North Dakota HOA Fence & Exterior

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Section 1: Overview — How fence and exterior rules work in North Dakota

In North Dakota, one set of documents does most of the work. The recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions — the CC&Rs — and the architectural guidelines adopted under it control fences, walls, paint, siding, roofing, trim, exterior structures, and the look of the landscaping. A broad state code does not. From there, classification decides the rest. Condominiums answer to the Condominium Ownership of Real Property statute, N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-04.1 — a short chapter that covers the declaration, the bylaws and rules, compliance, assessments and liens, and owner rights.¹ Planned communities have no statute of their own; they run on recorded covenants, on the Nonprofit Corporations Act (ch. 10-33) where the association is incorporated, and on common law.⁵

The state-law limits on association exterior authority are thin, and they mostly live inside the condominium chapter. Chapter 47-04.1 bars a condominium project from banning political-sign display in the sixty days before an election, and it protects the installation of electric-vehicle charging stations.² North Dakota also lets neighboring owners sign voluntary written solar easements — but that is an easement between owners, not a limit on what an association may restrict.⁶ No North Dakota statute sets an architectural-review deadline or a general deemed-approval rule, so the declaration sets application timelines; the one narrow statutory clock is the sixty-day deemed-approval rule for condominium EV-charging applications.²

Step back, and North Dakota is a CC&R-primary state, a world apart from strong-override states like California. The sections below lay out where the authority comes from, the few statutory limits on it, the review process, the operational obligations, and the recent activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for exterior and fence control

2A. Where exterior and fence authority comes from

The recorded declaration, and the architectural guidelines adopted under it, are the primary source of exterior and fence authority in North Dakota communities. For condominiums, that declaration works alongside a statute. Chapter 47-04.1 is a compact condominium act: a project comes into being when someone records a declaration with the county recorder, and the declaration's restrictions bind every owner as equitable servitudes.⁷ The chapter covers what the declaration must contain, how the community runs through bylaws and rules, the compliance owners owe, the liens that secure common expenses, and the rights owners hold.¹ It is not a detailed operational code, and it does not build a general architectural-review regime — the declaration and bylaws supply those details.

Planned communities — the non-condominium HOAs — have no statute of their own. The working rulebook for exteriors is the recorded declaration, backed by the Nonprofit Corporations Act (ch. 10-33) for associations organized as nonprofit corporations and by common-law contract and property doctrine.⁵ North Dakota has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so there is no comprehensive common-interest-community code layered on top of the covenants.

Precedence runs in order. Mandatory statutory provisions for the community type come first — chiefly ch. 47-04.1 for condominiums, including the political-sign and EV-charging provisions — then the recorded declaration, then the architectural guidelines adopted under it, then board rules. Where a restriction collides with a mandatory statutory provision, the statute wins; otherwise the recorded instruments and the rules duly adopted under them govern.⁴ Because the statutory layer is thin outside condominiums, the declaration is the controlling authority on fences and exterior appearance in most planned communities.

2B. State-law limits on association exterior authority

North Dakota's statutory limits on association exterior authority are few, and most of them sit inside the condominium chapter.

Political signs. Chapter 47-04.1 says it plainly: "Notwithstanding any provision in a covenant, declaration, bylaw, or other rule of a project, an owner or resident may not be prohibited from displaying a political yard sign on the owner's property within sixty days before any primary, general, or special election. A covenant, declaration, bylaw, or rule may include reasonable restrictions regarding the placement and manner of display of political signs" (§ 47-04.1-14).⁸ By its terms, the protection reaches condominium projects. In planned communities that have no statute, the declaration governs political-sign display.

EV charging. Lawmakers expanded ch. 47-04.1 to protect electric-vehicle charging stations (§ 47-04.1-16). A covenant, bylaw, or restriction that effectively bans or unreasonably restricts installing or using a charging station within an owner's unit or designated parking space is void, subject to reasonable restrictions and safety requirements.² This is a recent, condominium-specific addition, not a general exterior or fence rule.

Solar. North Dakota authorizes voluntary written solar easements for exposing a solar-energy device to the sun (§ 47-05-01.1) and spells out what they must contain, including the vertical and horizontal angles and any termination or compensation terms (§ 47-05-01.2).⁶ These provisions create a private easement between owners. They do not limit an association's authority to restrict solar installations. No HOA solar-restriction override turned up in North Dakota law, so the declaration governs solar restrictions.

Flags. No North Dakota statute addressing U.S.-flag display by association members turned up. The protection for flying the U.S. flag comes from the federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, not from state law.⁹

Landscaping. No North Dakota statute shields water-conserving or drought-tolerant landscaping, native plants, or artificial turf from association restriction. The declaration governs those matters.

Fences. North Dakota sets no statewide design standard for residential fences that overrides a declaration. Residential swimming-pool and spa barrier requirements work as a safety floor through building and safety codes adopted locally, not as a uniformly enforced statewide mandate; North Dakota's state building code, built on the International Residential and International Building Codes, applies only where a jurisdiction adopts and enforces it.¹⁰ Separately, N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-26 governs division fences between adjoining occupied lands — a boundary-fence matter, distinct from association architectural control.¹¹

Where North Dakota has no statute on a commonly protected feature, the recorded CC&R restriction likely controls, and an owner who challenges it generally has to lean on the declaration's own terms or on common-law defenses rather than a statutory override.

2C. The architectural review process and procedural limits

No North Dakota statute imposes a general architectural-review deadline or a deemed-approval rule. For condominiums, ch. 47-04.1 covers administration, bylaws, and rules (§ 47-04.1-07) and owner compliance (§ 47-04.1-08), but it leaves review timelines to the declaration and bylaws.¹² The one statutory clock is narrow: a condominium EV-charging application is deemed approved if the association does not deny it in writing within sixty days of receipt, absent a reasonable request for more information (§ 47-04.1-16).² For planned communities, the declaration sets the timelines outright.

For condominiums, the compliance duty is statutory. Each owner has to comply with the bylaws, the administrative rules, and the covenants and restrictions in the declaration or deed, and noncompliance opens the door to a civil action for damages, injunctive relief, or other relief (§ 47-04.1-08).⁴ For planned communities, the expectation that architectural decisions be made in good faith, be reasonable, and be applied uniformly rests on North Dakota common-law contract and property doctrine, not on a statute. As a practical matter, architectural standards should appear in the recorded instruments, or be duly adopted under them, to be enforceable — because whether a planned-community restriction holds up turns on the covenants themselves.

Owners generally expect notice and a chance to be heard before fines or forced removal, and the declaration usually spells out that procedure. Covenant-enforcement and condominium-compliance actions move through the North Dakota District Courts, with appeals effectively running to the North Dakota Supreme Court.¹³

Section 3: Compliance obligations and operational mechanics

A. Association and architectural-committee obligations

Maintain and make available the architectural standards. For condominiums, this is statutory: the bylaws, rules, and regulations must be in writing and made available to every owner (§ 47-04.1-07).¹² For planned communities, it is contractual, set by the declaration.

Review and respond to applications within any declared timeline. Contractual for both community types, because no general statutory deadline exists — the exception being the sixty-day deemed-approval rule for condominium EV-charging applications (statutory, condominiums, § 47-04.1-16).²

Apply standards reasonably and uniformly, and document decisions. Contractual and common-law for planned communities; for condominiums, tied to the statutory compliance framework (§ 47-04.1-08).⁴

Observe the condominium-specific provisions. Statutory, condominiums only: the political-sign protection (§ 47-04.1-14) and the EV-charging protection (§ 47-04.1-16), including the civil-penalty exposure of up to one thousand dollars for a willful violation of the EV-charging section.²

Provide notice and an opportunity to be heard before enforcement. Contractual, set by the declaration for both community types.

B. Homeowner obligations and rights

Obtain approval before work. Submit an application and secure approval before installing a fence or doing exterior work wherever the declaration requires it. Contractual for planned communities; for condominiums, reinforced by the statutory compliance duty (§ 47-04.1-08).⁴

Comply with approved plans and published standards. Statutory for condominiums (§ 47-04.1-08); contractual for planned communities.

Know your position when the association fails to act or acts unfairly. If the association misses a declared deadline or applies standards unreasonably or selectively, the owner's remedies come mainly from the declaration and common law. North Dakota's thin overrides leave little statutory footing to defeat a CC&R restriction outside the condominium political-sign and EV-charging provisions.

C. Enforcement, remedies, and defenses

Association remedies. For condominiums, an owner's failure to comply with the covenants, bylaws, or rules is grounds for an action to recover damages, obtain injunctive relief, or seek other relief a court may provide (statutory, § 47-04.1-08).⁴ For planned communities, the remedies — injunctive relief, fines, forced removal or restoration, and recovery of enforcement costs or attorney fees — are contractual and depend on the declaration.

Condominium lien. A reasonable assessment for common expenses becomes a lien on the unit once it is recorded (statutory, condominiums, § 47-04.1-11).¹⁴ That is an assessment lien, not a general tool for exterior-violation fines.

Limits on enforcement. An association has to follow the declaration's own enforcement procedure; for condominiums, enforcement runs through the statutory compliance action (§ 47-04.1-08).⁴

Homeowner defenses. Selective enforcement, waiver or abandonment, and the argument that a restriction exceeds the authority the statute or the declaration grants. These are common-law and contractual defenses for planned communities; for condominiums, they operate alongside the statutory compliance framework.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent rulings

No published North Dakota Supreme Court opinion from the past thirty-six months squarely takes up covenant or condominium enforcement, architectural or exterior restrictions, or declaration interpretation. And because North Dakota's Court of Appeals is a temporary body that hears only the cases the Supreme Court assigns it, and sits infrequently — the North Dakota Court System reports that the court, established in 1987, has written opinions disposing of only 90 cases in its entire history — civil appeals in this area effectively run from the District Court to the North Dakota Supreme Court.¹³

C. Active legislative debates

North Dakota's Legislative Assembly meets in odd-numbered years. The 69th Assembly adjourned its regular session sine die on May 3, 2025, and a special session followed on January 21–23, 2026.¹⁶ No bill establishing a comprehensive planned-community statute, or adding a solar, landscaping, or general sign override for exterior control, turned up; the most recent HOA-and-condominium measure of note, SB 2229 (2025), dealt with resale disclosures rather than exterior authority.¹⁷

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

North Dakota sits in the CC&R-primary group of states. Strong-statutory-override states like California, Colorado, and Illinois pair their community-association codes with extensive statutory protections for solar, landscaping, and flag or sign display. Moderate states adopt some of those protections. North Dakota has a concise condominium statute, no comprehensive HOA statute, and few statutory limits on association exterior authority. What sets it apart is the pair of recent condominium-specific provisions — political signs and EV charging — and the near-absence of a continuously operating intermediate appellate court, since the Court of Appeals hears only assigned cases. National momentum has moved toward statutory solar and sign protections; North Dakota has moved only a short distance in that direction, and mostly within its condominium chapter.

HOA Weekly's North Dakota Fence and Exterior coverage updates quarterly as the Legislative Assembly and the North Dakota Supreme Court act. Federal frameworks apply to North Dakota associations too, whatever the state framework says, including the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, the FCC OTARD antenna rule, and the Fair Housing Act and the ADA for reasonable accommodations that affect exterior features.

Footnotes

1. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-04.1, Condominium Ownership of Real Property (full chapter text, ndlegis.gov) ↩
2. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-16, Electric vehicle charging station installation - Penalty (ndlegis.gov) ↩
3. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-04.1 (sections 47-04.1-01 through 47-04.1-16; no solar, landscaping, or flag override present) (ndlegis.gov) ↩
4. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-08, Compliance with covenants, bylaws, and administrative provisions (ndlegis.gov) ↩
5. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 10-33, Nonprofit Corporations Act (ndlegis.gov, Title 10 chapter listing) ↩
6. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 47-05-01.1 and 47-05-01.2, Solar easement - Creation; Contents (ndlegis.gov) ↩
7. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 47-04.1-02, 47-04.1-03, 47-04.1-04, Recording of declaration; Contents of declaration; Declaration of restrictions (ndlegis.gov) ↩
8. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-14, Covenant, declaration, bylaw, or other rule may not prohibit display of political signs (ndlegis.gov) ↩
9. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-243 (federal law, congress.gov) ↩
10. North Dakota Residential Code 2018, ch. 42 (swimming-pool barrier provisions, adopted through state/local building code) ↩
11. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-26, Division Fences (ndlegis.gov, Title 47 chapter listing) ↩
12. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-07, Administration - Bylaws - Rules and regulations (ndlegis.gov) ↩
13. North Dakota Court System, Court of Appeals (established 1987; has disposed of 90 cases; hears only cases assigned by the Supreme Court) (ndcourts.gov) ↩
14. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-11, Liens against units for common expenses (ndlegis.gov) ↩
15. HB 1310, 68th Legislative Assembly (2023), bill overview - electric vehicle charging station installation in condominiums; and to provide a penalty (ndlegis.gov) ↩
16. 69th Legislative Assembly - Regular Session (2025), convened January 7, 2025, adjourned May 3, 2025 (ndlegis.gov) ↩
17. SB 2229, 69th Legislative Assembly (2025), required disclosures before sale of a condominium unit or property subject to an HOA or condominium project (ndlegis.gov bill index) ↩