Pennsylvania HOA Flag Display

Section 1: Overview — Flag display rules for Pennsylvania HOAs

Pennsylvania protects the right to fly a flag with a statute written for exactly that purpose. It is called the American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act, and it stops a community association from prohibiting a unit owner's outdoor display of one American flag, one Commonwealth flag — that is, the Pennsylvania state flag — and one military flag, each no larger than five feet by three feet. The act also bars an association from banning the wall brackets that hold those flags up. Every other flag answers to the recorded declaration and the CC&Rs.¹ Above the state, the federal floor sets the national baseline: the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, codified at 4 U.S.C. § 5, tells community associations across the country that they cannot stop an owner from flying the U.S. flag — but it reaches only the U.S. flag, and it gives an owner no way to sue. Pennsylvania's act goes further. It adds the Commonwealth and military flags, and a Pennsylvania court can enforce it.² Pennsylvania is a uniform-acts state. The Uniform Condominium Act (68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3101 et seq.) governs condominiums; the Uniform Planned Community Act (68 Pa.C.S. §§ 5101 et seq.) governs planned communities.³ The flag act carries its own distinctive terms: the five-by-three-foot size cap, the wall-bracket protection, and a rule that says any restriction on the military flag has to let an owner fly it, respectfully, on a list of observance days that includes President's Day and Iwo Jima Flag Raising Day.¹ When a dispute lands in court, it starts in the court of common pleas, moves to the Pennsylvania Superior Court — the Commonwealth Court handles government and agency matters, not this — and then, if it goes that far, to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.⁴ The sections that follow lay out the federal floor, the Pennsylvania statute, the governing framework, and what an association may and may not do.

Quick-Reference table: Flag display rules at a glance (Pennsylvania)

Section 2: The legal framework

2A. The federal floor: Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005

Start with the federal floor. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland introduced the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 as H.R. 42 on January 4, 2005, with 13 co-sponsors. The House passed it by voice vote on June 27, 2006, the Senate cleared it by unanimous consent on July 17, 2006, and President George W. Bush signed it on July 24, 2006. It sits at 4 U.S.C. § 5, and it is the federal baseline for flag display in community associations.²⁷ Here is what it does: it says a condominium association, a cooperative association, or a residential real estate management association may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement, that would restrict or prevent a member from displaying the flag of the United States on residential property the member owns or has a right to possess or use exclusively.² Those three association types, defined by cross-reference to federal law, mark the outer edge of its reach.² The act also leaves room for reasonable restrictions. Nothing in it permits a display that runs against the Federal Flag Code, or against a reasonable time, place, or manner restriction the association needs to protect a substantial interest.² But note the two limits. The act reaches only the U.S. flag, displayed consistent with the Federal Flag Code (4 U.S.C. ch. 1, §§ 1-10), which is itself mostly advisory.⁶ And it names no way to enforce it. In Murphree v. Tides Condominium at Sweetwater by Del Webb Master Homeowners' Ass'n, No. 3:13-cv-713-J34MCR, 2014 WL 1293863 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 31, 2014) (Howard, J.), the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida held that the act "does not provide any enforcement mechanism, or explicitly create a private right of action for individuals such as Murphree to bring a lawsuit against a condominium association."⁸ So enforcement runs through state law and the recorded governing documents, not a federal lawsuit.

2B. Pennsylvania's flag statute: the American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act

Pennsylvania's own flag statute is the American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act, the Act of July 7, 2006 (P.L. 608, No. 93), which the codifiers placed as an unconsolidated statute at 44 P.S. §§ 50.1 to 50.3, in Title 44, Legal Holidays and Observances.¹⁹ It stands apart from the uniform community-association acts in Title 68. The operative language is direct: notwithstanding anything in the association's declaration, covenants, bylaws, rules, or regulations, an association may not prohibit a unit owner from displaying, outdoors, one American flag, one Commonwealth flag, and one military flag — on the owner's property, on property within the owner's exclusive control, or on the part of an exterior wall directly attached to the unit.¹ The statute reads "military flag" broadly, to mean a flag of any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces or the Pennsylvania National Guard, and the POW/MIA flags.⁵ An owner must display the American flag in a manner consistent with the Federal Flag Code (4 U.S.C. §§ 4 through 10); the Commonwealth and military flags follow whatever rules the association sets.¹ Size has a ceiling: none of the three flags flown may be larger than five feet by three feet.¹ An association may write rules on a flagpole's location, size, and use, but it cannot ban the wall brackets that display the three flags.¹ And any rule the association writes about the military flag has to let an owner fly it, respectfully, on President's Day, Iwo Jima Flag Raising Day, Vietnam Veterans Day, V-E Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, V-J Day, Patriot's Day, POW/MIA Recognition Day, Veterans Day, Pearl Harbor Day, and the birthday of each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.¹ Lawmakers did try to widen the list. A 2019 bill, House Bill 557, would have added the Honor and Remember Flag; the House referred it to the Committee on Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness on February 20, 2019, and it went no further and died in committee, so the base act still covers only the American, Commonwealth, and military flags.¹⁰ Unlike the federal act, a Pennsylvania court can enforce this one. The practical takeaway: an association may regulate how these flags fly, but it may not ban them, may not demand a flag smaller than five by three feet, and may not prohibit the wall brackets.

2C. The governing framework and CC&Rs

Pennsylvania is a uniform-acts state, and Title 68 holds three community-association statutes. The Uniform Condominium Act (UCA), 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3101 et seq., governs condominiums; it took effect 120 days after July 2, 1980, and certain provisions reach condominiums created earlier, under 68 Pa.C.S. § 3102(a).¹¹ The Uniform Planned Community Act (UPCA), 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 5101 et seq. (Chapters 51 to 54), governs planned communities; the legislature approved it December 19, 1996, it took effect February 3, 1997, and it applies to planned communities of more than twelve units created after that date, subject to the exceptions in 68 Pa.C.S. § 5102(a), with sections 5102(b) and (b.1)(1) reaching back retroactively.³ The UPCA runs from § 5101; the cooperative statute, the Uniform Real Estate Cooperative Act (URECA), sits at 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 4101-4414.¹² Corporate structure runs through the Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1988 (15 Pa.C.S. § 5101 et seq.).³ The flag act applies no matter which uniform act governs, because it defines "association" as any unit owners association in a common interest community — a term that takes in cooperatives, condominiums, and planned communities.⁵ The recorded declaration and CC&Rs govern the flag questions the act does not reach: decorative, sports, or message flags, and any flags beyond the protected count, all subject to the act's protections. The order of precedence runs this way — the federal act and the Pennsylvania flag act, for the protected flags, sit above the recorded declaration and CC&Rs and the applicable uniform act, which sit above the bylaws, which sit above the rules. Pennsylvania has no dedicated HOA flag regulator. The Bureau of Consumer Protection in the Office of Attorney General handles certain records and financial-disclosure complaints — for planned communities under 68 Pa.C.S. § 5316(c) and for condominiums under 68 Pa.C.S. § 3322 — but not flag disputes.¹³ Flag rights go to court first. Pennsylvania keeps two intermediate appellate courts: the Superior Court hears most civil appeals from the courts of common pleas, HOA covenant disputes among them, while the Commonwealth Court hears cases about state and local government and administrative agencies.⁴ So an HOA covenant appeal runs from the court of common pleas to the Superior Court, then to the Supreme Court — not to the Commonwealth Court.

Section 3: What a Pennsylvania association can and cannot do

A. Flags the association must permit

An association must let a unit owner display, outdoors, one American flag, one Commonwealth flag, and one military flag (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹ Each of the three flags flown may run up to five feet by three feet, and the association cannot ban the wall brackets that mount them (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹ Any rule about the military flag must let an owner fly it, respectfully, on the enumerated observance days, President's Day and Iwo Jima Flag Raising Day among them (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹ The statutory definition of "military flag" takes in the POW/MIA flags and the Pennsylvania National Guard flags, so those fall inside the protected category (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).⁵

B. Reasonable conditions the association may impose

An association may write placement and manner rules for the American flag that track the Federal Flag Code (4 U.S.C. §§ 4 through 10), and placement and manner rules for the Commonwealth and military flags (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE and FEDERAL LAW).¹ It may also regulate a flagpole's location, size, and use (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹ Those powers stop at a line: the association may not prohibit the three protected flags, may not ban their wall brackets, and cannot use the act to demand a flag smaller than five feet by three feet (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹

C. Actions the association may not take

An association may not prohibit the American, Commonwealth, or military flag (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹ It may not ban the wall brackets for those flags, and it may not bar the military flag on the enumerated observance days (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹ And selective or pretextual enforcement of a facially valid rule opens the association to challenge; restrictions on other flags rise or fall on the CC&Rs and the general principles of covenant enforcement (CC&Rs).¹⁴

D. Enforcement and dispute resolution

A Pennsylvania court can enforce the flag act, and that sets it apart from the federal act, which carries no private right of action (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE and FEDERAL LAW).^1,8 No dedicated HOA flag regulator exists; the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection handles certain records and financial-disclosure complaints under 68 Pa.C.S. § 5316(c) and § 3322, but not flag disputes (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹³ A flag dispute proceeds in the court of common pleas, with appeals to the Superior Court and then the Supreme Court — not the Commonwealth Court (PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).⁴ And because the association cannot turn its fining power against a protected display, a fine levied for flying a protected flag within the statutory limits is exposed to challenge (CC&Rs and PENNSYLVANIA STATUTE).¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past 24 months creates or amends a Pennsylvania flag-display rule for community associations. The most recent measure that came close, House Bill 557 of the 2019-2020 session, would have added the Honor and Remember Flag to the protected list, but it died in committee without enactment.¹⁰ The American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act, which the legislature passed in 2006, still controls, and it still reads as it did then.

B. Recent rulings

No published ruling from a Pennsylvania court of common pleas or the Pennsylvania Superior Court in the past 36 months applies the American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act or resolves a community-association flag dispute. The closest appellate authority on association display restrictions is older, and it concerns signs, not flags: in Midlake on Big Boulder Lake Condominium Ass'n v. Cappuccio, 673 A.2d 340 (Pa. Super. 1996), the Superior Court upheld an association's restriction on window signs, reasoning that an owner who agrees to a declaration gives up a free-speech objection to its terms.¹⁵

C. Active legislative debates

No active legislative debate specific to community-association flag display is pending in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Pennsylvania sits in the middle of the national spectrum, a dedicated three-flag statutory state that protects the American, Commonwealth, and military flags with terms all its own: a five-by-three-foot size cap, a wall-bracket protection, and the military-observance-day requirements.¹ That puts it above the federal-floor-only states, which add nothing beyond the U.S. flag, and above the narrow U.S.-flag-only statutory states such as Maryland (Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128) and Oklahoma (60 O.S. § 858).¹⁶ It lines up with states that protect a state flag or a military flag, such as Connecticut (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-261b, which protects the state flag) and Nevada (NRS 116.320, which protects the U.S. and Nevada flags).¹⁷ And it stops short of the broad enumerated-list states such as Florida (Fla. Stat. § 720.304, which allows up to two portable, removable flags no larger than four and a half by six feet, including the U.S., state, service-branch — Space Force included — POW/MIA, and first-responder flags), and short of the content-neutral states such as Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5, which bars content-based flag regulation outright).¹⁸ For a multi-state operator, here is what it means on the ground: in Pennsylvania the American, Commonwealth, and military flags are protected, one of each, up to five feet by three feet, with wall brackets allowed, and everything else comes from the CC&Rs — with civil disputes running through the court of common pleas to the Superior Court and the Supreme Court. The federal U.S.-flag floor holds in every state, so the U.S.-flag baseline does not shift when you cross into Pennsylvania.

HOA Weekly's Pennsylvania Flag Display coverage updates quarterly as the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court act. Federal frameworks — the flag act, plus the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD — apply to Pennsylvania associations regardless of the state framework.

1. American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act, Act of July 7, 2006, P.L. 608, No. 93, §§ 1-3 (PA General Assembly, official text) ↩
2. 4 U.S.C. § 5, Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 note (Pub. L. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572), U.S. Code (Office of the Law Revision Counsel) ↩
3. 68 Pa.C.S. Ch. 51 (Uniform Planned Community Act, general provisions), PA General Assembly, Title 68 consolidated statutes ↩
4. Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, Superior Court (jurisdiction over civil appeals from the courts of common pleas) ↩
5. American, Commonwealth and Military Flag Act, Act of July 7, 2006, P.L. 608, No. 93, § 2 (Definitions: "Association," "Common interest community," "Military flag" including U.S. Armed Forces, Pennsylvania National Guard, and POW/MIA flags) ↩
6. 4 U.S.C. ch. 1, §§ 1-10 (the Federal Flag Code), U.S. Code (Office of the Law Revision Counsel) ↩
7. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Public Law 109-243, 109th Congress (H.R. 42), enacted July 24, 2006 (GovInfo, U.S. Government Publishing Office) ↩
8. Murphree v. The Tides Condominium at Sweetwater by Del Webb Master Homeowners' Ass'n, Inc., No. 3:13-cv-713-J34MCR, 2014 WL 1293863 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 31, 2014) (Howard, J.) ↩
9. 44 P.S. § 50.3, Display of American flag, Commonwealth flag and military flag (codification of Act 93 of 2006 in Title 44 P.S., Legal Holidays and Observances; used to confirm codified section number) ↩
10. Pennsylvania House Bill 557, 2019-2020 Regular Session (introduced and referred to the Committee on Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness, Feb. 20, 2019; died in committee), PA General Assembly bill history ↩
11. 68 Pa.C.S. Part II (Real Property), Subpart B (Condominiums), enacted July 2, 1980, P.L. 286, No. 82, effective in 120 days, PA General Assembly, Title 68 ↩
12. 68 Pa.C.S. Part II (Real Property), Subpart C (Cooperatives, §§ 4101-4414) and Subpart D (Planned Communities, §§ 5101-5414), PA General Assembly, Title 68 table of contents ↩
13. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5316(c), Association records; complaints filed with the Bureau of Consumer Protection (planned communities); see also 68 Pa.C.S. § 3322 (condominiums) ↩
14. Pennsylvania Superior Court decisions (general covenant-enforcement principles applied to community-association restrictions) ↩
15. Midlake on Big Boulder Lake Condominium Ass'n v. Cappuccio, 673 A.2d 340 (Pa. Super. 1996) (association sign restriction upheld; owners contractually relinquished free-speech objection) ↩
16. Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128 (U.S.-flag display; U.S. flag only); Okla. Stat. tit. 60, § 858 (displaying the flag of the United States) ↩
17. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-261b (association may not prohibit display of the flag of the state); NRS 116.320 (right to display the flag of the United States or of the State of Nevada) ↩
18. Fla. Stat. § 720.304 (up to two portable, removable flags no larger than 4½ by 6 feet: U.S., Florida, U.S. Army/Navy/Air Force/Marine Corps/Space Force/Coast Guard, POW-MIA, first-responder); C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5 (content-neutral flag regulation) ↩