Pennsylvania HOA Fence & Exterior

1. Overview: how fence and exterior rules work in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, the recorded declaration — the CC&Rs — and the architectural guidelines written under it do most of the work of governing fences, paint, siding, roofing, landscaping appearance, and other exterior changes. Two uniform statutes stand behind them, adding a flag override and a good-faith obligation but few other exterior-specific limits.¹ Community type decides which statute applies. The Uniform Condominium Act (UCA), 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3101-3414, governs condominiums, and the Uniform Planned Community Act (UPCA), 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 5101-5414, governs planned communities; both sit in Title 68 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes.⁵ The override picture is thin. A separate statute protects flag display and reaches every common interest community, but Pennsylvania assumes no solar or sign override, so the declaration governs those subjects.² No general Pennsylvania statute imposes an architectural-review response deadline or a deemed-approval rule, so the declaration sets application timelines, subject to the statutory obligation of good faith.³ Nationally, Pennsylvania sits among the full uniform-act states: it carries complete condominium and planned-community statutes but a thin exterior override stack, which sets it apart from strong-override states such as California.⁶ The sections below lay out where exterior authority comes from, the limited state-law constraints on it, the compliance mechanics, and the recent legislative and judicial activity.

2. The legal framework for exterior and fence control

2A. Where exterior and fence authority comes from

The recorded declaration, and the architectural guidelines, bylaws, and board rules adopted under it, supply the operative source of fence and exterior control. The applicable uniform statute frames the whole thing. The UCA, 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3101-3414 (Title 68, Subpart B), governs condominiums, and it runs across four chapters: general provisions (31), creation, alteration and termination (32), management (33), and protection of purchasers (34).⁷ The UCA reaches condominiums regardless of size. It applies in full to condominiums created after its effective date — 120 days from July 2, 1980, or October 30, 1980 — and an enumerated list of its provisions reaches back to condominiums created before that date for events and circumstances that occur after it, without invalidating existing declaration provisions (§ 3102).⁸

The UPCA, 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 5101-5414 (Title 68, Subpart D), governs planned communities. It generally reaches planned communities of more than 12 units created after its effective date of February 2, 1997, subject to the exceptions in § 5102(a). Planned communities of 12 or fewer units stay largely exempt unless the declaration opts into the full subpart, and an enumerated set of sections in § 5102(b) and (b.1) applies retroactively to planned communities created before the effective date — again for later events only, and again without invalidating existing declaration provisions.⁹ The UPCA mirrors the UCA in its four-chapter structure.

Pennsylvania adopted the uniform-law trio — condominium, planned community, and cooperative, the last at 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 4101 et seq. — in separate form. It is not a single consolidated Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act jurisdiction.⁵ The UPCA sits at 68 Pa.C.S. § 5101; do not confuse it with the Pennsylvania Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1988 at 15 Pa.C.S. §§ 5101-6146, a different title that supplies corporate governance rules for associations incorporated as nonprofits.¹⁰ For exterior questions, precedence runs from the mandatory provisions of the applicable act, which the parties may not vary by agreement, to the declaration, then the architectural guidelines and bylaws, then board rules. Where a bylaw or rule conflicts with the declaration, the declaration wins.¹¹

2B. State-law limits on association exterior authority

Flags. Flag display is the controlling limit on exterior authority, and in Pennsylvania it does not live inside the UCA or the UPCA. It lives in a standalone statute, the American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act (Act of July 7, 2006, P.L. 608, No. 93), which reaches any unit owners association in a common interest community — condominiums, cooperatives, and planned communities alike. Under that act, an association may not prohibit the outdoor display of one American flag, one Commonwealth flag, and one military flag on a unit owner's own property or on property within the owner's exclusive control, so long as the owner displays the American flag consistent with federal flag rules. The association may adopt reasonable rules on placement and manner of display, may regulate the location, size, and use of a flagpole, may not prohibit wall brackets, and may not allow a flag larger than five feet by three feet.¹² The federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 supplies the broader national baseline for the United States flag.¹³

Solar. Pennsylvania has no HOA solar-access statute. Neither the UCA nor the UPCA limits an association's authority over solar-energy devices, so the declaration governs solar restrictions, and an association may restrict or deny rooftop installations through its recorded covenants.¹⁴ Pennsylvania separately recognizes voluntary, recorded solar easements as a private way to secure sunlight access, but that mechanism is distinct from any limit on association authority.¹⁴

Political and noncommercial signs. Neither act contains a political-sign or noncommercial-sign provision, so the declaration governs sign display.⁵

Landscaping appearance, water-conserving or native plants, artificial turf. No Pennsylvania statute protects drought-tolerant landscaping, native plants, or artificial turf against association rules. The declaration and architectural guidelines govern these subjects. The UPCA expressly preserves an association's authority, where the declaration or rules so provide, to conduct architectural, aesthetic, and landscaping review of units, building siting, and exteriors (§ 5106).¹⁵

Fences. No state fence-height or boundary-fence statute of general application exists, and Pennsylvania has no good-neighbor fence-cost statute.¹⁶ The one hard floor is safety. Residential pool and spa barrier requirements derive from the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code, which adopts the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (34 Pa. Code § 403.26); a body of water at least 24 inches deep counts as a pool and generally requires a barrier at least 48 inches high, enforced at the municipal level.¹⁷ The federal OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, governs antennas and satellite dishes and overrides conflicting association restrictions.¹⁸ Apart from the flag statute and these safety and federal floors, Pennsylvania imposes no exterior-specific statutory limit on association authority.

2C. The architectural review process and procedural limits

No general Pennsylvania statute imposes an architectural-review response deadline or a deemed-approval rule. The declaration governs the review process and any application timeline. That contractual discretion runs against a statutory backstop: both acts impose an obligation of good faith in the performance and enforcement of every duty they govern (§ 3112 UCA; § 5113 UPCA), and both provide that courts are to administer remedies liberally, so the aggrieved party lands where it would have stood had the other side fully performed (§ 3113 UCA; § 5114 UPCA).³ In practice, an association must make architectural decisions in good faith, keep them reasonable, and apply them consistently. Restrictions hold only if they rest on the recorded declaration or on standards duly adopted under it, and Pennsylvania courts strictly construe restrictive covenants against the party seeking to enforce them.¹⁹ Before it imposes fines or compels removal, an association should provide notice and an opportunity to be heard. The Courts of Common Pleas hear private covenant-enforcement disputes, and appeals proceed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, not the Commonwealth Court.²⁰

3. Compliance obligations and operational mechanics

3A. Association and architectural-committee obligations

• Maintain and apply written standards. The association should keep architectural standards available and apply them reasonably and consistently. This obligation is CONTRACTUAL (the declaration sets it), reinforced by the STATUTORY good-faith duty (§ 3112 UCA; § 5113 UPCA).³
• Respect the flag statute. The association must permit display of the United States, Commonwealth, and military flags, subject only to reasonable size, placement, and flagpole conditions. This is STATUTORY, arising under the American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act and applying to condominiums and planned communities alike.¹²
• Act in good faith. Every architectural decision carries a STATUTORY good-faith obligation under the applicable act (§ 3112 UCA; § 5113 UPCA).³
• Development-stage deposit protection. For planned communities at the development stage, a declarant must escrow unit deposits or post a corporate surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit, and a planned community that does not escrow must register with the Office of Attorney General (§ 5408 UPCA). This is STATUTORY and applies to planned communities under the UPCA; it protects deposits at the development stage rather than regulating ongoing architectural or operational matters.²¹
• Provide notice and a hearing before enforcement. The association should give notice and an opportunity to be heard before fines or forced removal; the specifics are CONTRACTUAL, set by the declaration and bylaws.

3B. Owner obligations and rights

• Seek approval before work. An owner must apply for and obtain approval before installing a fence or undertaking exterior work where the declaration requires it, and a condominium owner may not change the exterior appearance of a unit or common elements without the association's permission (§ 3213 UCA). This is CONTRACTUAL, with the condominium exterior-appearance limit STATUTORY under the UCA.²²
• Comply with approved plans and published standards. CONTRACTUAL, set by the declaration and guidelines.
• Push back when the association overreaches. An owner may challenge a decision that is unreasonable, made in bad faith, or applied selectively; the leverage is the STATUTORY good-faith duty (§ 3112 UCA; § 5113 UPCA) and the strict construction of covenants.¹⁹
• Flag-display right. The owner's right to display the flag, subject to the statutory conditions, is STATUTORY under the American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act.¹²

3C. Enforcement, remedies, and defenses

• Association remedies. Injunctive relief, fines, forced removal or restoration, and recovery of enforcement costs or attorney fees where the declaration authorizes them. Unpaid fines and assessments can support the assessment lien (§ 3315 UCA; § 5315 UPCA). The lien is STATUTORY; fines and cost recovery are CONTRACTUAL unless tied to a statutory provision.⁴
• Limits on enforcement. The STATUTORY good-faith obligation and the liberal-administration-of-remedies provisions (§§ 3112-3113 UCA; §§ 5113-5114 UPCA) constrain how an association pursues remedies.³
• Owner defenses. Selective or inconsistent enforcement, bad faith, conflict with the flag statute, or a restriction that exceeds the authority the applicable act or the declaration grants. These defenses draw on both STATUTORY good-faith duties and the CONTRACTUAL limits of the declaration.²³

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

No bill amending the exterior-control provisions of the UCA or the UPCA has been enacted in the past 24 months. The most recent enacted overhaul of the three uniform acts was Act 115 of 2022 (House Bill 1795), which Governor Tom Wolf signed on November 3, 2022 and which took effect May 1, 2023. It addressed electronic and absentee voting, virtual meetings, bylaw-amendment thresholds (51% of the votes in the community, with 14 days' notice), executive-board removal (by a two-thirds vote of members present), and independent election oversight in communities of 500 or more units — not exterior or architectural authority.²⁴ Two pending bills in the 2025-2026 session bear on exterior control.

4A. Recent bills

4B. Recent appellate ruling

4C. Active legislative debates

The principal active exterior-related debate is the recurring solar-access proposal (SB 618), which would add a statutory solar override; a separate right-to-dry proposal addressing outdoor clotheslines has also been introduced. Neither has been enacted.²⁵

5. National positioning and related coverage

Pennsylvania sits in the middle of three groups. Strong-statutory-override states such as California, Colorado, and Illinois layer extensive solar, landscaping, and sign protections on top of their common-interest statutes. CC&R-primary states such as Mississippi impose almost no state overrides and leave exterior control almost entirely to the declaration. Pennsylvania belongs to the full uniform-act group: it carries complete condominium and planned-community statutes, but a thin exterior override stack apart from flag display.⁶ Its distinctive features are the two separate uniform acts, a flag protection that lives in a standalone statute rather than in the acts themselves, the UPCA development-stage deposit registration that the Office of Attorney General administers, and a dual intermediate appellate structure in which private association appeals go to the Superior Court, not the Commonwealth Court. For a multi-state operator, the practical takeaways are simple: community type dictates which act applies, the override stack is thin apart from flags, and the Superior Court hears private appeals.

HOA Weekly's Pennsylvania Fence & Exterior coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the Pennsylvania appellate courts act. Federal frameworks also apply to Pennsylvania associations regardless of the state framework, including the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, the FCC OTARD antenna rule, and the Fair Housing Act and ADA for reasonable accommodations affecting exterior features.

1. 68 Pa.C.S. Title 68 (Real and Personal Property), Part II, listing Subpart B (Condominiums) and Subpart D (Planned Communities), Pennsylvania General Assembly. ↩
2. American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act, Act of July 7, 2006, P.L. 608, No. 93 (codified at 44 P.S. §§ 50.1-50.3), Pennsylvania General Assembly. ↩
3. 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3112 (Obligation of good faith), 3113 (Remedies to be liberally administered), Chapter 31, Pennsylvania General Assembly; 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 5113, 5114 (parallel UPCA provisions), Chapter 51. ↩
4. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5315 (Lien for assessments), referenced in § 5102, Pennsylvania General Assembly; 68 Pa.C.S. § 3315 (Lien for assessments), Chapter 33. ↩
5. 68 Pa.C.S. Title 68, showing Subpart B (Condominiums), Subpart C (Cooperatives), and Subpart D (Planned Communities) adopted as separate uniform acts, Pennsylvania General Assembly. ↩
6. 68 Pa.C.S. Chapter 51 (Uniform Planned Community Act, general provisions), Pennsylvania General Assembly (full uniform-act framework with no exterior override beyond building-code review under § 5106). ↩
7. 68 Pa.C.S. Chapter 32 (Creation, Alteration and Termination of Condominiums), part of the four-chapter Uniform Condominium Act structure, Pennsylvania General Assembly. ↩
8. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3102 (Applicability of subpart), Chapter 31, Pennsylvania General Assembly (Uniform Condominium Act added July 2, 1980, P.L. 286, No. 82, effective in 120 days; enumerated retroactive provisions). ↩
9. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5102 (Applicability), Pennsylvania General Assembly (more-than-12-units threshold; § 5102(a) exceptions; § 5102(b) and (b.1) retroactive sections). ↩
10. 15 Pa.C.S. §§ 5101-6146 (Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1988), Pennsylvania General Assembly (Title 15, distinct from the UPCA at 68 Pa.C.S. § 5101). ↩
11. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3203(c) (Construction and validity of declaration and bylaws; declaration prevails over conflicting bylaws), Pennsylvania General Assembly; § 5104 (Variation by agreement) barring variation of mandatory UPCA provisions. ↩
12. American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act, § 3 (Display of American flag, Commonwealth flag and military flag), Act of July 7, 2006, P.L. 608, No. 93, Pennsylvania General Assembly ("The size of the American flag, Commonwealth flag and military flag to be flown shall not be larger than five feet by three feet"). ↩
13. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572, note to 4 U.S.C. Ch. 1, Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives. ↩
14. Senate Co-Sponsorship Memo 44699 (Sen. Katie Muth), 2025-2026 Regular Session, Pennsylvania State Senate (noting Pennsylvania has no HOA solar-access law and describing legislation to create one); Pennsylvania recognizes voluntary recorded solar easements. ↩
15. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5106 (Applicability of local ordinances, regulations and building codes; preserving association authority to conduct architectural, aesthetic and landscaping review of units, building siting and exteriors), Pennsylvania General Assembly. ↩
16. 68 Pa.C.S. Title 68 (Real and Personal Property), Pennsylvania General Assembly (no statute of general application governing residential fence height, boundary fences, or shared fence cost). ↩
17. 34 Pa. Code § 403.26 (Swimming pools), Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code, adopting the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. ↩
18. Over-the-Air Reception Devices (OTARD) Rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, Federal Communications Commission. ↩
19. Tractman v. Conner, No. J-A24025-24 (Pa. Super. 2024) (non-precedential), citing Pocono Summit Realty and Vernon Twp. Volunteer Fire Dep't v. Connor: restrictive covenants are strictly construed against the party seeking to enforce them, Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. ↩
20. Superior Court of Pennsylvania, Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania (intermediate appellate court hearing most civil appeals, including private association and condominium disputes; the Commonwealth Court hears government and administrative matters). ↩
21. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5408 (Escrow of deposits; bond or letter of credit deposited with the Attorney General), Chapter 54, Pennsylvania General Assembly; see also Office of Attorney General, Uniform Planned Community Registration. ↩
22. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3213 (Alterations of units; unit owner "may not change the appearance of the common elements or the exterior appearance of a unit ... without permission of the association"), Chapter 32, Pennsylvania General Assembly. ↩
23. Pauletta v. Riverview Manor Homeowners' Association, No. 760 MDA 2025 (Pa. Super. Mar. 9, 2026) (non-precedential), applying 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 5113 and 5213 and requiring evidence of bad faith or unequal treatment, Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. ↩
24. Act 115 of 2022 (House Bill 1795), signed November 3, 2022, effective May 1, 2023, amending the Uniform Condominium, Cooperative and Planned Community Acts (electronic/absentee voting, virtual meetings, bylaw amendments, board removal, independent election reviewer for communities of 500+ units), summary by Clemons, Richter & Reiss, P.C. ↩
25. Senate Bill 618, 2025-2026 Regular Session (sponsors Muth, Fontana, Saval, Kearney, Haywood, Comitta, Kane; "Ensuring All Residential Homeowners Have Access to Solar Energy"), Pennsylvania General Assembly. ↩
26. House Bill 1377, 2025-2026 Regular Session (amending Title 68 provisions on applicability of local ordinances, regulations and building codes for condominiums, cooperatives, and planned communities), Pennsylvania General Assembly. ↩
27. Pauletta v. Riverview Manor Homeowners' Association, No. 760 MDA 2025 (Pa. Super. Mar. 9, 2026) (non-precedential memorandum, Kunselman, J.), Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. ↩