North Dakota HOA Water Conservation

Section 1: Overview

North Dakota has no statute limiting an HOA's authority over water-efficient landscaping. Neither the North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act, N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1, nor any planned-community statute — there is none — restricts an association's power over drought-tolerant plantings, xeriscape, native low-water plants, artificial turf, or water-efficient irrigation.¹ Water-related landscaping rules for North Dakota communities are set by the recorded declaration and its architectural-control provisions, by the Condominium Ownership Act where a community is a condominium, and by the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act, N.D.C.C. ch. 10-33, for associations organized as nonprofit corporations.^1,5

State water-resource and agricultural-water law is a separate body of law. North Dakota allocates surface water and groundwater under the prior-appropriation doctrine administered by the Department of Water Resources; that law governs who may withdraw water and in what quantity and doesn't bear on whether an HOA may regulate a homeowner's landscaping.⁶

Nationally, North Dakota sits with the silent, CC&R-governed states rather than the drought-statute states — California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida — that limit HOA authority over water-wise landscaping.⁹ What follows details the governing framework, what it requires of associations, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. Statutory limits on HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping

A search of the North Dakota Century Code identifies no provision restricting HOA authority over drought-tolerant or xeriscape landscaping, native or low-water plantings, artificial turf, or water-efficient irrigation. The Condominium Ownership Act, the only condominium statute, addresses declarations, bylaws, common expenses, liens, and assessments; its substantive owner-protection provisions are limited to display of political signs, N.D.C.C. § 47-04.1-14, and electric-vehicle charging stations, N.D.C.C. § 47-04.1-16. It contains no landscaping, drought, or water-use carve-out.¹ Planned-community HOAs have no comprehensive North Dakota statute at all; they operate under recorded CC&Rs, the Nonprofit Corporation Act for corporate formalities, and common law.^5,10 North Dakota hasn't adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act.¹⁰

If North Dakota had enacted a water-landscaping protection, it would sit either in Title 47, property, or in a dedicated common-interest-community chapter, as it does in states that have legislated on the point. Colorado, under SB23-178 amending Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-106.5, provides that an association "may not prohibit the use of xeriscape, nonvegetative turf grass, or drought-tolerant vegetative landscapes," may not "unreasonably require the use of hardscape on more than twenty percent" of a yard, must allow an owner "an option that consists of at least eighty percent drought-tolerant plantings," and must select "at least three preplanned water-wise garden designs" preapproved for front yards.¹¹ California's Civil Code § 4735(a) makes a covenant or landscaping guideline "void and unenforceable" if it "(1) Prohibits, or includes conditions that have the effect of prohibiting, the use of low water-using plants as a group or as a replacement of existing turf" or "(2) Prohibits ... the use of artificial turf or any other synthetic surface that resembles grass."¹² Texas Property Code § 202.007(a) provides that an association "may not include or enforce a provision ... that prohibits or restricts a property owner from ... using drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf," and subsection (b) makes any violating provision "void."¹³ North Dakota has adopted nothing similar.

2B. Related water law, drought response, rainwater and graywater

North Dakota allocates water under the prior-appropriation doctrine, administered by the Department of Water Resources under N.D.C.C. ch. 61-04 and N.D.A.C. Article 89-03. This water-rights framework determines priority among users and governs permits for appropriations above the domestic and stock thresholds. It's background context for the state's water picture and doesn't constrain or empower an HOA's authority over a homeowner's landscaping.⁶

North Dakota's drought response is coordinated through state agencies and doesn't reach private landscaping enforcement; no state drought-declaration mechanism overrides or suspends HOA covenants.⁶ On rainwater, no North Dakota statute addresses harvesting as against an HOA; rainwater harvesting for domestic outdoor use is generally lawful, with a water-rights permit potentially required only for large-scale irrigation, industrial, or commercial use.² On graywater, North Dakota has no HOA-specific provision; graywater and on-site nonpotable reuse are handled under the state plumbing and residential codes.³ None of these bodies of law limits an association's landscaping authority.

2C. Where water-conservation rules actually live in North Dakota

For a North Dakota community, any water-related landscaping rule lives in the recorded declaration and its architectural-control provisions. The CC&Rs are a contract among owners; they define what plantings, turf, irrigation, and hardscape are permitted and set the approval process for changes.¹ For a condominium, the Condominium Ownership Act supplies the general framework — declaration, bylaws, administration — but the substantive landscaping rules still come from the declaration and bylaws recorded under it.¹ For a planned community, there's no comprehensive statute; the framework is the CC&Rs plus the Nonprofit Corporation Act corporate formalities — member meetings, board authority, notice.⁵

The practical, owner-facing water rules come from the local water system, not from state HOA law. Fargo operates a four-phase Drought Response Plan; in Phase II "watering restrictions will shift from a once per week watering schedule to odd/even outdoor water restrictions for residential, commercial and industrial uses as well as for landscape watering."⁷ Bismarck uses voluntary outdoor-watering schedules that become enforceable, with first-offense citations, at higher stages.¹⁴ Grand Forks operates a five-phase Drought Management and Demand Reduction Plan under which early phases request voluntary limits and, "starting at phase three the city would start to mandate lawn and other outdoor watering restrictions."¹⁵ These utility measures operate independently of the HOA framework. The operational takeaway: a manager looking for "North Dakota HOA water conservation law" will find the rulebook in the declaration and the local water system's rules, not in an HOA-specific water statute.

Section 3: What the framework requires of HOAs

A. Landscaping approval and architectural review

Landscaping approval authority is contractual, arising from the declaration's architectural-control provisions. Where covenants grant an architectural committee discretion over structures and site changes, North Dakota courts enforce that discretion; the Supreme Court interprets restrictive covenants under ordinary contract rules and gives them "full effect" when "clearly established."⁴ For a condominium, the authority to adopt and administer rules is framed by the Condominium Ownership Act, N.D.C.C. § 47-04.1-07, a provision that applies only to condominiums and operates through the recorded declaration and bylaws, which may be varied by the declaration.¹

B. Drought response and watering restrictions

Outdoor-watering restrictions are local. They come from the municipal water system — Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks — and apply to residents regardless of HOA membership.^7,14,15 No statutory state water-conservation provision governs association enforcement during drought. Where a CC&R requires a green, irrigated lawn while the local water system limits watering, the tension is a contract-versus-local-rule question resolved under general law, not under a water-conservation statute.

C. Rule adoption and disclosure

Rule adoption for a planned community is corporate and contractual: the board acts under the Nonprofit Corporation Act and the declaration/bylaws, which set voting, notice, and amendment procedures.⁵ For a condominium, bylaw amendments must be set forth in and recorded as an amendment to the declaration under the Condominium Ownership Act.¹

D. Enforcement limits and conflicts

Enforcement authority is contractual, derived from the declaration's covenant-enforcement and fining provisions.⁴ There's no statutory drought-enforcement limit and no statutory ban on fining owners for dormant or unwatered lawns. Two general-law limits apply. First, an assessment lien created by a declaration doesn't automatically prime a prior recorded mortgage; the North Dakota Supreme Court has held a declaration cannot manufacture a "super lien" contrary to the first-in-time rule.¹⁶ Second, covenants are enforced as written and construed under contract principles, so an association's authority is bounded by the text of its declaration.⁴

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills (past 24 months)

No qualifying bill turned up. A review of the 69th Legislative Assembly, 2025, and the 2026 special session located no measure creating or affecting HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping, drought enforcement, rainwater harvesting, or graywater.⁸

B. Recent North Dakota Supreme Court rulings (past 36 months)

North Dakota HOA civil disputes proceed through the District Courts and, on appeal, go directly to the North Dakota Supreme Court; the temporary Court of Appeals rarely sits.⁴ Two decisions within the window bear on HOA covenant-enforcement authority, though neither addresses water-conservation landscaping directly.

C. Active legislative debates

No active North Dakota legislative debate on HOA water-conservation landscaping turned up.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

On water conservation, states cluster into three groups. First, states with statutes limiting HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping, concentrated in drought-exposed jurisdictions such as California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, and Utah.^9,11,12,13 Second, states with partial or emerging provisions, where bills have been introduced or protections reach only some landscaping types. Third, silent, CC&R-governed states, which include most Great Plains states and North Dakota, where the declaration and local water system control.⁹ For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is direct: a firm accustomed to Colorado xeriscape-protection rules shouldn't assume any equivalent applies in North Dakota, where an HOA's landscaping authority is bounded only by its own declaration and general law. North Dakota shows no current legislative momentum toward such a statute.⁸

HOA Weekly's North Dakota water-conservation coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the North Dakota Supreme Court act. For North Dakota communities, the practically controlling water rules are the declaration and the local water system. Federal frameworks apply to North Dakota associations regardless of state law — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act among them.

Footnotes

1. N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1, Condominium Ownership of Real Property (section list, showing owner-protection provisions limited to § 47-04.1-14 political signs and § 47-04.1-16 EV charging), North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
2. N.D.C.C. Title 61, Waters, North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
3. North Dakota Residential Code (2018 IRC as adopted), Ch. 30 Sanitary Drainage, on-site nonpotable water reuse / subsurface landscape irrigation ↩
4. Berger v. Sellers, 2023 ND 171 (Sept. 28, 2023), North Dakota Supreme Court ↩
5. N.D.C.C. ch. 10-33, Nonprofit Corporations, North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
6. North Dakota Department of Water Resources, Regulation & Appropriation (water managed under N.D.C.C. ch. 61-04 and N.D.A.C. Art. 89-03, prior-appropriation doctrine) ↩
7. City of Fargo, Fargo Watering Restrictions / Drought Response Plan (Phase II odd/even outdoor watering) ↩
8. North Dakota Legislative Assembly, 69th Assembly (2025-26) Bills & Resolutions Index ↩
9. National survey of state laws on water-efficient landscaping and rainwater harvesting (drought-statute states vs. silent states) ↩
10. N.D.C.C. Title 47, Property (chapter list showing no planned-community or common-interest-ownership chapter; North Dakota has not adopted UCIOA) ↩
11. Colorado SB23-178, Water-wise Landscaping in HOA Communities, amending C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5 (Colorado General Assembly) ↩
12. Cal. Civ. Code § 4735 (low water-using plants and artificial turf; covenants void and unenforceable) ↩
13. Tex. Prop. Code § 202.007 (drought-resistant landscaping and water-conserving turf; violating provisions void) ↩
14. City of Bismarck, Utility Operations / outdoor water use restrictions (voluntary and enforceable stages) ↩
15. City of Grand Forks, Public Works Water / Drought Management and Demand Reduction Plan (mandatory restrictions begin at Phase 3) ↩
16. Industrial Commission of North Dakota (N.D. Housing Finance Agency) v. Gould, 2024 ND 32 (Feb. 22, 2024), North Dakota Supreme Court (lien priority; declaration cannot create a super lien over a prior mortgage; N.D.C.C. § 35-01-14) ↩