Tennessee HOA Political Signs

1. Overview: How political signs are regulated in Tennessee HOAs

Tennessee law bars a homeowners' association from prohibiting a homeowner's political or campaign signs on the homeowner's private property, while allowing the association to adopt reasonable rules on the placement, removal, and size of those signs.¹ The protection comes from the Tennessee Freedom of Speech Act, codified at Tenn. Code § 2-7-143, and it sits in an unexpected place: Title 2 (Elections), Chapter 7, not in Title 66 (Property) where the condominium and dedicatory-instrument provisions live.¹ A reader who looks only at the property title will miss it.

The statute doesn't give owners an unlimited right. An association may adopt reasonable covenants or rules governing where signs are placed, when they must be removed, and how large they may be, including a limit of four square feet on common space and owner-maintained private property.¹ The core protection also operates on an election-season timeline and reaches only association documents executed or modified after July 1, 2017.¹

The protection is statutory, not constitutional. An association is a private entity created by contract, not a government actor, so the First Amendment doesn't constrain its sign rules; the Tennessee Freedom of Speech Act, despite its name, is the source of the owner's right.² That places Tennessee among the owner-protective states that limit association authority over political signs by statute, alongside California, Arizona, Maryland, Nevada, and Montana.³ The sections that follow dissect the statute, explain why the First Amendment doesn't apply, and set out the operational rules for Tennessee boards and managers.

2. The legal framework for political signs

2A. The statute that protects political signs

The operative provision is the Tennessee Freedom of Speech Act, Tenn. Code § 2-7-143, added by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 294, and amended in 2021 and 2022.¹ Subsection (a) supplies the statute's short title. Subsection (b)(2) is the HOA rule and reads: "A homeowners' association shall not, by covenant, condition, restriction, or rule, prohibit the display of political or campaign posters or signs placed on private property by the owner of the property or any lawful resident of a residence on the property."¹ The same subsection then defines the association's remaining authority: "A homeowners' association may adopt reasonable covenants, conditions, restrictions, or rules with respect to the placement and removal of political or campaign posters or signs placed on homeowner association common space and private property maintained by the owner or resident, including limiting the size of campaign posters or signs in those common and private property areas to four square feet (4 sq. ft.)."¹

Three features of the text matter for compliance. First, the protected location is the homeowner's private property, and the protected person is the owner or a lawful resident. Second, the reasonable-restriction allowance is limited to placement, removal, and size, and the size ceiling an association may impose is four square feet. Third, the protection is time-bounded: subsection (b) frames the prohibition as applying "during the period beginning sixty (60) days before the first day voting begins pursuant to § 2-6-102(a)(1) for an election until the first day after voting ends for such election."¹ A 2021 amendment extended the window from general elections to all elections, and a 2022 amendment added the "and removal" language and recalculated the window against the first day of voting.⁴

The statute supersedes a contrary covenant. Because subsection (b) opens with "Notwithstanding any law to the contrary," and subsection (b)(2) bars an association from prohibiting signs "by covenant, condition, restriction, or rule," a declaration provision that purports to ban political signs is unenforceable to that extent.¹ One limit is built into the text: subsection (d) applies the section to any covenant, condition, restriction, or rule "executed or modified after July 1, 2017."¹

The protection reaches homeowners' associations generally, not only condominiums, and it applies regardless of which condominium statute governs a given condominium, because it lives in the Elections title and speaks to any "homeowners' association."¹ That matters because Tennessee governs condominiums through two statutes classified by creation date: the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, Tenn. Code §§ 66-27-201 through 66-27-507, which governs condominiums created on or after January 1, 2009 (with limited provisions reaching older condominiums for post-2009 events under the applicability section, § 66-27-202); and the Tennessee Horizontal Property Act, Tenn. Code §§ 66-27-101 through 66-27-123, which governs condominiums created before January 1, 2009.⁵ Tennessee has no comprehensive planned-community or HOA statute; a proposed Tennessee Homeowners' Association Act (SB 405 and its predecessors) has been considered but not enacted, so non-condominium HOAs run on their recorded covenants, the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act (Title 48), and targeted provisions in Title 66, Chapter 27, Parts 6 through 8.⁶ Tennessee also protects flag display through separate provisions, including Tenn. Code § 66-27-602 on display of the United States flag; those are flag protections, distinct from the political-sign right in § 2-7-143.⁷

2B. The First Amendment and the source of the protection

The First Amendment limits government, not private parties. It applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, which reaches only "state action," so it "erects no shield against merely private conduct, however discriminatory or wrongful."² The Tennessee Attorney General addressed this directly in a 2019 opinion, which states that "homeowners' associations, like other private entities, are not covered—or restricted—by the First Amendment. They may enact their preferred policies about political canvassing or solicitation without constitutional scrutiny."²

The consequence is that a Tennessee owner's right to display a political sign against the wishes of the association is a statutory grant, not a constitutional one. As the same opinion explains, "[e]ven if the First Amendment does not apply, homeowners' associations remain subject to state and local laws," and in the Tennessee Freedom of Speech Act "the legislature prohibited homeowners' associations from restricting the display of campaign signs and posters, although a homeowners' association may adopt reasonable rules about the placement and size of such signs."² The statute is named the "Freedom of Speech Act," but it's a state statute, and it — not the First Amendment — is the source of the protection. That distinction is the most common misconception on this topic: an owner who frames the dispute as a First Amendment claim against the association will lose the framing even where the statute supplies a clear right.

Two prominent sign-code decisions don't change this. Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) and City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising (2022) concern the constitutionality of municipal sign codes under the First Amendment. They govern government regulation of signs and don't constrain private associations, which aren't state actors. Neither case supplies a basis to challenge, or to defend, an association's sign rule.

The Tennessee Constitution protects free speech in Article I, Section 19, which guarantees that "every citizen may freely speak, write, and print on any subject."² That provision, like the First Amendment, constrains government rather than private associations. No located Tennessee decision applies Article I, Section 19 to a private HOA's sign restrictions, so the constitution isn't asserted here as an independent source of the owner's right. The operative source is the statute.

2C. How the statute interacts with covenants, and its limits

The order of precedence is statute over covenant. Because § 2-7-143(b) applies "notwithstanding any law to the contrary" and (b)(2) bars an association from prohibiting signs by "covenant, condition, restriction, or rule," an association may not enforce a declaration provision that prohibits a homeowner's political signs on the homeowner's private property, even where the recorded declaration purports to do so, for documents executed or modified after July 1, 2017.¹

What an association may still do is regulate rather than prohibit. The statute preserves the association's authority to adopt reasonable covenants or rules on the placement and removal of signs and to limit sign size to four square feet on common space and owner-maintained private property.¹ Restrictions must be reasonable to be enforceable; the statute grants authority over placement, removal, and size, and doesn't grant authority to ban qualifying signs outright during the protected window.¹

Several things fall outside the protection or remain subject to regulation. Signs that exceed a valid size limit or violate a valid placement rule aren't protected. The statute ties the owner's right to the owner's private property; common areas are treated differently, and the four-square-foot size ceiling is expressly framed around common space and owner-maintained private property.¹ Because § 2-7-143 doesn't name a viewpoint or content standard for associations, boards should apply placement-and-size rules evenhandedly; selective or viewpoint-based enforcement invites a reasonableness or selective-enforcement challenge under general Tennessee covenant-enforcement principles. The operational takeaway is narrow and firm: in Tennessee, an association may regulate the placement, removal, and size of political signs, but it may not prohibit a homeowner from displaying them on the homeowner's private property.

3. Operational rules for Tennessee associations

A. What an association may not do

An association may not adopt or enforce a covenant, condition, restriction, or rule that prohibits a homeowner or lawful resident from displaying political or campaign signs on the homeowner's private property.¹ This applies to homeowners' associations and to condominium unit-owners' associations alike, because the statute speaks to any "homeowners' association" and operates independently of the condominium statutes.¹ An association also may not enforce an otherwise valid placement-and-size rule selectively or by viewpoint, because a rule must be reasonable and consistently applied to survive a covenant-enforcement challenge in Tennessee.⁸

B. What an association may regulate

An association may adopt reasonable rules on the placement and removal of political or campaign signs and may limit their size to four square feet on common space and owner-maintained private property.¹ These are the only sign-specific restrictions the statute authorizes; it doesn't authorize an outright ban on qualifying signs during the protected election-season window.¹ The authority applies to HOAs and condominium associations.

C. Enforcement and fining constraints

An association's authority to fine or to compel removal of a nonconforming sign comes from its governing documents, and for condominiums also from the governing condominium statute, not from § 2-7-143, which is silent on penalties.¹ A board should follow the notice-and-hearing steps its declaration and bylaws require before imposing a fine, and Tennessee has no statute capping fines for non-condominium HOAs, so the fine must be authorized by the governing documents and reasonable in amount.⁸ Self-help removal of a sign from a homeowner's private property is legally risky, because the statute protects the display itself; an association that removes a protected sign or fines a protected display invites a covenant-enforcement or declaratory action, which is frequently brought in Chancery Court, Tennessee's court of equity.⁸

D. Rule adoption and disclosure

Placement-and-size rules must be adopted through the process the governing documents specify and communicated to owners to be enforceable; most Tennessee associations are nonprofit corporations subject to the board-action and recordkeeping requirements of the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act, Title 48.⁹ A rule that conflicts with § 2-7-143, such as one purporting to ban qualifying signs during the protected window, is unenforceable regardless of how it was adopted, and one adopted or modified after July 1, 2017 is measured against the statute.¹

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted or pending in the past 24 months amended Tenn. Code § 2-7-143 or otherwise changed the rules governing association political signs. The 114th General Assembly's second regular session convened January 13, 2026 and adjourned sine die April 23, 2026, and produced no sign measure.³ The most recent substantive change to the statute was 2022 Tenn. Acts, ch. 626, effective July 1, 2022, which predates this window.⁴

The proposed Tennessee Homeowners' Association Act (SB 405 and its predecessor bills) remains a proposal and hasn't been enacted; it's a general HOA-governance measure, not a political-sign measure, and wouldn't change the § 2-7-143 protection.⁶ Two condominium and HOA measures that did pass in the 2026 session — a blanket fidelity-bond requirement (Public Chapter 731) that requires an HOA collecting assessments for common expenses to obtain and maintain a blanket fidelity bond against theft or dishonesty by officers, directors, employees, or a managing agent, and an electric-vehicle-charging-station provision (Public Chapter 914) — aren't sign measures.³ The 2023 reserve-study legislation (Public Chapter 205, SB 863/HB 750, amending Tenn. Code § 66-27-403) is a condominium financial-planning measure and is likewise not a sign measure.¹⁰

B. Recent rulings

No published decision of the Tennessee Court of Appeals or the Tennessee Supreme Court in the past 36 months (roughly July 2023 through July 2026) has construed Tenn. Code § 2-7-143 or addressed the enforcement of political-sign rules by a Tennessee association. A review of the state's published opinions located no appellate authority applying the Tennessee Freedom of Speech Act to an association sign dispute at any time.⁸ The only official interpretive authority is Tennessee Attorney General Opinion No. 19-13 (2019), which is an advisory opinion rather than a court decision.²

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal would change Tennessee's political-sign rules for associations. The proposed Tennessee Homeowners' Association Act hasn't advanced to enactment, and it doesn't address political signs.⁶

5. National positioning and related coverage

Tennessee is an owner-protective state on political signs. It joins California (Civil Code § 4710), Arizona (A.R.S. §§ 33-1808 and 33-1261), Maryland (Md. Code, Real Property §§ 11-111.2 and 11B-111.2), Nevada (NRS 116.325), and Montana (Mont. Code Ann. § 70-1-522) among the states that limit association authority over political signs by statute, barring HOAs from prohibiting political signs on a homeowner's private property while allowing reasonable placement and size rules.³ A distinctive Tennessee feature is where the protection lives: the Tennessee Freedom of Speech Act sits in the Elections title (Tenn. Code § 2-7-143), separate from the property and condominium statutes, which makes it easy to overlook.¹ For multi-state operators, the practical rule is simple: in Tennessee, an association may regulate the placement, removal, and size of political signs but may not prohibit a homeowner from displaying them on the homeowner's private property.¹

HOA Weekly's Tennessee Political Signs coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the Tennessee courts act. Federal frameworks (the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD) apply to Tennessee associations regardless of the state framework, but the federal First Amendment doesn't supply a basis to challenge an association's sign rules.

Footnotes

1. Tenn. Code § 2-7-143, Tennessee Freedom of Speech Act (Title 2, Elections), via the official Tennessee Code portal, Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts ↩
2. Tennessee Attorney General Opinion No. 19-13 (2019), Homeowners' Association Restrictions on Political Canvassing ↩
3. Community Associations Institute, 2026 Tennessee End of Legislative Session Report (Public Chapters 731 and 914; session dates; national context) ↩
4. 2021 Tenn. Acts, Public Chapter No. 93 (HB 500), amending Tenn. Code § 2-7-143 (Tennessee Secretary of State) ↩
5. Tenn. Code §§ 66-27-101 to 66-27-123 (Horizontal Property Act) and §§ 66-27-201 to 66-27-507 (Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008), including applicability provision § 66-27-202, via the official Tennessee Code portal ↩
6. Tennessee General Assembly, Senate Bill 405, proposed Tennessee Homeowners' Association Act (not enacted), capitol.tn.gov ↩
7. Tenn. Code § 66-27-602, Display of flags by property owners (Title 66, Chapter 27, Part 6), via the official Tennessee Code portal ↩
8. Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, published opinions of the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Tennessee Supreme Court ↩
9. Tenn. Code Title 48, Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act, via the official Tennessee Code portal ↩
10. Tennessee General Assembly, SB 863/HB 750, 2023 Tenn. Acts, Public Chapter No. 205, amending Tenn. Code § 66-27-403 (reserve studies), capitol.tn.gov ↩