Pennsylvania HOA Solar Rights

Section 1: Overview — Solar rights for HOAs in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania doesn't limit a community association's ability to prohibit or restrict an owner's solar energy system. As of July 2026, no provision of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes voids or overrides declaration-based solar restrictions, and no reported Pennsylvania appellate decision creates such a limit.¹ Pennsylvania also has no dedicated solar easement statute; owners may create a voluntary, recorded easement for sunlight access under general property and easement law, but that device works as an agreement between private parties and doesn't override an association's authority.² Utility-side net metering, administered by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission under the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act, governs the customer-to-utility relationship and doesn't constrain association governance.³ Pennsylvania regulates community associations through three separate parallel acts, one each for condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives.⁴ On the national map, this places Pennsylvania among the no-protection states, where the declaration and the applicable act, not a solar-specific statute, control. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules for associations, and recent legislative activity.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. Solar-access provision (or its absence)

Verification against Title 68 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, the state's real-property title, confirms that Pennsylvania has no solar-access statute and no restriction-override for community associations. Title 68 contains no provision voiding declaration-based prohibitions on solar energy systems, and the legislature has repeatedly considered but not enacted one.¹ The practical consequence runs direct: an association's authority over a solar installation is set by its declaration and by the uniform act that governs the community, subject to general legal doctrines, not by any solar-specific override. Where a declaration prohibits rooftop installations, restricts exterior modifications, or subjects them to architectural approval, that instrument controls.

Pennsylvania is also distinct from states that have codified a solar easement act. It has none. Voluntary solar easements remain available under the Commonwealth's general easement and property law, which require a written, signed instrument recorded with the county recorder of deeds, but no statute grants a right to acquire one over an objection.²

The utility-side boundary deserves a clear line. Pennsylvania's net metering and interconnection rules flow from the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act of 2004 and are administered by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.³ Those rules determine how a customer-generator connects to the grid and gets compensated for exported electricity. They say nothing about whether an association may restrict a panel and shouldn't be read as a source of owner rights against a board.

2B. The three-part UCIOA-family framework

Pennsylvania adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership family as three separate, parallel statutes rather than as a single unified code. All three sit within Title 68.⁴

The Uniform Condominium Act, 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3101 et seq., governs condominiums, in which each owner holds title to an individual unit together with an undivided interest in the common elements.⁵ The Uniform Planned Community Act, 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5101 et seq., governs planned communities, the form most commonly called a homeowners association, in which owners hold their lots and the association typically owns or controls the common facilities.⁶ The Real Estate Cooperative Act, 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 4101 et seq., governs cooperatives, in which a corporation owns the real estate and residents hold shares and proprietary leases.⁷

The three acts share a parallel structure, with corresponding provisions on organization, powers, meetings, assessments, and resale disclosure, but they stand as distinct bodies of law, and the correct one depends on the community's form of ownership. The condominium and cooperative acts took effect in the 1980s and 1990s, and the Uniform Planned Community Act became effective in 1997. Pennsylvania didn't enact a single omnibus Common Interest Ownership Act. Older condominiums may remain partly governed by the earlier Unit Property Act of 1963.

On the corporate side, an association organized as a nonprofit corporation also answers to the Pennsylvania Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1988, 15 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5101 et seq., which addresses corporate structure and procedure but not architectural authority over solar.⁸

2C. The solar easement device, governing documents, and order of precedence

A solar easement in Pennsylvania works as a creature of private agreement, not statute. An owner may negotiate with a neighbor for a recorded easement assuring sunlight access across the neighbor's parcel, created like any other Pennsylvania easement by a written instrument signed by the burdened owner and recorded with the county recorder of deeds.² A solar easement doesn't give a unit owner a right to install a system over an association's objection, and it doesn't void declaration-based solar restrictions. It addresses shading by a neighbor, not approval by a board.

Order of precedence follows from the absence of an override. A restriction-override statute, if Pennsylvania had one, would control over conflicting declaration terms. Because none exists, the declaration and the rules adopted under the applicable act control, subject to general doctrines. Under Pennsylvania law, restrictive covenants get construed strictly and in favor of the free use of property, which stands as the principal check a court applies when an owner challenges a solar denial.⁹

Architectural review works as the operative mechanism. In a condominium or planned community, the declaration and the association's powers under the applicable act ordinarily require prior approval of exterior alterations, and a solar installation gets treated as such an alteration.⁵ In a cooperative, the corporation owns the structure, so a resident's ability to install a system is governed by the proprietary lease and corporate rules rather than by an easement in individually owned real estate.⁷

Section 3: What a Pennsylvania association can and cannot do regarding solar

Because Pennsylvania has no restriction-override, the operational rules turn on the governing documents and the applicable uniform act, not on any solar-specific statutory obligation.

A. Approval and architectural review

A solar installation ordinarily stays subject to the association's architectural review process where the declaration requires approval for exterior alterations, an authority recognized under the Uniform Condominium Act and the Uniform Planned Community Act.⁵ This default operating rule, grounded in the declaration and the applicable act, reaches condominiums and planned communities, and it isn't a statutory mandate specific to solar.

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

No Pennsylvania statute caps the restrictions an association may place on solar, and none prohibits an outright ban, so the declaration's terms set the limits, subject to general doctrine.¹ A board's denial is constrained mainly by the rule that restrictive covenants get strictly construed against the party enforcing them and in favor of unrestricted property use, and by any reasonableness standard in the governing documents.⁹

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules typically appear in the declaration, in recorded architectural guidelines, or in board-adopted rules, and amendments get adopted by the owner or board vote the applicable act and declaration require. On resale, the Uniform Condominium Act requires a resale certificate disclosing, among other items, any known violation of the governing documents, 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3407, with a parallel requirement for planned communities at 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5407.¹⁰ An unapproved solar installation can surface as a disclosed violation at resale. This disclosure requirement is mandatory where the act applies, reaching condominiums and planned communities.

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

A private solar dispute proceeds as a civil action in the Court of Common Pleas, the trial court of general jurisdiction, with appeals to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, the intermediate appellate court for most civil matters, and discretionary further review by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.¹¹ The Commonwealth Court hears government and agency matters and generally isn't the forum for a private association dispute. Condominium and planned community owners may also file certain complaints regarding meetings, quorums, voting, and records with the Bureau of Consumer Protection in the Office of Attorney General, but that channel doesn't reach architectural or solar denials.¹⁰ No Pennsylvania statute provides a solar-specific remedy or fee-shifting provision.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

One bill in the past 24 months would create a provision affecting Pennsylvania HOA solar authority. House Bill 1239 (2025-2026 session), sponsored by Rep. Liz Hanbidge, is an Act amending Title 68 to prohibit condominium and planned community associations from forbidding or unreasonably restricting the installation or use of a solar energy system on individually owned roofs that are not part of the common elements, while preserving reasonable association standards.¹²

A separate 2025-2026 bill, House Bill 67, sponsored by Rep. Lisa Borowski, addresses outdoor clothes drying in associations rather than solar energy systems and doesn't change association authority over solar panels.¹⁵

B. Recent appellate rulings

No Pennsylvania appellate court, neither the Superior Court of Pennsylvania nor the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, has issued a published opinion in the past 36 months addressing association architectural authority as applied to solar.¹¹ A Bucks County dispute reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer and analyzed in the Villanova Law Review, in which an association invoked declaration language prohibiting "solar heating panels and similar installations" to seek removal of a couple's rooftop panels, proceeded at the Court of Common Pleas level and produced no reported appellate decision.¹⁶ Absent binding solar precedent, Pennsylvania courts apply general restrictive-covenant doctrine.

C. Active legislative debates

The only active proposal to enact solar protection for Pennsylvania associations is House Bill 1239, now before the Senate; prior versions, Senate Bill 826 (2021-2022) and Senate Bill 31 (2023-2024), were introduced but didn't pass.¹²

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Solar-rights regimes fall into three broad categories. Strong-protection states void or limit association solar restrictions by statute, including California, Civ. Code § 714; Florida, Fla. Stat. § 163.04; Arizona, A.R.S. § 33-1816; Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-30-168; Nevada; and Texas, Prop. Code § 202.010. Solar-easement-only states enable voluntary easements but don't override associations. No-protection states leave the declaration in full control. Pennsylvania sits in the no-protection category, and stands expressly listed among the states without solar access laws; per the Kansas Legislative Research Department's February 2024 briefing, 21 states, including Kansas, have no law addressing HOA authority over solar.¹⁴ Pennsylvania has neither a restriction-override nor even a codified solar easement act, so an association's governing documents control.¹ A solar easement statute alone would only place a state in the easement-only tier, not the strong-protection tier, and Pennsylvania hasn't reached even that step. For multi-state operators, this means Pennsylvania communities can enforce solar restrictions that would be unenforceable in a neighboring strong-protection state such as New Jersey. Legislative momentum exists but hasn't yet produced law, with House Bill 1239 the furthest a solar bill has advanced.

HOA Weekly updates this Pennsylvania Solar Rights page quarterly as the legislature and the Pennsylvania courts act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule extends to rooftop solar, so Pennsylvania's state law controls here.

Footnotes

1. 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. (Title 68, Real and Personal Property), table of contents showing Subparts B (Condominiums), C (Cooperatives), and D (Planned Communities), with no solar-access or solar restriction-override provision ↩
2. Title 68 contains no dedicated solar easement act; voluntary easements arise under general Pennsylvania property and easement law ↩
3. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act of 2004 (73 P.S. § 1648.1 et seq.), net metering and interconnection ↩
4. 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. Title 68, Part II, Subparts B, C, and D, establishing three separate acts for condominiums, cooperatives, and planned communities ↩
5. Uniform Condominium Act, 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3101 et seq. ↩
6. Uniform Planned Community Act, 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5101 et seq. ↩
7. Real Estate Cooperative Act, 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 4101 et seq. ↩
8. Pennsylvania Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1988, 15 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5101 et seq. ↩
9. Pennsylvania restrictive-covenant doctrine construing covenants strictly against enforcement and in favor of free use of property; applied under Title 68 governing documents ↩
10. 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5407 (resales of units, planned communities); parallel condominium provision at § 3407 ↩
11. Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, court structure: Courts of Common Pleas (trial), Superior Court (intermediate appellate, civil), Commonwealth Court (government and agency matters), Supreme Court (highest) ↩
12. Pennsylvania General Assembly, House Bill 1239 (2025-2026 Regular Session), bill information and history ↩
13. Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus, "Hanbidge bill to protect homeowners' rights to install solar energy systems on roofs passes PA House," July 1, 2026; and PA House Energy Committee Roll Call RCS#898, HB 1239 P.N. 1421 (June 25, 2025), 14-12 ↩
14. State-by-state survey of solar access laws, listing Pennsylvania among states without a solar access law; national counts consistent with the Kansas Legislative Research Department briefing (Feb. 1, 2024) that 29 states restrict HOA solar authority (22 allowing only reasonable restrictions) and 21 states have no such law ↩
15. Pennsylvania General Assembly, House Bill 67 (2025-2026 Regular Session), outdoor solar access for drying clothes ↩
16. Villanova Law Review, "Clearing the Path for Residential Solar Panels in Pennsylvania," describing the Bucks County association's suit over rooftop panels under declaration language barring "solar heating panels and similar installations" ↩