludes any condominium created under Chapter 47A or 47C that stands in a multi-story building whose units have horizontal boundaries.⁴ The statute awards costs and reasonable attorneys' fees to the prevailing party.⁴ The North Carolina Supreme Court applied these limits in Belmont Association, Inc. v. Farwig, holding that a declaration which gave an architectural committee broad discretion, but stated no express solar restriction, could not bar front-roof panels when doing so prevented reasonable use.¹¹

Second, G.S. 47F-3-121 protects the display of the flag of the United States and the flag of North Carolina — no larger than four feet by six feet and flown consistent with federal flag customs — and it protects the display of political signs, subject to reasonable rules.⁵ An association may bar political signs earlier than 45 days before an election and later than seven days after election day, and it may regulate their size and number no more strictly than the local ordinance does.⁵ This section applies retroactively to pre-1999 planned communities unless the articles or declaration expressly provide otherwise, and the Condominium Act carries a parallel provision at G.S. 47C-3-121.^2,3

No North Carolina statute confirms a carve-out for drought-tolerant or native landscaping, or for electric-vehicle charging stations; the declaration continues to govern those items. Three federal overlays then apply on top of state law, and they are additive: the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, which protects display of the United States flag subject to reasonable safety restrictions; the FCC over-the-air reception devices rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, which limits restrictions on most antennas and satellite dishes one meter or less; and the Fair Housing Act reasonable-modification right, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A), which requires an association to permit owner-funded, reasonable, disability-related exterior modifications.^12,13,14

Section 3: Compliance obligations in the architectural-review process

A. Adopting and maintaining architectural standards

The authority to adopt and enforce architectural standards is a declaration obligation, exercised through the powers the applicable Act recognizes — G.S. 47F-3-102 for planned communities, G.S. 47C-3-102 for condominiums.⁷ The standards, and any amendment to them, must stay reasonable and consistent with the declaration's original intent — a limit that case law imposes rather than a specific statute.⁹ When a planned community amends its declaration, the 67 percent approval threshold in G.S. 47F-2-117 is statutory, and through G.S. 47F-1-102 it reaches pre-1999 communities.³

B. Reviewing and deciding applications

The process for reviewing and deciding an application is a declaration obligation; no statute sets a decision deadline, a deemed-approval rule, or a mandatory written denial.⁷ The one practical statutory constraint is the reasonableness standard from Armstrong, which counsels a consistent, non-arbitrary application of declaration-based standards.⁹

C. Honoring statutory and federal owner protections

An association may not enforce a covenant that prohibits or effectively prohibits a solar collector on residential property. That statutory limit under G.S. 22B-20 still allows reasonable location-and-screening rules, the street-facing exception for collectors visible from common or public-access areas, and the exclusion of multi-story, horizontal-boundary condominiums under Chapter 47A or 47C.⁴ The association must also permit display of the United States and North Carolina flags and of political signs, subject to the size, manner, and timing conditions in G.S. 47F-3-121 and G.S. 47C-3-121; this statutory protection applies retroactively to pre-1999 planned communities unless the articles or declaration expressly provide otherwise.^3,5 And it must honor two federal obligations: the OTARD rule for antennas and dishes and the Fair Housing Act reasonable-modification right.^13,14

D. Enforcement and dispute resolution

Enforcement of an architectural violation runs through the statutory fine-and-suspension hearing in G.S. 47F-3-107.1 and G.S. 47C-3-107.1: a hearing before the board or an adjudicatory panel of non-officer, non-board members, with notice of the charge, a chance to be heard, and notice of the decision — unless the declaration supplies its own procedure.⁶ A fine may not exceed 100 dollars per violation, and it may run per day for a continuing violation that begins more than five days after the decision; the owner may appeal to the full board within 15 days.⁶ Those fines become assessments that a lien secures under the statutory lien mechanism of G.S. 47F-3-116, and the association may also pursue covenant enforcement, including injunctive relief, in the courts.¹⁵ North Carolina keeps no dedicated HOA regulator. The Department of Justice states plainly that no state or federal agency oversees homeowners' associations. A community-association manager who performs brokerage-type activity does answer to the North Carolina Real Estate Commission, but no state agency oversees an association's ongoing operations.^16,17

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two measures from the 2025–2026 session touch architectural review. One remains pending; the other became law as a technical-corrections act.

B. Recent rulings

Two recent Court of Appeals decisions apply the Armstrong reasonableness test, each striking down an amendment that reversed owners' settled expectations.

The controlling solar-architectural precedent, Belmont Association, Inc. v. Farwig (2022-NCSC-64), came down on June 17, 2022 — just outside the 36-month window — yet it remains the governing authority on G.S. 22B-20 and architectural committees.¹¹

C. Active legislative debates

Senators Benton Sawrey (R-Johnston), Todd Johnson (R-Union), and Vickie Sawyer (R-Iredell/Mecklenburg) filed Senate Bill 378, "HOA Revisions," on March 20, 2025. It overlapped House Bill 444 on architectural procedure and fine caps. By late October 2025, though, the legislature had repurposed the bill number as a vehicle for unrelated content — retitling it "Align Medicaid Eligibility with Federal Law" — so it no longer carried its HOA provisions. No substantive HOA-reform statute from the 2025–2026 session has become law.²²

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

North Carolina is a date-based, two-statute state with a retroactive overlay, a statutory fine-hearing process, and a flag-and-political-sign protection. That structure sets it above covenant-primary states, though it lacks the dense architectural carve-out clusters that California or Nevada impose. For a multi-state operator, the practical implications are specific. The creation date and community type determine the governing Act. Several key sections — including the fine-hearing and flag-and-sign provisions — reach pre-1999 planned communities. The fine-hearing process governs enforcement. And the solar carve-out is real, but the street-facing exception and the multi-story condominium exclusion limit it. All of that places North Carolina well above thin-statute states such as Mississippi and Montana, where associations operate largely from the declaration with little statutory process to follow.

HOA Weekly updates its North Carolina architectural-review coverage each quarter as the General Assembly, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and the North Carolina Supreme Court act. Federal frameworks — the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, the FCC OTARD rule, and the Fair Housing Act — apply to North Carolina associations in addition to state law.

Footnotes

1. N.C. Gen. Stat. ch. 47F (North Carolina Planned Community Act), section list ↩
2. N.C. Gen. Stat. ch. 47C (North Carolina Condominium Act), section list ↩
3. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-1-102 (Applicability; retroactive sections; 67 percent election) ↩
4. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 22B-20 (Deed restrictions and other agreements prohibiting solar collectors) ↩
5. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-3-121 (American and State flags and political sign displays) ↩
6. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-3-107.1 (Procedures for fines and suspension) ↩
7. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-3-102 (Powers of owners' association) and § 47F-1-104 (Variation), via Chapter 47F section list ↩
8. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-1-108 (Supplemental general principles of law, including the North Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act, ch. 55A) ↩
9. Armstrong v. Ledges Homeowners Ass'n, 360 N.C. 547, 633 S.E.2d 78 (2006) ↩
10. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-2-117(d) (amendments presumed valid and enforceable) ↩
11. Belmont Ass'n, Inc. v. Farwig, 2022-NCSC-64 (N.C. June 17, 2022) ↩
12. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-243 ↩
13. FCC Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 ↩
14. Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A) ↩
15. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-3-116 (Lien for sums due the association; enforcement), via Chapter 47F section list ↩
16. North Carolina Department of Justice, Homeowners' Associations (no state or federal agency oversees HOAs) ↩
17. North Carolina Real Estate Commission, Property Owners' Association Managers (broker trust-account rules) ↩
18. House Bill 444 (2025-2026 Session), bill page and history ↩
19. House Bill 40 (2025-2026 Session), enacted as Session Law 2025-25 ↩
20. McDougald v. White Oak Plantation Homeowners Ass'n, Inc., 904 S.E.2d 180 (N.C. Ct. App. 2024) (unpublished) ↩
21. Mileview LLC v. The Reserve II at Sugar Mountain Condo. Owners' Ass'n, No. COA23-603 (N.C. Ct. App. Feb. 20, 2024) (unpublished) ↩
22. Senate Bill 378 (2025-2026 Session), bill page and history ↩