North Dakota HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in North Dakota

North Dakota doesn't limit a community association's authority to prohibit or restrict a unit owner's solar energy system through the recorded declaration. A review of the North Dakota Century Code, including Title 47 (property), shows no statute that voids or overrides declaration-based solar restrictions.¹ The only solar-specific provisions in state law are the solar easement statutes at N.D. Cent. Code sections 47-05-01.1 and 47-05-01.2, which allow a property owner to acquire a recorded easement for sunlight access by voluntary agreement with a neighboring owner.² Those provisions don't give a unit owner a right to install solar over an association's objection and don't constrain association authority.³ Separately, North Dakota regulates net metering on the utility side through the Public Service Commission, which governs the customer-utility billing relationship and isn't a source of authority over association solar decisions.⁴ As to the governing framework, condominiums answer to the North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act at Chapter 47-04.1,⁵ while planned-community HOAs answer to their recorded CC&Rs, the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act at Chapter 10-33, and common law.⁶ Nationally, this places North Dakota among the solar-easement-only states, not the strong-protection states.⁷ The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules for associations, recent legislative and judicial activity, and North Dakota's national positioning.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. Solar-access provision (or its absence)

North Dakota has no solar-access statute that limits an association's ability to prohibit or restrict solar through its declaration. A review of the North Dakota Century Code, including Title 47 (property) and the Condominium Ownership Act, confirms that no provision voids declaration-based solar prohibitions.¹ This is a confirmed absence, not an unverified gap: the Condominium Ownership Act contains two targeted owner-protection overrides, one barring prohibitions on political yard signs, section 47-04.1-14, and one barring effective prohibitions on electric vehicle charging stations, section 47-04.1-16, but it contains no comparable solar provision.⁵ The consequence runs direct: an association's authority over a solar installation is set by the recorded declaration and the applicable statutes, not by any solar-specific restriction-override. Where a declaration restricts or conditions rooftop solar, that restriction stays generally enforceable, subject to the general contract and property doctrines that govern all covenants.⁸ The utility-side boundary deserves a clear line. North Dakota's net metering policy, adopted in 1991 by the North Dakota Public Service Commission and applicable to renewable energy and combined heat and power systems up to 100 kilowatts in capacity for customers of investor-owned electric utilities, governs how a customer gets credited for excess generation.⁴ It doesn't address, expand, or limit an association's authority over whether or how solar may be installed. Net metering and the Public Service Commission belong to utility-customer policy, not community-association governance.

2B. The solar easement act and the governing framework

North Dakota has a voluntary solar easement act, codified at N.D. Cent. Code sections 47-05-01.1, covering creation, and 47-05-01.2, covering contents, within the servitudes chapter of Title 47.² Under section 47-05-01.1, an easement for the exposure of a solar energy device to the direct rays of the sun must be created in writing and is subject to the same conveyancing and recording requirements as other easements.² Under section 47-05-01.2, the instrument must describe the vertical and horizontal angles of the easement, any terms and conditions of grant or termination, and any provisions for compensation.² This is an enabling statute: it lets consenting owners create a recorded easement to protect sunlight access across a neighboring parcel. It doesn't give a unit owner a right to install solar over an association's objection, and it doesn't void or limit declaration-based solar restrictions.³ It is a solar easement act, not a solar-access statute, and the two shouldn't be conflated. The governing framework for community types runs as follows. Condominiums answer to the North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act at Chapter 47-04.1, under which a project gets created by recording a declaration, and a declaration of restrictions operates as enforceable equitable servitudes where reasonable.⁹ Planned-community HOAs have no comprehensive North Dakota statute; they answer to their recorded CC&Rs, the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act at Chapter 10-33 where the association incorporates as a nonprofit, and common law.⁶ North Dakota is not a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act state, and UCIOA features shouldn't be imported into the analysis.⁶

2C. The role of CC&Rs and architectural review

Absent a restriction-override, the recorded declaration and its architectural review provisions stand as the operative rules for solar in North Dakota. The order of precedence runs straightforward. If a solar restriction-override statute existed, it would control over conflicting CC&R provisions; because North Dakota has none, the declaration controls, subject to the general contract and property doctrines that govern covenants and to the applicable statutes — the Condominium Ownership Act for condominiums, the Nonprofit Corporation Act for incorporated HOAs.¹ Architectural review therefore carries the full operational weight of solar regulation. In a planned community, the authority of an architectural review committee to approve or deny a solar installation derives from the declaration itself; no state statute sets a floor or ceiling on what the committee may require.⁶ In a condominium, the analysis is shaped by the structure of ownership: under section 47-04.1-06, roofs, bearing walls, and other structural elements generally count as common areas owned by the unit owners as tenants in common, so an owner typically cannot install rooftop solar on a common-area roof without the administrative body's authorization.¹⁰ In both settings, the declaration and any recorded architectural standards, not a solar-specific statute, define what the association may require or refuse.

Section 3: What a North Dakota HOA can and cannot do regarding solar

A. Approval and architectural review

A solar installation is subject to whatever architectural review the governing documents impose; in a condominium, an owner must also comply strictly with the declaration, bylaws, and administrative rules under N.D. Cent. Code section 47-04.1-08.¹¹ No North Dakota statute requires an association to approve solar or to act within a fixed decision window, so the declaration's terms control.

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

Because North Dakota has no solar restriction-override, there is no statutory cap on what an association may restrict; the limits get set by the declaration's own terms and by general doctrines such as the requirement that condominium restrictions be reasonable under section 47-04.1-04 and that covenants be enforced in a non-arbitrary, non-discriminatory manner.⁹ An association may, consistent with its declaration, condition or even prohibit rooftop solar.

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules, where they exist, typically appear in the recorded declaration, the architectural guidelines, or board-adopted rules; in a condominium, bylaw amendments are valid only when adopted as a recorded amendment to the declaration under section 47-04.1-07.¹² North Dakota imposes no solar-specific resale or disclosure obligation on associations.

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

Solar disputes get litigated in the North Dakota District Courts, the courts of general jurisdiction, with appeals to the North Dakota Supreme Court; the North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act authorizes actions for damages, injunctive relief, or other relief for non-compliance under section 47-04.1-08.¹¹ North Dakota also has a Court of Appeals, but it runs as a temporary court convened only rarely to hear cases the Supreme Court assigns to it, so it isn't part of the ordinary appellate path.¹³ There is no solar-specific statutory remedy or fee-shifting provision.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill affecting a North Dakota community association's authority over solar energy systems was enacted or considered in the past 24 months. The North Dakota Legislative Assembly meets biennially in odd-numbered years, and its most recent regular session within the window, the 69th Legislative Assembly (2025), which convened January 7, 2025, and adjourned May 3, 2025, produced no HOA or condominium solar-authority measure.¹⁴ Lawmakers introduced more than 1,000 bills that session, of which Governor Kelly Armstrong signed 597, none an HOA or condominium solar-authority measure.¹⁵ The special session of the 69th Legislative Assembly, which convened January 21, 2026, and adjourned January 23, 2026, produced none either.¹⁶ Utility-side solar and net-metering matters sit outside the scope of this page.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No North Dakota Supreme Court opinion in the past 36 months addresses a community association's architectural or covenant authority as applied to solar energy systems.¹⁷ The nearest recent association case, Industrial Commission of North Dakota v. Gould, 2024 ND 32, concerns lien priority for unpaid assessments, not solar.¹⁸ A prominent solar-covenant decision, Belmont Ass'n, Inc. v. Farwig, 381 N.C. 306, 873 S.E.2d 486 (2022), decided June 17, 2022, is a North Carolina Supreme Court case interpreting N.C. Gen. Stat. section 22B-20 and has no application in North Dakota.¹⁹

C. Active legislative debates

There is no active, publicly tracked proposal to enact solar protection for North Dakota community associations. The next regular session will convene in 2027.¹⁴

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 — for example California Civil Code section 714, Florida Statutes section 163.04, Arizona Revised Statutes section 33-1816, Colorado Revised Statutes section 38-30-168, Nevada Revised Statutes section 278.0208, 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.⁷ North Dakota sits in the solar-easement-only category, because its only solar-specific statutes are the voluntary easement provisions at sections 47-05-01.1 and 47-05-01.2, which don't constrain associations.⁷ A solar easement act alone doesn't place a state in the strong-protection category. For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is that a North Dakota portfolio is governed by the recorded declarations, with no statutory solar carve-out to administer, in contrast to strong-protection states where boards must accommodate compliant installations. Legislative momentum on this issue in North Dakota stays minimal.

HOA Weekly's North Dakota Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the Legislative Assembly and the North Dakota Supreme Court act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule extends to rooftop solar, so North Dakota's state law controls here.

Footnotes

1. North Dakota Century Code, Title 47 (Property), North Dakota Legislative Branch (no solar restriction-override statute present) ↩
2. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 47-05-01.1 (Solar easement – Creation) and 47-05-01.2 (Solar easement – Contents), Chapter 47-05 (Servitudes) ↩
3. Community Associations Institute, Solar Rights and Easement Legislation by State (2023) (listing North Dakota among states with easement-protection laws only, without an express solar rights law) ↩
4. North Dakota Net Metering (adopted 1991 by the North Dakota Public Service Commission; renewable and CHP systems up to 100 kW; investor-owned utility customers), Clean Energy Authority / DSIRE ↩
5. N.D. Cent. Code Chapter 47-04.1 (Condominium Ownership of Real Property), including §§ 47-04.1-14 (political signs) and 47-04.1-16 (electric vehicle charging stations); no solar override ↩
6. North Dakota HOA Laws, Regulations & Resources, Homeowners Protection Bureau (no comprehensive HOA statute; N.D. Cent. Code Chapter 10-33, Nonprofit Corporations Act, applies to incorporated associations) ↩
7. Solar Rights & Easements in Community Associations, Community Associations Institute (three-category framework; North Dakota in the easement-protection group) ↩
8. Solar Access Laws by State, Palmetto ↩
9. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-04 (Declaration of restrictions; enforceable equitable servitudes where reasonable) ↩
10. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-06 (Incidents of a condominium grant; roofs and structural elements are common areas owned as tenants in common) ↩
11. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-08 (Compliance with covenants, bylaws, and administrative provisions; remedies) ↩
12. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-07 (Administration – Bylaws – Rules and regulations; amendment and recording) ↩
13. North Dakota Court System, Court of Appeals (temporary court hearing only cases assigned by the Supreme Court) ↩
14. 69th Legislative Assembly – Regular Session (2025), North Dakota Legislative Branch (convened Jan 7, 2025; adjourned May 3, 2025) ↩
15. 69th Legislative Assembly – Bills & Resolutions Index, North Dakota Legislative Branch (searchable index; no HOA/condominium solar-authority measure) ↩
16. 69th Legislative Assembly, North Dakota Secretary of State (special session convened Jan 21, 2026; adjourned Jan 23, 2026) ↩
17. North Dakota Supreme Court Opinions portal (no opinion on association authority as applied to solar within the past 36 months) ↩
18. Industrial Commission of North Dakota v. Gould, 2024 ND 32 (assessment lien priority; not solar) — North Dakota Supreme Court 2024 opinions ↩
19. Belmont Ass'n, Inc. v. Farwig, 381 N.C. 306 (2022) interpreting N.C. Gen. Stat. § 22B-20 (North Carolina; not applicable in North Dakota) ↩