North Carolina repeals the covenant exception for US and NC flags
North Carolina repeals the covenant exception for US and NC flags
2026-09-12 · North Carolina · Legislation
A North Carolina declaration can no longer restrict the display of a United States or North Carolina flag, no matter how carefully it was drafted. Section 4 of the Regulatory Reform Act of 2026 deleted the two exceptions that had allowed a covenant to do so, and it took effect when Governor Josh Stein signed the act at 8:03 a.m. on August 11, 2026.1
The change is four lines of deletion in a 53-section regulatory bill, and it has gone almost entirely unreported. It also has not reached the published statutes yet — see below.
What the measure does
Senate Bill 445 became Session Law 2026-59, ratified August 6 and approved August 11, 2026. Sections 4(a) and 4(b) amend G.S. 47C-3-121 and G.S. 47F-3-121 — the condominium and planned-community versions of the same provision — in identical terms, under the heading “FURTHER PROHIBIT PROPERTY RESTRICTIONS ON FLYING THE AMERICAN AND NORTH CAROLINA FLAGS.”2
Both statutes open the same way: notwithstanding any provision in any declaration of covenants, no restriction on the use of land shall be construed to regulate or prohibit the display of a US or North Carolina flag no larger than four feet by six feet, displayed consistently with the patriotic customs in 4 U.S.C. §§ 5–10. Until August 11, that sentence ended with the word “unless:” and two escape hatches followed.
Both are now struck in full. The deleted text read:
a. For restrictions registered prior to October 1, 2005, the restriction specifically uses the following terms: 1. Flag of the United States of America; 2. American flag; 3. United States flag; or 4. North Carolina flag.
b. For restrictions registered on or after October 1, 2005, the restriction shall be written on the first page of the instrument or conveyance in print that is in boldface type, capital letters, and no smaller than the largest print used elsewhere in the instrument or conveyance. The restriction shall be construed to regulate or prohibit the display of the United States or North Carolina flag only if the restriction specifically states: “THIS DOCUMENT REGULATES OR PROHIBITS THE DISPLAY OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OR STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA”.
In their place the sentence now simply ends: “…governing the display and use of the flag of the United States.” The rule became absolute by subtraction.
What did not change
One sentence survives untouched, and it is the boundary of the protection. The subdivision “shall apply to owners of property who display the flag of the United States or North Carolina on property owned exclusively by them and does not apply to common areas, easements, rights-of-way, or other areas owned by others.”
So the repeal reaches the owner's own lot or exclusively owned property. It does not give any owner a right to fly a flag on common area, and it does not disturb an association's control of common elements. The four-foot-by-six-foot size ceiling and the 4 U.S.C. display customs also remain conditions of the protection, not afterthoughts.
What it changes for boards and managers
The practical effect is that a category of covenant enforcement that was lawful on August 10 was unlawful on August 11, with no transition period and no grandfathering. Section 4(c) says only: “This section is effective when it becomes law.”
Three groups of associations are affected differently:
- Associations whose declarations predate October 1, 2005 and use the magic words. A declaration that expressly said “American flag” or “flag of the United States of America” used to be enforceable on that basis alone. That basis is gone.
- Associations whose declarations postdate October 1, 2005 and carry the boldface legend. These are the documents drafted deliberately to satisfy paragraph b — first page, capital letters, the prescribed sentence. The legend is now surplusage. It is still printed on the instrument, which is precisely why it will keep being cited by people who have not read the session law.
- Associations enforcing under a general aesthetic or signage covenant. These were already outside the exception, because the exception required specificity. Nothing changes for them, and nothing changed for them before.
The enforcement file is where this lands first. A violation notice, fine or lien issued on or after August 11, 2026 that rests on a flag-display covenant rests on an exception the General Assembly has deleted. Any pending enforcement of that kind is worth pulling and reading against the current text rather than the recorded document.
The statute on the State's own website is not current
This deserves its own warning, because it will mislead people for months.
As of today, the codified text of G.S. 47F-3-121 published on ncleg.gov still shows paragraphs a. and b. intact, exactly as they read before the amendment.3 The General Assembly's own “law modifications” table records the change — 47C-3-121(1) and 47F-3-121(1), amended by S.L. 2026-59 s. 4(a) and 4(b), effective 08/11/2026 — and marks it “Incorporated into statute: No.”4
A board, manager or attorney who pulls the statute from the official site today will read the repealed exceptions as if they were live law. Until the Revisor's office folds the amendment in, the session law is the accurate source and the codified chapter is not. That is an unusual thing to have to say about a state's published statutes, and it is checkable in about thirty seconds against the two links in the footnotes.
What to watch next
Two things.
First, codification. When ncleg.gov updates Chapters 47C and 47F, the discrepancy closes and the ordinary reading of the statute becomes reliable again. There is no published timetable for that.
Second, the asymmetry this creates inside a single statute. G.S. 47C-3-121 and 47F-3-121 govern flags and political signs, and the General Assembly amended only the flag half. The political-sign subdivision kept both of its escape hatches, which means the same section of the same statute now works two different ways depending on what is being displayed. We cover that split separately.
Related North Carolina HOA Topics
- S.L. 2026-59 (SB 445), Regulatory Reform Act of 2026 — full session law text, ratified Aug. 6, approved 8:03 a.m. Aug. 11, 2026 ↩
- Senate Bill 445, North Carolina General Assembly — bill history and editions ↩
- G.S. 47F-3-121 as currently published on ncleg.gov — still showing the repealed paragraphs a. and b. ↩
- Law modifications for the current biennium, NCGA — records 47C-3-121(1) and 47F-3-121(1) as amended effective 08/11/2026 ↩
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