Oregon HOA ADUs & Modifications

Section 1: Overview — ADUs and modifications in Oregon

Oregon runs its common-interest communities on two statutes, and it hands owners real protection. The Planned Community Act voids any governing-document ban on solar panels outright (ORS 94.778),¹ and it guarantees an owner the right to install an electric-vehicle charging station (ORS 94.762).² Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and middle housing follow a different track — municipal zoning drives them, and after a 2025 enactment that zoning now reaches into association covenants. Two statutes divide the field. The Oregon Planned Community Act, ORS 94.550 to 94.783, governs planned communities;³ the Oregon Condominium Act, ORS Chapter 100, governs condominiums, with the Oregon Real Estate Agency overseeing condominium filings.⁴ Oregon is not a UCIOA state. The solar and EV protections live in the Planned Community Act; the Condominium Act carries a verified EV parallel (ORS 100.627) but no confirmed permanent solar counterpart.⁵ House Bill 2001 (2019) sets ADU and middle-housing permissibility mainly at the municipal-zoning level,⁶ and House Bill 2138 (2025) amended ORS 94.776 to void covenants that restrict ADUs and middle housing, operative January 1, 2027.⁷ Four federal rules bind every Oregon association no matter what the state says: the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005,⁸ the FCC OTARD rule for antennas and satellite dishes,⁹ the Fair Housing Act's reasonable-modification requirement,¹⁰ and ADA Title III for common-area public accommodations.¹¹ What follows lays out the framework, the obligations it creates, and the recent moves in the legislature and the courts.

Section 2: The legal framework

2A. The two statutes and the regulator

Oregon sorts its common-interest communities into two tracks. The Planned Community Act, ORS 94.550 to 94.783, governs planned communities. A planned community comes to life when someone records a declaration and forms a homeowners association — no later than the conveyance of the first lot (ORS 94.625).¹² The Condominium Act, ORS Chapter 100, governs condominiums. So start every modification question with a single inquiry: which statute applies? The answer matters, because the owner-protective provisions that follow sit in the Planned Community Act, and they do not automatically carry over to condominiums.

In a planned community, ORS 94.630 spells out what an association may do: adopt and amend rules, pass budgets, collect assessments, and take the other steps needed to run the community. But the statute makes those powers expressly "subject to" the owner-protective provisions — ORS 94.762 (EV charging), 94.763 (pesticides), 94.776 (development and division of lots), 94.778 (solar), and 94.779 (unenforceability of certain requirements).¹³ Older communities follow a narrower rule. A Class I or Class II planned community created before January 1, 2002 that was not created under the Act answers only to the enumerated list in ORS 94.572 — and that list includes the EV provision (94.762) but leaves out the solar provision (94.778) and 94.776. For those communities, the distinction matters.¹⁴

Condominiums follow their own organizational rule. ORS 100.405 requires any condominium created on or after September 27, 2007 to organize as a corporation, with an exception for small condominiums of four or fewer units, not counting parking, storage, and ancillary units.¹⁵ The Oregon Real Estate Agency oversees condominium creation, filings, and unit-owner-association reporting under ORS Chapter 100.⁴ Oregon does not license community association managers as a category; it licenses real-estate brokers and property managers under ORS Chapter 696.¹⁶ Architectural-review authority itself flows from the declaration, and Oregon's appellate courts read that authority against a contractual duty of good faith — a committee cannot use aesthetic discretion to defeat an owner's objectively reasonable expectations.¹⁷

2B. Solar, EV charging, and the owner-protective provisions

Solar carries the strongest protection. ORS 94.778 declares that any provision in a planned community's declaration or bylaws barring an owner from installing or using solar panels for solar access "is void and unenforceable as a violation of the public policy to protect the public health, safety and welfare of the people of Oregon." The same section lets the association keep "a provision that imposes reasonable size, placement or aesthetic requirements."¹ In other words, the statute kills an outright ban but leaves reasonable regulation standing. ORS 94.778 lives in the Planned Community Act, and no confirmed parallel in the Condominium Act voids a solar ban for condominiums — so do not assume condominiums get the same treatment.

EV charging is the second protection, and it reaches both statutes. Under ORS 94.762, an owner may apply to install an EV charging station for personal, noncommercial use in a parking space or area subject to the owner's exclusive use, and the association "may not prohibit" a compliant installation — regardless of what the declaration or bylaws say. The association "shall approve a completed application within 60 days after the owner submits the application unless the delay in approving the application is based on a reasonable request for additional information."² The association keeps real authority: it may require an application, impose reasonable architectural standards, require the installer to hold at least a journeyman electrician license, and — where the station is not a certified electrical product — require the owner to carry a homeowner liability insurance policy of at least $1 million naming the association as an additional insured.² The Condominium Act carries a verified parallel at ORS 100.627, with materially similar terms for unit owners.⁵

Two more provisions touch modifications. ORS 94.779 voids irrigation requirements in a planned community's governing documents or landscaping guidelines during a declared drought, a water-curtailment ordinance, or an association water-reduction rule, and it lets associations require or allow xeriscaping; it also voids certain restrictions on family child care and on portable cooling devices.¹⁸ ORS 94.776 governs the development and division of lots and, as amended in 2025, now limits covenants that block ADUs and middle housing — the subject of the next section. The upshot is straightforward: solar and EV are protected categories in planned communities, while most other exterior modifications turn on the declaration, subject to the federal overlays.

2C. ADUs, middle housing, and federal overlays

State housing law drives ADUs and middle housing, and it operates at the municipal-zoning level. Senate Bill 1051 (2017) told cities over 2,500 in population to allow ADUs in areas zoned for detached single-family dwellings, subject to reasonable local siting and design rules.¹⁹ House Bill 2001 (2019) went further: it required medium cities of 10,000 to 25,000 outside Metro to allow duplexes by June 30, 2021, and required large cities over 25,000 and the Portland metro region to allow duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, cottage clusters, and townhouses by June 30, 2022, on land zoned for single-family dwellings.⁶ Those mandates bind local governments, not associations directly. For years the covenant question stayed open — could an HOA still say no? House Bill 2138 (2025) answered it. The bill amends ORS 94.776 to retroactively invalidate covenants, conditions, and restrictions that restrict middle housing or ADU development, and it applies to governing documents adopted before, on, or after enactment, with the ORS 94.776 amendment operative January 1, 2027.⁷ So the analysis runs in two layers: municipal zoning must permit the housing type, and after January 1, 2027 an association covenant may not prohibit it. That puts Oregon alongside covenant-preemption states such as California (Civ. Code § 4751)²⁰ and Colorado (HB 24-1152)²¹ — though Oregon got there through a housing statute amending its Planned Community Act rather than a standalone HOA-preemption law.

Wildfire law has shifted under Oregon associations. Senate Bill 762 (2021) built a statewide wildfire risk map and a defensible-space framework, but Senate Bill 83 (2025) repealed the statewide hazard map along with the map-tied defensible-space and building-code mandates, and directed the State Fire Marshal to develop a model defensible-space code that localities may adopt on their own.²² Today the association interaction runs through fire-hardening, covered in Section 4 — not through a statewide defensible-space mandate.

Four federal overlays bind every Oregon association, whatever the state framework provides. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 protects display of the U.S. flag.⁸ The FCC OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, protects antennas and satellite dishes within an owner's exclusive-use area.⁹ The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A), requires an association to permit reasonable modifications for disability, generally at the resident's expense.¹⁰ And ADA Title III reaches common-area facilities that qualify as public accommodations.¹¹

Section 3: Compliance obligations created by the framework

A. Architectural review process obligations

Review authority begins with the declaration, and the governing act frames how a board may use it. In a planned community, the association exercises its ORS 94.630 powers subject to the statutory owner-protective provisions.¹³ Boards should decide modification applications in writing and keep records, because Oregon's appellate courts apply a contractual good-faith standard to architectural determinations, and an unexplained or arbitrary denial is vulnerable — the authority arises from the declaration and, for condominiums, under ORS Chapter 100.¹⁷ An association may adopt reasonable rules for modifications, but it may not use them to override a protected category.

B. Modifications the association must permit

Put positively, here is what an Oregon association must allow. Solar: an outright prohibition is void and unenforceable, though reasonable size, placement, and aesthetic requirements survive (ORS 94.778; planned communities; no confirmed Chapter 100 parallel, so verify the condominium result against the declaration and counsel).¹ EV charging: an association may not prohibit a compliant installation in an exclusive-use area, and it generally must act within 60 days (ORS 94.762 for planned communities; ORS 100.627 for condominiums).² On top of state law, four federal overlays bind both kinds of community and are not Oregon statutes: U.S. flag display under the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, antennas and satellite dishes under OTARD (47 C.F.R. § 1.4000), reasonable disability modifications at the resident's expense under the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A)), and qualifying common-area accessibility under ADA Title III.^8,9,10,11 Keep the tests distinct: solar is a void-prohibition standard, EV is a no-unreasonable-denial-plus-deadline standard, and each federal overlay carries its own test.

C. ADU and middle-housing obligations and limits on HOA authority

The ADU and middle-housing mandates bind localities, which must allow the housing types that SB 1051 (2017) and HB 2001 (2019) require.⁶ As for associations, HB 2138 (2025) amends ORS 94.776 to invalidate covenants that restrict ADUs or middle housing, operative January 1, 2027.⁷ Before that date, and outside the amended provision's scope, the declaration otherwise governs lot use and configuration. A board sitting on anti-ADU or anti-density covenants should treat them as unenforceable for covered housing once the amendment takes effect.

D. Enforcement, dispute resolution, and appeal obligations

An association enforces its declaration, and it may levy fines only after written notice and an opportunity to be heard, working from a fine schedule delivered or mailed to each lot (ORS 94.630).¹³ Whatever dispute-resolution or hearing procedure the declaration requires, the association must follow it. Contested modification and covenant-enforcement disputes move through the Oregon Circuit Courts, with appeal to the Oregon Court of Appeals and discretionary review by the Oregon Supreme Court.²³

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two recent measures reshape what Oregon associations may restrict — one strips covenants of the power to block ADUs and middle housing, and one protects owners who harden their homes against wildfire.

B. Recent appellate rulings

One decision from the past year speaks directly to how far an architectural committee's aesthetic discretion reaches — and where a good-faith duty draws the line.

C. Active legislative debates

Two threads are still moving. House Bill 4080 (2026) would extend owner protections to portable solar photovoltaic energy devices and portable cooling devices by amending ORS 94.779 and 100.023, with a proposed operative date of January 1, 2027; confirm its final status before relying on it.²⁵ And the Land Conservation and Development Commission is running rulemaking to implement HB 2138's middle-housing and ADU standards, on statutory deadlines that run through 2028.⁷

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Oregon sits among the comprehensive two-statute states, and three features set it apart: a void-prohibition solar provision (ORS 94.778) that kills a ban outright instead of testing it for reasonableness, an enumerated set of owner protections in the Planned Community Act (EV charging under ORS 94.762, drought-driven landscaping relief under ORS 94.779), and active state housing law on ADUs and middle housing. On ADUs, Oregon now lines up with covenant-preemption states such as California (Civ. Code § 4751) and Colorado (HB 24-1152): its ADU and middle-housing mandates operate at the municipal-zoning level, but HB 2138 (2025) amended ORS 94.776 to invalidate restrictive covenants, operative January 1, 2027, while its solar provision remains among the strongest in the country. For a multi-state operator, the practical point is direct: in Oregon an anti-solar covenant is void in planned communities, EV charging cannot be unreasonably denied, and ADUs and middle housing turn on municipal zoning plus the amended covenant rule.

This Oregon ADUs and Modifications coverage updates quarterly as the Legislative Assembly, the Real Estate Agency, and the Oregon courts act. The federal frameworks noted here — the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, the OTARD rule, the Fair Housing Act, and the ADA — apply to Oregon associations no matter what the state framework says.

1. ORS 94.778, Prohibition against installation of solar panels void and unenforceable (Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 94) ↩
2. ORS 94.762, Electric vehicle charging stations (Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 94) ↩
3. ORS Chapter 94, Real Property Development (Oregon Planned Community Act, ORS 94.550 to 94.783) ↩
4. ORS Chapter 100, Condominiums (including ORS 100.015, Rules/Regulation by Real Estate Commissioner) ↩
5. ORS 100.627, Electric vehicle charging stations (Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 100) ↩
6. Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, Housing Choices (House Bill 2001), compliance deadlines June 30, 2021 (medium cities) and June 30, 2022 (large cities and Metro) ↩
7. Enrolled House Bill 2138 (2025 Regular Session), Sections 9–11 (amendments to ORS 94.776, operative January 1, 2027; retroactive covenant invalidation) ↩
8. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-243 (109th Congress, H.R. 42) ↩
9. FCC, Over-the-Air Reception Devices (OTARD) Rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 ↩
10. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, reasonable modifications under the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A) ↩
11. U.S. Department of Justice, Americans with Disabilities Act Title III (public accommodations) ↩
12. ORS 94.625, Formation of homeowners association; adoption of initial bylaws (Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 94) ↩
13. ORS 94.630, Powers of association (powers subject to ORS 94.762, 94.763, 94.776, 94.778 and 94.779) ↩
14. ORS 94.572, Applicability of certain provisions to Class I or Class II planned communities created before January 1, 2002 (enumerated list includes 94.762; omits 94.776 and 94.778) ↩
15. ORS 100.405, association organization requirement for condominiums created on or after September 27, 2007, with small-condominium exception (Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 100) ↩
16. ORS Chapter 696, Real Estate and Escrow Activities (broker and property-manager licensing; no separate community-association-manager credential) ↩
17. Santoro v. Eagle Crest Estate Homesite Owners Assn., 349 Or App 725 (Or Ct App, May 20, 2026) (post-remand); Santoro I, 319 Or App 793, 512 P3d 828 (2022) (Oregon Judicial Department, Court of Appeals opinions) ↩
18. ORS 94.779, Unenforceability of certain irrigation requirements and restrictions on family child care and portable cooling devices (Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 94) ↩
19. Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, Housing Choice (accessory dwelling units under Senate Bill 1051 (2017), codified in ORS Chapter 197A) ↩
20. California Civil Code § 4751 (accessory dwelling unit covenant preemption) ↩
21. Colorado House Bill 24-1152, Accessory Dwelling Units ↩
22. Senate Bill 83 (2025 Regular Session), repeal of statewide wildfire hazard map and map-tied defensible-space and building-code mandates (originally under Senate Bill 762 (2021)) ↩
23. Oregon Judicial Department, court structure (Circuit Courts, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court) ↩
24. Enrolled Senate Bill 1551 (2026 Regular Session), fire hardening of residential properties; 2026 Oregon Laws chapter 86; effective 91st day after sine die (June 5, 2026); 90-day deemed-approved rule ↩
25. House Bill 4080 (2026 Regular Session), portable solar photovoltaic and cooling devices; proposed amendments to ORS 94.779 and 100.023 ↩