Ohio HOA Architectural Review

Section 1: Overview — How architectural review works in Ohio

Ohio splits its rules along two tracks. The state governs condominiums under the Ohio Condominium Act, R.C. Chapter 5311,¹ and it governs planned communities under the Ohio Planned Community Law, R.C. Chapter 5312.² The two tracks do not overlap, because a condominium, as R.C. 5311.01 defines it, is not a planned community.² Whichever chapter applies, the recorded declaration holds the architectural authority, and the chapter frames how the board administers it. So start by classifying the community. A condominium falls under Chapter 5311. A planned community — a set of individual lots whose deed, common plan, or declaration requires association membership, the holding of common property, or support by fees — falls under Chapter 5312, and its owners association must organize as a nonprofit corporation under R.C. 5312.03(B).³ Both chapters carry a limited solar provision that lets an owner install a solar energy collection device unless the declaration specifically prohibits it, and in a condominium a declaration that bans display of the United States flag will not hold up.^4,5 Enforcement follows a statutory path: before it imposes a charge for damages or an enforcement assessment, the board must give the owner written notice and a right to a hearing before the board.^6,7 Disputes move from the Ohio Court of Common Pleas to the Ohio District Court of Appeals, organized in twelve appellate districts, and then to the Supreme Court of Ohio. Ohio keeps no dedicated state agency to regulate community associations. The sections that follow lay out the source and scope of authority, the process and enforcement procedure, the statutory and federal limits, the specific compliance obligations, and recent activity in the legislature and the courts.

Section 2: The architectural-review framework

2A. Source and scope of architectural authority

Architectural control in Ohio starts with the recorded declaration, and the board of directors — or an architectural committee that the declaration or bylaws create — administers it inside the framework of whichever chapter governs. Two statutes shape the landscape. The Ohio Condominium Act, R.C. Chapter 5311, applies once an owner submits property to the chapter by executing and recording a declaration.¹ The Ohio Planned Community Law, R.C. Chapter 5312, which Senate Bill 187 of the 128th General Assembly added effective September 10, 2010, applies to planned communities — communities of individual lots whose deed, common plan, or declaration requires association membership, the holding or leasing of property or facilities for owners, or support by membership or fees.⁸ The two chapters do not overlap. Chapter 5312 says so directly: a condominium property, as R.C. 5311.01 defines it, is not a planned community.² A planned-community owners association must organize as a nonprofit corporation under R.C. 5312.03(B), which places it under the Ohio Nonprofit Corporation Law, R.C. Chapter 1702, and under the Secretary of State for its corporate existence.^3,9 Classification comes first, then, because the governing chapter and its section numbers change with it, and citing the wrong chapter is a recurring mistake. For a professional reader, the order of precedence runs from the applicable chapter to the declaration, then the bylaws, then the rules and any architectural guidelines the board adopts under them.

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

Neither chapter sets a statutory deadline for deciding an architectural application, a deemed-approval rule, or a mandatory written architectural denial. The review process itself comes from the declaration, so a professional reader should look to the declaration, bylaws, and architectural guidelines for application timelines, submission requirements, and committee composition. The governing standard, though, is statutory. Every owner, every occupant, and the association must comply with the covenants, conditions, and restrictions in a recorded deed or the declaration, and with the bylaws and lawful rules. When someone violates them, the association or any owner may bring a civil action for damages, injunctive relief, or both, and recover court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees — under R.C. 5311.19 for condominiums and R.C. 5312.13 for planned communities.^10,11 Architectural standards, and the way a board applies them, should stay reasonable and consistent with the declaration. A monetary charge follows a specific procedure. Before it imposes a charge for damages or an enforcement assessment, the board must give the owner written notice — which may go by email to an address the owner supplied in writing — that describes the violation, states the amount of the proposed charge or assessment, tells the owner about the right to a hearing before the board, explains how to request one, and sets a reasonable date to cure the violation and avoid the charge. The owner has until the tenth day after receiving the notice to ask for a hearing, the board must give at least seven days' notice of it, and the board may not levy the charge until it holds a hearing the owner requested. That procedure appears at R.C. 5311.081 for condominiums and R.C. 5312.11 for planned communities.^6,7 No self-help remedy exists, and a court makes the final call in a dispute between an association and an owner. So the practical sequence for a professional reader is straightforward: classify the community, ground the architectural decision in the declaration, apply the standards reasonably and consistently, and follow the notice-and-hearing procedure before charging an owner for a violation.

2C. Statutory and federal limits on architectural authority

Two carve-outs limit how far the declaration can reach, and both are narrow. The solar provisions — R.C. 5311.192 for condominiums and R.C. 5312.16 for planned communities — came in through Senate Bill 61 of the 134th General Assembly and took effect September 13, 2022.^4,12,13 They let an owner install a solar energy collection device unless the declaration specifically prohibits it. In a condominium, the right reaches only a "solar appropriate unit" — one with no other unit directly above or below it. The owner has to bear the cost to insure, maintain, repair, and replace the roof or the device, and the association may set reasonable restrictions on the size, place, and manner of placement.^4,12 This is not a flat ban on solar prohibitions: a declaration that specifically prohibits solar devices still holds. The condominium flag provision, R.C. 5311.191, makes any declaration, bylaw, rule, or agreement that bars display of the United States flag against public policy and unenforceable — subject to display consistent with federal patriotic custom and a flag or flagpole of appropriate size.⁵ Ohio confirms no carve-out for political or campaign signs, for drought-tolerant or native landscaping, or for a separate electric-vehicle-charging right; the declaration governs those. Three federal overlays also apply in Ohio, and they add to state law rather than replace it: the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, which protects display of the United States flag subject to reasonable restrictions necessary for safety;¹⁴ the FCC over-the-air reception devices rule at 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, which limits restrictions on most antennas and satellite dishes one meter or less;¹⁵ and the Fair Housing Act reasonable-modification right at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A), which allows owner-funded, reasonable disability-related exterior modifications.¹⁶

Section 3: Compliance obligations in the architectural-review process

A. Adopting and maintaining architectural standards

The power to adopt and apply architectural standards rests on the declaration. The board, or an architectural committee, exercises the authority the declaration and bylaws grant, and the governing chapter recognizes the board's power to regulate the use, maintenance, and appearance of the property and to adopt rules — R.C. 5311.081 for condominiums, R.C. 5312.06 for planned communities.⁶ The duty to keep those standards reasonable and consistent with the declaration flows from the declaration itself, read against the compliance provisions of the applicable chapter.^10,11

B. Reviewing and deciding applications

The duties to follow a submission process, to decide within any stated timeline, and to communicate a decision rest on the declaration, because neither chapter imposes a statutory decision deadline, a deemed-approval rule, or a mandatory written architectural denial. But a board that means to charge an owner for an unapproved modification must, as a statutory matter, give the written notice and cure date the law requires before a charge — R.C. 5311.081 and R.C. 5312.11.^6,7

C. Honoring statutory and federal owner protections

The solar protection is statutory: an owner of a non-stacked solar appropriate unit in a condominium, or an owner on that owner's own dwelling or lot in a planned community, may install a solar energy collection device unless the declaration specifically prohibits it, subject to reasonable size, place, and manner restrictions — R.C. 5311.192 and R.C. 5312.16.^4,12 The condominium flag protection is statutory too: a condominium declaration provision that bars display of the United States flag is unenforceable, under R.C. 5311.191.⁵ Three federal protections are also statutory and additive: the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005,¹⁴ the FCC OTARD rule at 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000,¹⁵ and the Fair Housing Act reasonable-modification right at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A).¹⁶

D. Enforcement and dispute resolution

The notice-and-hearing procedure before a charge for damages or an enforcement assessment is statutory — R.C. 5311.081 for condominiums, R.C. 5312.11 for planned communities — and the board may not levy the charge until it holds a requested hearing.^6,7 The association's lien for unpaid assessments and charges is statutory as well, and a court enforces it by judicial foreclosure in the same manner as a mortgage — R.C. 5311.18 for condominiums, R.C. 5312.12 for planned communities. Ohio grants no super-priority lien, so the association lien sits behind real-estate tax liens and behind a first mortgage recorded earlier.^17,18 The right to sue for damages or injunctive relief, with court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees, is statutory — R.C. 5311.19 and R.C. 5312.13.^10,11 The lack of a self-help remedy, and the role of a court as the final decision-maker, both follow from a statutory scheme that hands no ongoing enforcement authority over associations to any executive agency.³

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two measures frame the current picture in Ohio — one still moving through committee, one already settled law.

B. Recent rulings

Two recent appellate decisions shape how enforcement plays out in Ohio — one on the right to a jury, one on the limits of an owner's defenses.

C. Active legislative debates

Community-association commentators report interest in mandatory reserve studies and in association lien-priority reform. But no bill in the 136th General Assembly amends R.C. 5311.18 or 5312.12 on lien priority or requires a mandatory reserve study, and the political-sign proposal, H.B. 16, remains in House committee.¹⁹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Ohio sits in the middle of the pack — a moderate, two-statute state. It offers more structure than the covenant-primary states that leave architectural control almost entirely to the declaration, because it supplies a statutory notice-and-hearing procedure before an enforcement charge and a limited solar carve-out in both chapters. Yet it lacks the dense architectural carve-out clusters that California and Nevada apply to signs, landscaping, clotheslines, and electric-vehicle charging. For a multi-state operator, the takeaways in Ohio come down to four points: the community type decides the governing chapter; a specific declaration prohibition can defeat the solar right; an enforcement charge requires written notice and a hearing right; and a court, not a state agency, has the final word. That places Ohio well above thin-statute states such as Mississippi and North Dakota, which give associations far less statutory structure for authority and enforcement.

HOA Weekly's Ohio Architectural Review coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly, the Supreme Court of Ohio, and the Ohio District Courts of Appeals act. Federal frameworks, including the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, the FCC OTARD rule, and the Fair Housing Act, apply to Ohio associations in addition to state law.

1. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. ch. 5311 (Condominium Property) ↩
2. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. ch. 5312 (Ohio Planned Community Law) ("A condominium property as defined in section 5311.01 of the Revised Code is not a 'planned community.'") ↩
3. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.03(B) ("The owners association shall be organized as a nonprofit corporation pursuant to Chapter 1702. of the Revised Code.") ↩
4. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5311.192 (solar energy collection devices; "solar appropriate unit"; reasonable size, place, and manner restrictions; eff. Sept. 13, 2022) ↩
5. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5311.191 (condominium declaration prohibiting display of the United States flag unenforceable) ↩
6. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5311.081 (powers and duties of board of directors; notice and hearing before a charge for damages or enforcement assessment) ↩
7. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.11 (individual lot assessments; notice and hearing before a charge for damages or enforcement assessment) ↩
8. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.01 (definition of "planned community"; added by S.B. 187, eff. Sept. 10, 2010) ↩
9. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. ch. 1702 (Nonprofit Corporation Law) ↩
10. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5311.19 (compliance; civil action for damages or injunctive relief with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees) ↩
11. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.13 (compliance with covenants, conditions, and restrictions; action for damages) ↩
12. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.16 (solar energy collection devices, planned communities; eff. Sept. 13, 2022) ↩
13. Sub. S.B. 61, 134th Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2022) (sponsors Blessing and Antonio; signed June 14, 2022; eff. Sept. 13, 2022; enacted Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §§ 5311.192, 5312.16; addressed electronic notices, reserves, and insurance) ↩
14. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572 ↩
15. 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 (Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule) ↩
16. 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A) (Fair Housing Act reasonable-modification right) ↩
17. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5311.18 (lien for common expenses, condominiums) ↩
18. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.12 (liens, planned communities) ↩
19. H.B. 16, 136th Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2025) (political yard signs; introduced Jan. 23, 2025; House General Government Committee, third hearing Apr. 29, 2025) ↩
20. Porter v. Hammond N. Condominium Ass'n, 2025-Ohio-2210 (Ohio Ct. App. 1st Dist. June 25, 2025) ↩
21. Brooksedge Homeowners Ass'n, Inc. v. Stafford, 2023-Ohio-2660 (Ohio Ct. App. 5th Dist. July 31, 2023) ↩